The real issue with overthinking or inability to turn your mind off when it’s not needed: It is an imbalance, just like cancer or an addiction that you feel no longer have the power to stop. In spiritual terms referred as “Brain identification with the Ego” explained in a simplified manner
This brain identity fusion in day to day life, among many other ways, manifests commonly as following:
Overthinking featuring analysis paralysis of the past and compulsive grossly inaccurate projections of the future.
Narrative factory of narcissism which makes you play lord & saviour in world around you and mostly in other peoples lives.
Converts every passing minute into psychological pain robbing you of joy, lightness and ease
You are never truly present, it’s a shell of mood affiliation, thoughts & emotions with no actual BEING!
More importantly, the non-acceptance of WHAT IS (Reality) and blaming, complaining and I want it that way (BSB Alright!). Which manifests in ordinary life as…I had a bad dream, WTF is wrong with my coffee today, traffic is annoying, I am not good enough, pretty enough, rich enough, I am the Best/Worst switcheroo or Everyone is looking at me/No one cares about me switcheroo – the living life as a third person filled with negative, unnecessary, self-talk and thought/emotion web which cripples doing anything in the present with joy, fulfilment and abundance – Adnan
A core aspect of the emotional pain that is an intrinsic part of the egoic mind is a deep-seated sense of lack, incompleteness and/or of not being whole.
In some people, this is conscious, in others unconscious. If it is conscious, it manifests as the unsettling and constant feeling of not being worthy or good enough. If it is unconscious, it will only be felt indirectly as an intense craving, wanting and needing.
In either case, people will often enter into a compulsive pursuit of ego-gratification and things to identify with in order to fill this hole they feel within. So they strive after possessions, money, success, power, recognition, or a special relationship, basically so that they can feel better about themselves, feel more complete. But even when they attain all these things, they soon find that the hole is still there, in fact it’s BOTTOMLESS. Then they are really in trouble, because they cannot delude themselves anymore. Well they can and do but it gets more difficult.
As long as the egoic mind is running your life, you cannot truly be at ease; you cannot be at peace or fulfilled except for brief intervals when you obtained what you wanted, when a craving has just been fulfilled.
Since the ego is a derived sense of self, it needs to identify with external things. It needs to be both defended and fed constantly.
The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, personal and family history, belief systems, and often also political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications (as yours truly named it: living life as a d*ck measuring contest)
None of these are the actual YOU!
From me personally, know that the ‘past‘ exists in your memories (merely a ‘thought’ arising in ‘present’) and ‘future‘ exists in your anxieties (again just a ‘thought’ arising in ‘present’).
The only place which is REAL (where ‘you’ choose the how to perceive narratives of past & take constructive actions to shape ‘your’ future) and dictate the actual quality of life is……NOW!
Also, as a friend, peer, familial member, and compassionate cohabitant of the world – Your personal inadequacy, fetish with class struggle and comparison and validation of others ridden life doesn’t contribute to society or classify as wealth and largely comes at the expense of others. However, your self acceptance, abundance, humility and self respect allows you to have a more VALUED EXISTENCE for yourself and contribute to others!
Feel free to reach out for simple strategies, daily habits, which allow you to be more PRESENT, live a more abundant intentional life, and stop the self-inflicted cancer (partly because always On/digital echo chamber/Urgency culture) of being slave to your COG (Brain), thoughts and emotions web.
Read More: Values: The pathway to Valued Existence & Why your biggest asset & enemy is your own mind
Sources:
Excerpt – The Power of Now – Echkart Tolle
