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Do you experience racing thoughts? Do you engage in overthinking? Many of us do. In fact, overthinking may seem normal to us. The problem with overthinking is that it is tiring, makes decision-making difficult, and prevents us from enjoying the moment. To manage to overthink, it is helpful to first understand the nature of our thoughts.
To begin with, thoughts do not have any inherent power of their own. Thoughts receive all their power from the attention that we give them. In other words, our thoughts are energized by the attention that they receive from us.
Consider when you are in a deep sleep. Deep sleep is the next level after dream sleep. In a deep sleep, you lose all sense of yourself and the world around you. The reason for this is that your awareness is no longer being directed toward your thoughts. Because your attention is no longer directed to your thoughts, there is nothing to experience. For this reason, we love having a good night’s sleep. Sleep provides us a getaway from our minds.
Meditation is calming to the mind because it allows us to direct our attention away from our thoughts. The following is a simple exercise that you can do to strengthen your mental focus and slow down your thinking:
- Sit down in a comfortable position.
- Take a deep breath and then slowly exhale.
- With your eyes closed, focus on your breath. Notice the sensations that you experience as you inhale and exhale.
- Continue to focus on the movement of your breath with each inhalation and exhalation.
- If you find yourself distracted by thoughts, return your attention to your breathing. Regardless of how often you lose concentration, return your attention to your breath.
- Do not at any time judge or criticize yourself or anything that you experience. Getting distracted by thoughts is normal; it takes practice to discipline your mind. By practicing this meditation, you will develop greater awareness and concentration.
Another thing about thoughts is that they are like magnets in that they attract each other. In other words, they associate with thoughts of a similar nature. For example, I have the thought that my wife is mad at me. My mind will start coming up with all the possible reasons why she is mad at me. If I have the thought that I need to take care of things around the house, my mind will come up with all kinds of chores that need to be completed.
A thought will attract other thoughts that expand upon the original thought. Given this, there is another way to silence an overactive mind temporarily. This can be done by coming up with a thought that makes no logic to the mind. An example is asking yourself, “What will be my next thought?” You can also ask yourself questions like, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” or “Who were you before you were born?” With questions like these, the mind has nothing to refer to or associate with, so it will grow quiet.
