To those of us who find refuge in our minds, the judgement has fallen over and again. ''You're overthinking''. Whether it provoked guilt, a sense of rejection, irritation or put us at a loss, it has never felt useful or loving.
I don't know what you're going on about and I'm not asking myself those questions or I don't know what the answers are and I'm told I'm overthinking when I try but I'd rather tell you you're overthinking than to admit that or say something helpful or loving.
It asks us to not think, to not care about what we care about, to not try and figure things out. It attacks our curiosity, our willingness to examine life and ourselves, our courage to share our thoughts. It is judgemental, a shut down, even if it's true.
When our mind is spinning, and our thinking adds to the turmoil by making things more complicated, less possible, more scary, less loving, or simply when our thoughts sound like a broken record, our mental space is, indeed, on overdrive.
Then, listening to ourselves in a more loving way, deciphering the obsession, journalling, meditating, or generally any spiritual practices that cultivates presence, acceptance and a sense of possibility are indicated.
The next step is action; clearing assumptions, living in truth, putting our money where our mouth is.
The function of the mind is to observe, teach and learn, form memories, and make conscious choices, starting with whether or not to live in faith. Unfortunately our era has declared Reason superior to Passion, and invited humankind to get a grip on ''lower drives''.
As civilised people, we have therefore learnt to love, feel, want, and express our identity with our mind rather than our heart, will and voice. We live under the illusion that our mind is the Great Controller, the operating system to it all, the best equipped system we have to navigate life.
What we get for it is misery; a combination of confusion, powerlessness, overwhelm, worthlessness, and terror.
Our instincts have been formed through thousands of years of evolution to help us survive, our emotions respond to parameters our mind will take hours or years to process, our heart recognises the person behind the persona, our impetus keeps us moving and creating, our voice sings our personal gift to the world... That is, when the mind doesn't tame that show.
The twisted modern mind attempts to decipher, process and produce discerning action coming from all energy centres, overriding and henceforth undermining more effective abilities. Then takes in the guilt and shame of resulting hardships.
When I feel overwhelmed, directionless, crippled by doubt, am I willing to trust my heart and my instincts rather than filtering them?
Can I hear the censoring, questioning, judgemental voice arguing against first-hand experience?
If my mind is a Great Overrider, I can heal my natural drives and learn to trust myself again.