How to Stop Overthinking

“You cannot discard [your memories]. But what you can do is meet your next experience wholly; then you will see those past memories come to action, and then is the time to meet and dissolve them.”

— J. Krishnamurti

Sadhguru asks the question: “Are you working from memory or from awareness?”

Memory is important, else we would always have to reinvent the wheel. But memory is also an accumulation of our experiences, including bad ones. Wanting to save ourselves from hurt which stems from bad experiences makes us build walls to protect ourselves from hurt and pain. The more our memory, the thicker our walls because we don’t stop overthinking. In the process, we build such thick fortresses around ourselves that we end up avoiding life.

Do you want to avoid life, or do you want to experience it? If you want to do the latter, work out of awareness more than memory. Immerse yourself in the present moment. Respond to what’s in front of you with a clear mind rather than trying to drive while looking in the rear-view mirror.

While spending time with your parents or friends, while preparing for a presentation, while watching the sunset on your way home, be fully present in the moment rather than living in the past or the future.“If you can alter the circumstances that are unpleasant, you will live intensely in the present and not in the dead past,” Krishnamurthi says.

The gist is this: To stop overthinking, work out of awareness, not memory.

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