Morning Motivation: You Are Not Overthinking

What if everything you believed about the way your mind works has been slightly off? Not wrong, exactly. Just missing one crucial distinction that changes everything. This talk offers a perspective on thought, awareness, and mental exhaustion that most people have never considered, and once you hear it, you will not be able to unhear it. If you have ever lain awake at night wondering why you cannot seem to quiet your mind, or felt worn out by your own thinking before the day has even begun, this is for you. You are not broken. You are not wired differently. You have simply never been shown where you are actually sitting.

Transcript

You've probably said it about yourself before, Maybe even won it like a badge. I am an over-thinker, As if it explains something, As if it's just the way you're wired, As if there is nothing to be done about it except apologise for it and carry on. But I want to offer you something today, A different way of looking at it, A different perspective, Because I don't think you're over-thinking. In fact, I don't think you're thinking at all. Here's what I mean. Imagine you're sitting by a window, Upper floor, Cup of something warm, Street below, And you watch the cars, One after another, Coming and going, Each one heading somewhere you know nothing about. And from up there, You're fine, You're calm, You're just watching. Now imagine jumping out of that window into every car that passes, No destination, No idea who's driving, Just in, And now you're moving, Fast, Somewhere, And then you leap into the next one, And the next, Confused, Breathless, Arriving somewhere unintentional, Calling it a journey. That's what's happening when you think you're over-thinking. You're not driving, You're jumping into every thought that passes and going wherever it takes you. That's not thinking, That's being taken. Real thinking, Conscious, Deliberate thinking, Is different. It's the Uber you called yourself. You had a destination, You named it, You chose the car, You got in with a purpose, And when the ride is done, You get out. You don't keep circling the block, Because you forgot to stop, That's the difference. One is happening to you, And the other is chosen by you. And here's something nobody tells you about, Jumping into every car. It's exhausting, Not because you have too many thoughts, But because of what you do with each one. Every thought engaged with, Every thought followed, Every thought taken seriously as if it might be the important one, The true one, The one that finally explains everything. Of course you're tired. You've been everywhere today and you haven't left the room. The exhaustion isn't a sign that something is wrong with you, It's the natural consequence of a hundred uninvited journeys before breakfast. The problem was never the number of cars on the street. It was never having to learn that you don't have to get in. Think about the last time you were lying awake at 2am, Mind racing, Replaying a conversation, Rehearsing one that hasn't happened yet, Catastrophizing something that may never arrive. Were you thinking, Or were you just present while the mind did whatever it wanted? Because thinking, Real thinking, Takes effort. It requires you to pick up a thought, Like an object, Turn it over, Look at it from the other side and ask, Is this actually true? Do I know this for certain? Or is this just a story the mind assembled from fear and old experiences? Most of us never ask questions. We just believe the first thing the mind produces. We let the prosecution speak and never call a single witness for the defense. I remember a season in my life where the mind was relentless. Everything felt uncertain, Work, Direction, Who I even was underneath all the roles I was playing, And I would have told you I couldn't stop thinking about it. But here's what was actually happening. I wasn't thinking about it. Thoughts were coming, Uninvited, Untested, Unchosen, And I was believing in all of them. Every car that passed, I jumped in. Maybe I've got it all wrong, Jump. Maybe it's too late, Jump. Maybe this is just who I am, Jump. Until one day, I don't know exactly when, I noticed I was at the window, Not in the street, Not in the cars, At the window, Watching. And in that moment, That small quiet moment, Something changed. Because if I could watch the thoughts, I wasn't the thoughts. That space between the thought arriving and you believing in it, That's where you actually live. That's not overthinking, That's awareness. And from awareness, Real thinking becomes possible. And you can choose which car to call, You can name the destination, You can examine the route before you commit to it. You're not at the mercy of whatever the mind produces, You never were, You just forgot you were at the window. So the next time a thought arrives, Loud, Urgent, Certain of itself, Don't jump, Just watch it pass, Like sitting in a cafe watching people go by, Curious, Interested even, But not following every single one down the street. You can notice a thought without becoming it, You can acknowledge it exists without giving it the keys. And if it's worth examining, If it's actually useful, Call it back, Deliberately, Look at it properly, Ask it the hard questions, And if it doesn't hold up, Let it drive on without you. You're not an overthinker, You're someone who hasn't yet shown the difference between having a thought and choosing one. Well now you have. So let's close with this, Repeat these after me, Wherever you are, However the mind is right now, I'm not my thoughts, I choose what I think about, And it's okay to have many thoughts as long as I don't engage with them. Here's what I want to leave you with, The mind will keep producing cars, Or thoughts, That's its job, That's what it does, And it's very good at it, But you, You're the one at the window, Calm, Removed, Watching, And now you know something you can't unknow. You don't have to get in, You never did. If something in this stirred something in you, If you recognised yourself somewhere in these words, There's a journey here on Insight Timer I made for exactly this moment, It's called Alive Again, My emotional reconnection series, It's not to fix the mind, Or to silence it, It's there to help you remember where you're sitting, Back up the window, Back to yourself. So come and find it.

Reviews

Wonderful visualization to help create space between self and thought. I found this to be very helpful.

At first I had difficulty understanding this. Towards the end it made more sense. Thank you. 🙏🏻🪷

I appreciate the thoughts and perspectives you share during this meditation. Thank you for this.