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How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
Benefits of Mindfulness: Mindful Living Can Change Your Life
Mindfulness 101: A Beginner's Guide
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Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness.
Today, I'm going to talk about
why overthinking is a bad
way to solve your problems.
So your mind is a little
bit like a muscle.
We, of course, want to use it regularly.
We want to use our minds to plan
our goals and the steps to move
towards them, to figure things
out, solve things and learn things.
But like any other muscle in
our body there is a point where
working at more is really just
unhelpful, even painful and damaging.
Just like overexercising,
overthinking can really end up
being quite counter-productive.
In fact research shows that overthinking,
which most commonly comes in the forms of
rumination and worry, often leads us down
the path towards anxiety and depression.
So Dr.
Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, a Yale professor who
has spent her life studying overthinking
calls it the secret to unhappiness.
She notes that the more we
engage in overthinking, the more
miserable we tend to become.
So what we really want to start to get
good at is recognizing anytime we're
getting stuck in overthinking, especially
when we are ruminating or worrying.
And then once we've recognized that
we want to choose a more empowering,
a more helpful way forward.
So start to try to catch yourself
in those times when you notice
that your mind is racing.
It's just sort of tossing a problem
around like a broken record or when you
start to feel more and more worked up and
stressed as you continue to think about
something for hours or days or even weeks.
And whenever you notice that
habit of overthinking, you catch
yourself, just mentally noting to
yourself, ah, I'm overthinking.
So mentally noting in this
way helps you step back from
the thoughts and let them go.
Then commit to constructive
problem-solving instead.
Constructive problem solving is
where you make a deliberate time to
just sit and think clearly about the
different options and possibilities.
Then, if possible, you make a decision or
a plan, and after that, you just leave it.
Right?
So conversely to that, rumination and
worry, is when you just toss around a
problem in your head without any true
intention to solve it in that moment.
It really isn't helpful or useful
to continue doing that all the time.
All it does is make us really stressed
and anxious and kind of mentally
cluttered so we actually can't solve our
problems when we can't think clearly.
So if this makes sense to you, resonates
with you and you want to try this in
your life, just every time you find
yourself overthinking, just remember
catch yourself, mentally note, and
then commit to making a time for
constructive problem solving instead.
You might be able to do that
immediately in the moment or you
can set a time to do it later.
After you set that time or do it in
the immediate moment, you can let
everything go knowing that you have
a dedicated time to work things out
and right now you can be in peace.
So by letting go of overthinking, you'll
be able to solve your problems more
effectively and maintain more inner peace.
You can take action on the
things that matter, let go of
the things that don't and be more
present to enjoy your daily life.
I hope this is helpful for you.
And as always, thank you for your
practice and your presence here.
Let's settle in for meditation.
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