Overthinking

(A text to speech experiment)

This is what overthinking is like.

You’re in a dark forest.

In your hand is a dim lantern, and you can only see a few steps ahead in all directions.

You have a destination in mind, but you can't see it from where you're standing right now. You also have no idea how far away it is, and you don’t know exactly what that destination looks like.

You have a vague vision of it though. 

You’ve heard it described by other people, you’ve seen it in photos, and you’ve drawn pictures of it when you were younger. 

Still, you don’t know precisely what you’re looking for.

So you’re in the dark and you can’t see your end goal. All you can do at this point is just move one step at a time. 

As you move forward, your lantern reveals a hole in the ground. You carefully step around it and keep going.

Continuing to walk along, you look down and see a branch in your path. Lifting your tired legs, you take a little leap to clear the branch.

In order to  navigate these random obstacles, you’ve got to be here. 

You’ve got to be present.

Mind and body here in full awareness.

You can’t have your mind wandering off, imagining what might be ten thousand steps ahead while you walk; paying no attention to your footing.

You’re going to trip.

You’re not going to see that  root that’s in front of your foot and you’re going to fall on your face. 

And it’s going to hurt.

Pain is fine. It happens; but don’t you want to make this journey as pleasant as possible?

Standing up again, you brush yourself off, pick up your lantern, and keep walking.

Overthinking is standing here in the present moment; in your dimly lit patch on this path and refusing to move because of the ‘what if’s. 

What if there’s a waterfall up ahead, or the steep edge of a cliff? After a lot of walking in one direction, what if there’s a fallen tree blocking your path and you’d have to turn around, feeling like you just wasted all this time?

These are all very possible scenarios you might encounter.

On your path you might fail.

You might get rejected.

You might lose something you value immensely.

Or you might not.

 In fact, waiting for you on the path might be pleasant surprises you couldn’t even begin to imagine from your current vantage point.

Overthinking causes you to stay stagnant in that one spot—your safe little patch of light, refusing to move in any direction. The only path familiar to you is the one your just came from, but do you really want to turn around?

You don’t.

There’s really only one way from here and it’s to choose your direction, start moving, one step at a time with full awareness in the present moment.

That’s how you get to your destination.