I was thinking about thinking too much. I stood waist high in a pool of forewarnings about the problems of incessant thinking. I began dissecting the waves of doubt into streams of themes. Thoughts become things. Overthinking ruins the situation. Thinking too much creates a problem when one doesn’t exist. I disrupted the streams into manageable trickles. Empty the mind of all thoughts. When thinking begins to envelop itself, the circular motion likens worry. As water stagnates and rises, thinking builds four walls that imprison the thinker. STOP
“Thinking: the talking of the soul to the self.” – Plato
The activity of thinking is not in itself a bad thing. I showered away the debris left behind from the pool of thoughts that thinking is bad. I stepped onto a runway open to take flight to a higher appreciation. Thinking is a means to an end. The thinker controls the thought. Words articulate the moment as a free mind sways between interpretations. Allow and encourage vision to change while dancing in rhythm with the sounds and coloring the landscape from a complete palette of hues. How else does one document an internal journey but through words?
Words tend to be inadequate when relaying the fullness of an experience. Imagine explaining the intricacies of flight or the nuances of fancy born from a dream. Articulate the sweetness of a seasonal fruit or explain away the pain of a broken heart. A person’s history fills the void created between the word and interpretation. Fullness is drawn from the experience itself. Share the experience in such a way to generate a current of creative expression to add elicit and capture others’ attention.
Thinking as an activity moves into the domain of being mindful. Instead of drowning in a single thought, surrender as a hollow reed to allow the flow of an open mind. If that one last word refuses to vacate the mind, then shift the aim from being empty to curious. Observe the mind turn from restless to calm.
There remains a two-fold challenge in letting thoughts evolve, flow, and grow. The first bump is the temptation while in an experience to assign words to an already rich sensation. The second bump is the relentless drilling down to gather the last speck of significance. Resolve the challenge by stepping into the awe of how interesting a thing can be. Avoid contextualizing the details during the experience to share its awesomeness with another afterward. Be in the moment and let the aftereffect speak for itself.
Now a problem can be a problem and requires attention. But being in awe allows the thinking about the problem to turn the focus from elements to options. Rather than keeping with the routine of this and that, ask what can be different? Don’t let the same words drown out the opportunity for intuition and insight to clear the way for fresh thought. Let it break open. New thinking is waiting for an invitation to play. Rather than waiting to sink into the last place to find a lost solution, make the final resolution the first consideration. Feel the feelings then open the floodgates of choices. Yes, words and thoughts are a way to talk to the soul.
