Over on Quora, coach Antti Vanhanen offers some good advice for our perpetually active minds:
“The mind only works in one direction: more thinking.
Whatever thought, problem or strategy you throw at it, the mind will always think about it more.
As such, trying to think your way out of overthinking (or fear, anxiety or stress) is the psychological equivalent of trying to clear muddy water by stirring or shaking it.
All you can really do is leave the mind alone and it will clear all by itself.”
This, by the way, is a classic approach to handling OCD.
“Don’t play the game,” is what my doctor always told me. “Just refuse. Don’t think about your obsession, because thinking about it, by definition, means you’re losing. Even though you think you’re on the way to winning.”
