JANUARY 1, 2025
Issue #1:
The Real Reason For Overthinking
(Gentle warning: A bit of a Zen slap ahead)
Why try to make yourself at home in a prison?
I came across a few articles recently that tried to explain why it is that we humans tend to overthink. Some of the reasons that were given ranged from a fear of making mistakes, to stress, to perfectionism, to emotional trauma. All valid points on the surface. Of course, not being a surface kinda guy myself, none of those explanations felt like they went deep enough. I couldn’t help but notice a support system for victims was being offered up in between the lines as a ‘remedy’…
You’re overthinking because you’re afraid to make mistakes? It’s okay, just do your best.
You’re overthinking because you’re stressed out? Don’t worry, you can’t control what happens in life.
You’re overthinking because you want to be perfect? Try to relax, just love yourself for who you are.
You’re overthinking because you’re trying to avoid pain from past experiences? Chin up, it’s time to trust life again and give it a second chance.
Notice the common denominator in all of the above scenarios? Each overthinker’s victim role is indirectly reinforced by the guidance that’s given to them. Rather than having the overthinker question the reality of who it is that’s having the problem, they’re told that their reality is real by giving them a means to cope with it.
So why do we overthink if not for any of the problems that we use to justify it?
Simple: Overthinking keeps your illusory sense of identity alive (or at least appears to).
We don’t want who we think we are to die. When we don’t want to die, we overthink. We continuously find new reasons to overthink because doing so seems to protect us from the elephant in the room; an elephant so huge that if you were to simply acknowledge its scent without even looking directly at it, it would nevertheless shuffle its way over to you and sit on you. Game over.
This elephant, of course, is the fact that without thinking, you’re not. Without thinking, you would eventually return to the innate knowingness that you don’t really know who or what you are. Never did. This knowingness is scary because without thinking yourself into existence, you can no longer protect yourself (the body/mind) from the great unknown (life itself) which may or may not have your best interests in mind… and given that your memory likes to make claims that you’ve been burned before, you’re less likely to look at that 50/50 chance with any sort of optimism.
Hence the necessity to create and maintain a small sense of self that can be more easily controlled and therefore more easily protected… at least in theory. (seemed like a good plan in the beginning though didn’t it?).
The only catch with that plan is that all of the protection in the world can’t keep safe something that doesn’t actually exist. What this means is that you’re forced to adopt a temporary identity comprised of survival tactics while you forever attempt to manifest a permanent one comprised of eternal contentment; you become an ‘identity in the meantime’… a walking Pinocchio who can never seem to find the scissors to cut its own strings.
Ok Kyle, so what do you propose I do about this?
Mostly nothing, however, I would recommend looking closely at how normal it feels to assume that who you are is a thinker. Do you think ALL of the time without pause? If not, then where do ‘you’ go when you’re ‘paused’? WHAT is it that remains when ‘you’ are on pause?
Such questions are profound but they need not be serious business. A consistent innocent curiosity is all that’s needed to truly benefit from that elephant’s ass in your face.
Happy smothering,
Kyle Hoobin
Latest YouTube Upload:
‘I Am That’ Chapters 1 & 2 Translated
Explore and unravel the profound insights of Nisargadatta Maharaj’s teachings in ‘I AM THAT’, a spiritual classic for any serious seeker of truth. In this video Kyle offers his translations of Nisargadatta’s words as posed by seasoned spiritual dude Ash.
Understand how realizing that you are not the body can happen by going into the body and inhabiting the body fully. See the difference between perceiving and witnessing and how one returns you to a state of innocence and freedom.
Join Kyle and Ash in this lighthearted and profound discussion on the nature of reality!
See you next week!
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