Thinking Too Much Takes Away The Impulse To Happiness

Thinking too much sometimes creates mental overweight and reduces inertia to happiness. This happens especially when those thoughts, ideas and reflections are of poor quality, harmful and toxic ideas that poison self-esteem, hopes and projects. Thus, few things can be more necessary for our well-being than cultivating more relaxed, peaceful and focused minds.

The mind is a tireless machine. Neuroscientists even tell us that people have an average of thirty thousand thoughts a day, and about 80% of them are of no use whatsoever. That is to say, they are simple repetitive and ruminant ideas, evoked memories and, in essence, cognitive processes that do not confer excessive benefit on us.

However, as we well know all flow of ideas, evaluations, memories and sentences, they can also sometimes act as real poison arrows. They are states that intensify discomforts and that corner us in spaces of great psychological unhealthiness. Therefore, the key to all this is not precisely in the greater or lesser amount of thoughts that we have, but rather in the quality of them.

Let’s see more data about it.

Thinking too much exhausts the brain

When an athlete is about to perform an exercise, he knows that the part of his body that he must control the most is his brain. Thinking too much could affect your performance or even cause a mistake. Therefore, the best strategy in these nervous and anxious situations involves being centered, calm and focused on the objective.

Thought, as well as most of our cognitive processes, are located in our frontal lobe. It is in this area where we plan, where we compare information, make inferences, reflections and analysis. Now, each of these processes requires a good amount of energy. Therefore, we must know in which moments it is worth starting that gear and in which it is better to “let ourselves go” and simply trust …

The brain in the times of multitasking (multitasking)

Most of the athletes learn at a given moment the importance of training the mind, of taming the thoughts and placing the attention in front of a goal. Now, achieving that fine control over mental processes is not exactly easy in the midst of these times clearly dominated by multitasking.

• Cognitive psychologists like David. And Mayer, from the University of Manchester, tell us that although our brain is good at multitasking, it has a limit.
• Moreover, aspects that are so everyday for us such as driving while listening to the radio, thinking about what awaits us at work, what we will do tomorrow, what we have left undone and what we should have done, generates high stress mental.

• That stress maintained over time ends up undermining our mood.
• Thinking too much day in and day out also not only shapes states of high mental exhaustion, but also builds inefficient brains, whether we like it or not.

The most efficient brains and their curious neurological activity

It is possible that we think that people who are more skillful when it comes to doing something, have a more active brain. Well, it’s not really about having a “more active mind” but a “more effective” mental approach. 

• Therefore, it is not a question of “thinking more” but of “thinking better”, of generating more productive, direct and useful thoughts.
• Now, it is necessary to comment on an interesting aspect. On average, people with higher IQs don’t exactly have more “effective” thoughts.

• It is common for them to apply what is known as arborescent thought. That is, one idea leads to another, a doubt invites them to generate various hypotheses and from these, new reformulations …

Hence, they tend to take longer to issue responses, and that tendency to think more than necessary often causes them some anxiety and discomfort.

Think less and better to be happy

Thinking well is synonymous with living better. However, how can we train our focus and mind that is used to feeding us with tireless fears and discomforts? Albert Ellis, father of rational emotional therapy, reminded us in his works that what affects us the most is not what happens to us, but the way we interpret what happens to us.

The key, therefore, is to treat ourselves better, to value things differently, to allow the mind to put the brakes on and rest from time to time. So let’s look at some strategies.

Four steps to stop overthinking

• From cognitive psychology they remind us that we can modify our mood by changing what we say to ourselves. Thus, one way to reduce excess thinking is to treat ourselves much better. We must reduce negativity, the weight of fear, the edge of anguish.
• Another step that can help us manage the emotional plane. One way to do this is to convince ourselves that we are safe, that we are okay, that there are no imminent threats that could cause us harm. You have to work on internal calm.
• Also, practices such as mindfulness can allow us to reduce the noise of that overactive mind. In addition, it will help us to focus our attention on the here and now, something essential to reduce the overweight of worries.
• There is a time to think and one to let go. There are times when reflection, analysis, search for options and inference are necessary. All these processes allow us to make better decisions. However, lengthening them in excess can be counterproductive. Let us remember that there is a time to think and others to let go …

To conclude, one way to gain in well-being and happiness is to control our thoughts and their quality. Achieving it is not something exactly easy, not when we are subject to those rigid mental schemes such as “I have what”, “ maybe “, “I should do”, “it would be better what” …  Letting ourselves go, appreciate the moment, take off our worries and lose weight fears is that art in which we start our day to day.