Should I or shouldn’t I?
With my beer drained and hamburger served, I was contemplating ordering a second (beer that is). The affirmative started strongly: “Rick, you did designate this Comfort Food Night, as anyone would who spent 45 minutes exercising and survived 3 tough clients at work. You go boy.”
But as I was about to call the waitress the opposition rebounded. “Have you forgotten this week’s goals? Little to no alcohol! Downing one’s an integrity stretcher, two a soul seller. And didn’t you designate five Comfort Food Nights last week alone? Count your losses, eat your burger, and at least walk out of here with your head held high.”
OK no then. Except......that first IPA was awfully tasty and isn’t it time I stop shoulding on myself and let go a little? Sure, but.......a goal is a goal is a goal. Yeah, but.......I’m getting older and sick of being enslaved to my newest Rick Reformation project. Good point, but.......you know what they say about alcohol and Alzheimers.......*
Think maybe I think too much? Me too. My cacophony of voices leads to hashing and re-hashing five different interpretations on ten different perspectives. And with every air tight case deflated and molehill mountained, you think all this thinking adds up to more clarity? Me neither.
So why do I overthink so much? Well for one thing......wait--don’t want to overthink this question too. Suffice it to say I’ve always been one to mull over minutiae so I suspect there is some OCD to it. And I’m no stranger to stress, which seems to fire up everything, especially my brain.
But more than anything it has something to do with control. Somehow facing the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune becomes safer when I can analyze and categorize. Heaven forbid I would allow myself to just experience life as it is, what with all the potential heartache and messiness. Indeed for me the unexamined life isn’t worth living because it is just too scary.
So should I just give up thinking in order to face my fears? Not possible, nor even advisable. I was given a brain for a reason, and God knows there is much to ponder and consider in making decisions and seeking truth. I can certainly learn from our culture’s present emphasis on emotions and intuition but need to think to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Balance, as always, seems to be the key. As for thinking, this balance can be expressed in the difference between introspection and rumination, with the former the goal. Introspection can be a healthy examination of self and soul; rumination, defined as “chewing the cud,” can be contemplating your navel when you already know you have an outie.
Spiritual balance is also needed, especially concerning the head and heart. Theologians of old spoke of “the mind descending into the heart,” with the Old Testament proclaiming “As a person thinks in his heart, so is he.” Integration is the key, with listening to the Spirit the component to bring the two together.
As to my own challenges with overthinking, I’m trying to subscribe to the 12 step maxim of progress over perfection. To test this, I “allowed” my good friend Denny and myself to get locked out of a cabin in the middle of a freezing night in Montana recently, with nobody in earshot. At first, it was an overthinkathon, as we designed several Macgyver type scenarios of us tying together belts and socks and shirts to shimmy our way down 20 feet to the front door. Perfect idea for a couple of 60 year olds.
But we didn’t succumb to temptation. We put our thoughts to the side, prayed, and picked up a piece of patio furniture and chucked it through the window. Messy, but it worked. A nice example of underthinking. Thinking about it, I think I’ll do my next blog on the pros and cons of underthinking.........
* For those scoring at home the back and forth lasted through the last burger bite so the “No” won because of time management issues (Downton Abbey was starting at home in 10 minutes).
With my beer drained and hamburger served, I was contemplating ordering a second (beer that is). The affirmative started strongly: “Rick, you did designate this Comfort Food Night, as anyone would who spent 45 minutes exercising and survived 3 tough clients at work. You go boy.”
But as I was about to call the waitress the opposition rebounded. “Have you forgotten this week’s goals? Little to no alcohol! Downing one’s an integrity stretcher, two a soul seller. And didn’t you designate five Comfort Food Nights last week alone? Count your losses, eat your burger, and at least walk out of here with your head held high.”
OK no then. Except......that first IPA was awfully tasty and isn’t it time I stop shoulding on myself and let go a little? Sure, but.......a goal is a goal is a goal. Yeah, but.......I’m getting older and sick of being enslaved to my newest Rick Reformation project. Good point, but.......you know what they say about alcohol and Alzheimers.......*
Think maybe I think too much? Me too. My cacophony of voices leads to hashing and re-hashing five different interpretations on ten different perspectives. And with every air tight case deflated and molehill mountained, you think all this thinking adds up to more clarity? Me neither.
So why do I overthink so much? Well for one thing......wait--don’t want to overthink this question too. Suffice it to say I’ve always been one to mull over minutiae so I suspect there is some OCD to it. And I’m no stranger to stress, which seems to fire up everything, especially my brain.
But more than anything it has something to do with control. Somehow facing the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune becomes safer when I can analyze and categorize. Heaven forbid I would allow myself to just experience life as it is, what with all the potential heartache and messiness. Indeed for me the unexamined life isn’t worth living because it is just too scary.
So should I just give up thinking in order to face my fears? Not possible, nor even advisable. I was given a brain for a reason, and God knows there is much to ponder and consider in making decisions and seeking truth. I can certainly learn from our culture’s present emphasis on emotions and intuition but need to think to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Balance, as always, seems to be the key. As for thinking, this balance can be expressed in the difference between introspection and rumination, with the former the goal. Introspection can be a healthy examination of self and soul; rumination, defined as “chewing the cud,” can be contemplating your navel when you already know you have an outie.
Spiritual balance is also needed, especially concerning the head and heart. Theologians of old spoke of “the mind descending into the heart,” with the Old Testament proclaiming “As a person thinks in his heart, so is he.” Integration is the key, with listening to the Spirit the component to bring the two together.
As to my own challenges with overthinking, I’m trying to subscribe to the 12 step maxim of progress over perfection. To test this, I “allowed” my good friend Denny and myself to get locked out of a cabin in the middle of a freezing night in Montana recently, with nobody in earshot. At first, it was an overthinkathon, as we designed several Macgyver type scenarios of us tying together belts and socks and shirts to shimmy our way down 20 feet to the front door. Perfect idea for a couple of 60 year olds.
But we didn’t succumb to temptation. We put our thoughts to the side, prayed, and picked up a piece of patio furniture and chucked it through the window. Messy, but it worked. A nice example of underthinking. Thinking about it, I think I’ll do my next blog on the pros and cons of underthinking.........
* For those scoring at home the back and forth lasted through the last burger bite so the “No” won because of time management issues (Downton Abbey was starting at home in 10 minutes).
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