Transcription
The main thing that I feel like limits us in a real sense is us. And when I say that, don't necessarily mean that you're your own enemy, but to say that the longer we associate with our mind and only our mind, the more we're going to be dictated by stuff that's not really us. And that's why I think it's important to choose yourself every day. Make that, you know, positive intention towards yourself whenever you get the opportunity.
And sometimes that's not necessarily just, "Oh, I choose me," but understanding that what you are is beyond your connotation. A lot of what we are is, is overthought, I feel like. And I guess this video is sort of a, like, how to stop overthinking. Cuz overthought is something I used to do semi-intentionally to sort of gather some type of information or gather some type of knowledge and introspection. But I found that, you know, all my true actual, like, learned moments were from when I actually relaxed and actually allowed myself to be within the present moment enough to see what was seeking or change or to see something that, you know, I wasn't allowing myself to see before.
I feel like we get so preoccupied with small instantiations of uh value, small instantiations of, I don't know, our anxiety or our feelings or anything that we see outside of us that truly captures us. And I think to stop overthinking is not necessarily about just implementing good thoughts, because I think it's like fighting fire with fire almost. We're using the mind against the mind to beat the mind. And at the end of the day, I feel like as much resistance as we give to our mind, that's as much power as it truly has. And I feel like it's always going to meet us with equal forces as long as we think that we have to fight it. We think that it's something that needs to be fought rather than something that needs to be, I wouldn't even say controlled, but allowed.
I think we have to learn to separate ourselves from our thoughts enough to gather some type of understanding of who we actually are. I feel like the more we associate ourselves with our mind and the more we become victims to our own connotation, the more what you think becomes what you are. And I feel like that is a very grounding principle. I think a lot of philosophers in the past have talked about stuff like, you know, "What you think is what you are. As a man thinketh, so shall he be." And I feel like this stuff is very true. And I think it's not necessarily just about overthinking your way to get a better thought process, but recognizing that you aren't the thought. Not saying that your thoughts shouldn't have impact, but to say that what you are is supposed to be experienced.
And I think to stop overthinking, we have to learn to be present. Learn to take that step forward from our mind and not necessarily just use it to reference anything. And I feel like if we live our life in constant analysis, then the only thing that will be experienced is that analysis. We need need to learn how to experience what actually is in the actual moment. And I think a lot of that is really just sitting still. Sitting still with yourself enough to see the parts of yourself that are there. And that's why I made a video maybe like a year ago, um, talking about how meditation isn't just sitting still, it's about each and everything that you do that brings you closer to yourself and makes you feel more like yourself and allows you to sort of walk the world as you are.
And I feel like the more we don't give ourselves that liberty of choosing those things and choosing ourselves, and we're constantly going to be choosing stagnation, choosing to not change, or choosing to be overcome by our constant thoughts. And I feel like if all you could do is think about it, it's not worth thought. And in my life, that quote has sort of been a pretty guiding principle for me. I feel like it's allowed me to sort of take that step back from my mind whenever I felt the opportunity. Because in all honesty, like whenever you're overthinking about something, whenever you're thinking about something that really has no tend towards an actual answer, and if you can't do anything, I'm not saying give up on stuff that you can't necessarily influence at the present moment, but to understand that you're the one who has to feel the repercussions of your your feelings, the repercussions of each and every one of your thoughts.
And I'm not saying you have to disregard everything. I'm not saying that you shouldn't acknowledge negativity or acknowledge that feeling, but you don't have to live in them in order to acknowledge them. And I feel like sometimes that overthought perpetuates a feeling that allows us to stay in that state. And I think by, you know, staying in that state for a prolonged duration of time, it sort of imprints that sort of bias onto us. It makes us anxious by nature because we choose, not even choose, I won't call it a choice because we allow oursel to be so overcome by the anxiety within our mind. And in it, in essence, becomes a part of our character.
And that's why I feel like, of course, it's important to posit some type of positivity within your head. But I find that when we do get into those anxious spouts, when we do start to get, you know, deep within our overthought, then it's not really that easy to just say, "Oh, I'm going to think of something positive." I find that it's much more simple, much more easy to try to be present with yourself. Like, close your eyes, be still, meditate, do what you need to do in order to get out of your mind and back into the world. And then once you get there, start implementing some positive thoughts, start implementing, you know, affirmations like, "Oh, I love myself," or this or this, and continue to move forward.
I feel like that's one of the only ways I found to overcome a a true amount of overthought. Because I feel like our anxiety always needs an answer. And sometimes the answer is that silent. Sometimes the answer is walking away from it, not necessarily in a non-confrontational way, but in an allowance way. Walking through it, seeing it for what it is, and allowing yourself to be prominent within these certain situations. And I feel like choosing yourself is really about allowing yourself to be prominent, choosing to make that choice, choosing to be you each and every day. And understand that what you are, this you that I'm talking about, is not just a figment of your mind.
Like I found that in especially in recent times, cuz, you know, I have a lot of stuff that I have to do and I'm like, uh, you know, I'm thinking about it, I'm thinking about it, I'm thinking about it. And I realized that, you know, all that overthought about it doesn't really do anything for me but promote suffering. It makes me live out moments that have yet to happen, that probably won't happen, and are projections of my own mind's negativity and stigma around how I think I'm going to be perceived or how I think I want to feel given a certain situation. And that's why I feel like it's important to understand that you shouldn't chase the outcome, but learn to walk the path.
Expectations truly do take away our freedom. Because the more we expect something to be a certain way, the more we're going to be dictated by that expectation. It's almost like by assuming that something will go a certain way in the future, we're conditioning ourselves to be acceptant of that, to be only comfortable if that is to happen. And that's why I feel like it's important to embrace the present moment and embrace the unknown. So when you do walk into unfamiliar situations, it's not necessarily the situation that's uncomfortable or the situation that provides comfort, it's you that provides comfort to the situation. And I feel like when we depend on a certain thing to make us comfortable, then we're going to be uncomfortable with every situation that's not that.
All of that really is to say, you have to choose yourself and affirm yourself before you affirm the path that you're walking. Cuz I feel like if you can't affirm the one that's walking the path, there's no point in walking it at all. And I don't mean that to sound jaded or, uh, I wouldn't even call it mean or pessimistic. I feel like it's the most optimistic thing you can do for yourself is show up and choose yourself. Understand that the love you have for yourself and the love you give to yourself is sort of without condition. And the more you allow yourself to be here, the more you allow yourself to be present, the more you're going to reap the spoils of what you sow.
And I feel like if you sow yourself into the moment, you're always going to be able to get yourself out. And that's where you truly learn, once you give yourself audience to no longer perform and feel like you need to perform. And I feel like that's a very prominent thing, especially nowadays, our need to understand how we're perceived and our our need to, um, sort of perpetuate this idea of how we're perceived. When in reality, we won't know other people's perceptions or the world's perception of us unless we actually take the time to ask and gather there. Even so, whatever does perceive us can't necessarily see 100% of our internal workings. So that's why I feel like it's important for you to be the one to validate that part of you, otherwise it's going to be lost in translation.
If you allow, uh, it's like in the same way that we allow people to connotate us and us to accept that, we allow our minds to do the same. Not saying that our mind can't see all the nuances of our internal workings, but our mind is not all of what we are. Our mind can have a thousand million thoughts a day, and it doesn't necessarily mean that those thoughts are inherent to you. I feel like our thoughts are sort of a learned pattern thing. And that's why I feel like it's important when you are in that blank state, where you are in that present moment, you implement some thoughts that are beneficial. So when you have times where you are subject to your mind's bias, the bias is positive, the bias is beneficial to you rather than a detriment of who you are.
And that's why I feel like, you know, things truly go your way when you make that conscious choice to be better. And that conscious choice to choose the present moment and choose yourself over and over and over and over again. And in that way, we're strengthening our character, not only by choosing to be present, but choosing to experience ourselves, choosing to experience the present moment, and choosing to, I guess, not necessarily succumb to our negativity, but acknowledge it. Acknowledge it enough to plant oursel in a place of positivity, so whatever grows on top of us and whatever is our foundation, whatever we build on top of ourselves, is filled with that positivity.
And that's why I feel like you always have to start where you are. You always have to start with love and and presence. Because the love that you have for yourself in the present moment that you give to yourself is your foundation. And if you recognize that, and if you actually give yourself to that idea, then you recognize that anything you build on top of it, ie, any form of your expression or any situation that you get in, will be filled with that because you are a part of that situation. And I feel like when we allow our minds bias to be the only thing that is within the situation, then we're also, you know, prone to fall victim to our mind's malleability.
When I say malleability, I don't necessarily mean in a sense that, you know, your opinions are going to change 100%, but to say that, you know, you could wake up one day and look at yourself in the mirror and say that you're the most beautiful thing in the world. You could wake up the next day and think you're the ugliest day. And I feel like unless we're conscious enough to implement some type of positivity and get into the present moment and recognize that the connotation is is truly given by our mind, then we're always going to fall victim to that malleability.
And that's why I feel like consistency and authenticity come about once you make that choice to be present with yourself and truly walk within the world without necessarily being dictated by your own mind's bias. And recognizing when your mind is being biased. Like the other day, I, I'm especially like starting to see this stuff more recently, and that's why I feel like I can talk about it to a greater length because I've gotten into so many situations where, you know, I found myself like slightly uncomfortable and I had to realize that the discomfort wasn't with this situation, but with myself. And I had to open my mind up to a new possibility, a new perspective, or allow myself to be within the present moment and embrace the idea that I am enough for for every situation that I'm in.
Because I'm in every situation that I'm in, I'm always going to be enough for myself because I am myself. And I think giving yourself that sort of affirmation and that self-love, recognizing that it has no condition, allows you to be truly comfortable and overcome that overthought. Because it no longer becomes about your thought about the situation, it becomes about your experience of the situation. And I find that to be truly present in, to be truly within an experience, you can't be overthinking about it. It's not about your thoughts about it, it's about maybe your thoughts after it, but you have to experience it first to gather some type of opinion or some type of anything.
And I think if we're already choosing to have a certain opinion about that which we encounter in this unknown, and I don't necessarily mean like immoral things and and politics and things like that, in regards to our own experience. Like if I wake up today and the sun's not down and I choose to be, you know, jury about it and and dreadful, or if I wake up and I choose to procrastinate because I'm not choosing myself and I'm choosing like my mind comfort with, you know, laying in bed or or something like that. Understanding that my discipline is truly an act of self-love and an act of, I guess, affection towards who I am.
And I think giving yourself that sort of affection allows your whole life to be filled with intimacy rather than over analysis and and, uh, your own mind's negativity. And I feel like my mind is a pretty positive place, but even as much as it is positive, I have, I have to recognize that my mind is not all I am. I'm also the expression, I'm the, you know, person experiencing the mind, I'm the person who has the mind, I'm the person who who observes my thoughts. And I think it's about affirming that more than your mind affirming your foundations. So whatever you build on top of it, even even your mind's influence becomes almost nothing.
I found that once I started affirming myself truly, that my mind's thoughts were truly just thoughts, in one ear and out the other. I allow them to pass unless I find some reason to hold on to them. And when I say my thoughts, I'm talking about random day-to-day stuff that we get caught up in. Like when we're talking to a friend or we're talking to an associate, we're talking to anybody or interacting with anybody, and they do something that we don't necessarily know the reason for, and we make the jump and make the assumptions that it's potentially negative towards us or potentially this, potentially that.
And I feel like, of course, it's important to have some type of awareness, some type of honesty to yourself, but also understand that you're making assumptions about other people's perspective or assumptions about how other how another something is is receiving you when you really just need to focus on how you're receiving yourself. And I think it's about carrying yourself with a lot of grace, you know. And when I say carry yourself, I mean truly treating this life as if it's you and you treating yourself like a friend. And and recognizing that you have somebody here with you, not to say do anything you want or be narcissistic or be this or be that, but give yourself enough affirmation to be within the present moment and see what you need to change rather than try to answer that for yourself without actually experiencing that which you need to.
Like you getting into a situation and be like, "Oh, you know, I want to work on my public speaking skills." You know, but you have to public speak to understand what exactly you need to work on with that skill. And I bring it into public speaking because that's what I, that's what I'm, uh, venturing into. But, um, yeah, all in all, I think it's just about choosing yourself. And I think that's one of the ways I deal with, uh, overthinking. So, um, you can leave in the comments other ways you you guys have have figured out how to conquer overthinking, but that's that's my way. That's what I feel is most important.
I made this video because I saw a couple comments that that have been asking for it over time, and I don't really make, uh, how-to videos, but I figured this was an important topic and I feel like I could talk about it in a way that's not necessarily just how to do this, but give my own, you know, insight to it. So, uh, thank you for watching if you made it this far. If you didn't, thank you anyway. I really do appreciate each and every one of you and I hope you guys are taking care of yourself. So thank you.