Take a timeout from the rollercoaster in your head
From the very beginning in our lives, we have been thought to apply reason, think rational and especially not only to think about today but to plan for tomorrow. But especially the “thinking about tomorrow” cannot always be beneficial for us, rather, lead to a feeling of anxiety and restlessness. It can trigger a rollercoaster in our minds to plan for all kinds of “what ifs” and “might happen” circumstances. It is important to not get overwhelmed by this and sometimes to even take an active timeout.
Just not to be understood wrongly here, planning, and looking ahead is important. I have never been a fan of the entire “only live in the moment” theory and don’t think about tomorrow - it will all fall into place. While this might work for some of us, it never did for me and might not for most of us. It is important to plan, set goals and have a general idea of what we want to achieve and how we imagine our future. This is especially important for the big questions and decisions in our lives such as family planning, marriage, or the choice of our long-term partner. As always in life though, while planning is great and important, many of us take it so far that it becomes unhealthy. I am sure we all know how it feels to have a sleepless night because our mind runs wild on all the horrible things we imagine and might or could happen in each situation. This is exactly an example for an overdose of planning and thinking ahead.
We need to come to the realization, that we need to find a balance mentally between having a bigger picture in mind or a red line in life that we want to follow, while also learning again to live a little in the moment and enjoy the things that are great today, rather than only focusing our minds on tomorrow. Finding that balance is key.
Additionally, we must realize, that there are things we cannot influence besides our best effort to plan and anticipate. Things in life just happen and we cannot impose the stress on us to foresee everything and be always prepared for what we might at some point face. This realization alone, the realization that everything can change at any moment besides all of our planning will ground us in our strategic master minds already and surprisingly very often make us relax.
It is therefore important, when our mind goes on that rollercoaster of thinking about each possible scenario again, to consciously take time outs. To raise this and to consciously tell ourselves in this moment to not go further and to come back to the moment. One very effective way to train this is every time we get overwhelmed to concentrate on our breath. It will distract us from the planning rollercoaster and bring us back to reality. Which very often is a good thing. We call it taking an active timeout.
It is all about finding balance between planning and imagining of where we want to go in the future, but also to live in the moment and specially to realize when our thoughts of the “what could be” scenarios are unhealthy and overwhelming. When we see ourselves going down that unhealthy route again, just focus on your breath and take a moment of a time out from your thoughts. It will be very liberating as you may see and can even have a positive effect on our future. Reflection is always good and important but don’t be too hard on yourself and learn to take timeouts for the mind to stay healthy.
