Hey reader,

Thank you for visiting this blog and sparing some time to read it. I would here request you if you think this blog helps or make you feel some comfortable, don’t forget to share it with your closed ones, because “Sharing is Caring”

Today’s blog is as special as other blogs, and here I’m trying to shed some light on the very common problem, most of us counter in everyday life, Overthinking and keeping the nerve.

This post is requested by a friend who has been an active reader of this blog from some time. If you also have something, that you would like to get covered here, please feel free to reach out here.

I am keeping it as an open Questionnaire, where we have the questions from my friend, and my possible solutions that can help, though being an open one, feel free to share your views.

How can a person remain positive in difficult situations? For example, a guy has lost his job and has developed High Blood Pressure problem. He knows that his Blood Pressure is related to his stress. Similarly, we know our mental health is tested at tough times, then how to develop strength at those hard times.

Staying positive is often said and demonstrated like a very easy task, for those who have conquered it. But for others, it feels like crossing a river or hiking a mountain. Though the crux remains the same, i.e. positivity.

Any living thing to live and survive requires a sustained environment where it’s every necessity, be it air or water or food, etc. are completely fulfilled, then only it will be able to survive, grow and prosper. Similarly, for a mind, to stay healthy, work, prosper and produce positive results, require a certain environment. The environment that is healthy, peaceful, supportive and most of all positive. Stress and High BP are inter-related. Here are a few things that occur due to stress to our brain:

• Stress might play a role in the development of mental disorders such as depression and various emotional disorders.
• Good stress, or the type of stress that helps you perform well in the face of a challenge, help wire the brain in a positive way, leading to stronger networks and greater resilience. Chronic stress, on the other hand, can lead to an array of problems. You’re creating a brain that’s either resilient or very vulnerable to mental disease.
• Stress can kill brain cells.
• Different kinds of stress affect the brain in different ways. Recent stressful events (job loss, car accident) affect emotional awareness. Traumatic events (death of a loved one, serious illness) have a greater impact on mood centers.
• Chronic stress has a negative impact on what is known as spatial memory, or the ability to recall information about the location of objects in the environment as well as spatial orientation.

And many more, that you can find in detail here. Why I am sharing all this, is not to scare you, but knowing the outcome is necessary. The question is how to keep the mind healthy, how to stay positive. The key is, not thinking to stay positive, but to be positive.

Humans have a very smart brain that makes it different from the other species. But we use it to make us vulnerable to what happened 10 years ago or what might happen tomorrow. We keep thinking about the incidents that have long gone (like the lost job) or some that have not even occurred yet (What if).

Fighting hardships is tough, but not impossible. The easiest solution is talking and sharing the problems that are eating you up from the inside. Spending time doing the things you love (your hobbies). I know and I understand that the time is tough, but thinking about the time won’t help. To stay positive, or least, to stay healthy, is to notice as less as possible that there is any hard time. Take it as a learning period, where you are going to make a ton of mistakes and also, going to learn ten tons of lessons, that is going to help your entire life. Remember, life is not about a single day or single period, its about all those ups and downs, or if I rephrase it as ups and learnings.

Sometimes, we know the problem and we know the solution. But we are not able to act on it, how to break this cycle? This has been a major struggle for me since my teenage. And honestly, it eats me from within. Somehow, we go through it and act but it’s very tough.

I completely agree. Sometimes, we know what is working and what is not working. We also know how to get that working. But, the solution or the answer is not always inside. Sometimes, our mind needs a command from the outside. We need someone who tells us those solutions that are already in our head. And when someone else says it, we do it. This is why I always urge to talk and share the problems. Think of how many times, you knew the solution but acted only when someone else asked you to do. In the beginning, it may seem tough, but in the long run, it will always help you.

Fear of failure is always there. At times, it becomes difficult to overcome.

Well, as I said, there is nothing which we can call a failure (for life). Either there is a success, or there are learnings. Sooner you start using the word Learnings instead of failure, you will start feeling the impact, for example… I had a failure and I had some learnings, you can feel the difference. You will feel more positive and it will transform how you face situations where you do not succeed.

Say, one person fails, he learns and moves on. The other one also fails but starts overthinking. This person will sulk in mad thoughts for 30ish days only to learn and move on. Both have learned but the later one has faced more mental damage.

We all get one or other health issues. Sometimes we recover from one and fell into another. Recently, I overcame from one after fighting for a year and a half successfully and now I am having this stomach infection. I know it will take some time for my gut to be fine, still, I end up overthinking. I am taking care of myself. There is an obvious improvement in my health, though slow. But still, I have this fear… “Fear of What if?” Problems that exist in my head that I don’t want to see coming to life. I want a healthy mind! How can I minimize overthinking?

I can understand, that fighting with overthinking is like fighting with your own self, fighting with your own brain by your own brain. I can talk utter piece of tricks that may or may not help, but I don’t think that there is any other solution better than reading the following excerpt. If this doesn’t help, then you are actually in big trouble and you should consult some doctor. This excerpt is from The Bhagavad Gita (“Song of God”), popularly known as Gita Saar (Bhagavad Gita Summary)

• Why do you worry without cause? Whom do you fear without reason? Who can kill you? The soul is neither born nor does it die.
• Whatever happened, happened for the good; whatever is happening, is happening for the good; whatever will happen, will also happen for the good only. You need not have any regrets for the past. You need not worry for the future. The present is happening…
• What did you lose that you cry about? What did you bring with you, which you think you have lost? What did you produce, which you think got destroyed? You did not bring anything – whatever you have, you received from here. Whatever you have given, you have given only here. Whatever you took, you took from God. Whatever you gave, you gave to him. You came empty-handed, you will leave empty-handed. What is yours today, belonged to someone else yesterday, and will belong to someone else the day after tomorrow. You are mistakenly enjoying the thought that this is yours. It is this false happiness that is the cause of your sorrows.
• Change is the law of the universe. What you think of as death, is indeed life. In one instance you can be a millionaire, and in the other instance, you can be steeped in poverty. Yours and mine, big and small – erase these ideas from your mind. Then everything is yours and you belong to everyone.
• This body is not yours, neither are you of the body. The body is made of fire, water, air, earth, and ether, and will disappear into these elements. But the soul is permanent – so who are you?
• Dedicate your being to God. He is the one to be ultimately relied upon. Those who know of his support are forever free from fear, worry, and sorrow.
• Whatever you do, do it as a dedication to God. This will bring you the tremendous experience of joy and life-freedom forever.

Whenever you feel like it’s all over, or you have lost to yourself, or you don’t find anyone who listens to you or has time for you, I request you to read these. I believe this will help you out every time.

Remember, life is beautiful, don’t overthink.

-Navneet