Are You Overanalyzing Things? Think About Mindfulness

You are in a rush to make it to work, but you realize that your fellow commuter apparently has to get dropped first. The next moment you see crazy traffic building up. Already tensed? Please take a deep breath and don’t even think of leaving the cab and starting running down the freeway! I understand this situation is definitely not the most pleasant one, but I won’t suggest that you should try to think away from such unpleasant encounters. Instead, I wish to ask you something – why care so much about a situation that is not in your control?

Try to understand that it is relatively very easy for our brains to make us over-analyze a situation and thereby lead us to the worst assumptions possible. Guess, it’s time that your mind knew a thing or two about mindfulness!

To begin with, our mind is never at rest. It keeps us awake when we need sleep, and oozes out our concentration when it’s much needed. Taming one’s mind is something easy said than done. You might not feel ecstatic about watching over every passing thought in your mind, but you can definitely try to at least not brood over it for long. This is where mindfulness helps.

Mindfulness doesn’t block our random thoughts, it simply enables us to realize that the thoughts are not real, and thus they don’t have any control over us.

Some believe that mindfulness comprises a gamut of practices such as breathing exercises, yoga, meditation, mental relaxation. These activities indeed aim at reducing stress; however, mindfulness - as a whole - has a deeper objective. So while researchers still speculate whether mindfulness is helpful in treating other disorders apart from mood disorders or depression, it is a euphoric therapy for people who find it overwhelming to monitor their thoughts and behavior round the clock. It changes our brains’ functioning in such a manner that we become aware of our thoughts and can help ourselves deal with the situation in a more assertive way.

The utility of mindfulness can be discerned with the way it calms a frenzied mind. It’s a given how pivotal it is to improve overall health. Considering its efficacy, mindfulness is certainly a practice that needs to be imbibed in our lifestyle to experience its magic inside out.