So Many Thoughts, Such Little Time

As an over thinker I sometimes find it really hard not to focus on the things and people that make me upset. When I started trying to live a more positive life I thought the trick was to suppress all the negative thoughts I had but the more I tried the harder it got. I'm a chronic over thinker so keeping a handle on my thoughts seemed completely outrageous at first. Realistically speaking if any of us tries not to think about something then that's the exact thing we'll be thinking about, right? So how can we maintain a happy outlook if we keep over thinking issues and past experiences that hurt or made us angry? Well for starters we can face the fact that we can never really control all our thoughts. Monks and skilled yogis study for years and years before they can truly master their mind but for the average person it could seem almost impossible. I'm a huge fan of Deepak Chopra and when reading his New York Times best seller: Reinventing The Body, Resurrecting The Soul, he said something that made me think (not like I need to do anymore thinking). He said that we should never try to suppress any of our thoughts, good, bad or ugly and that if we accept them for what they are, a simple thought, and don't assign them anymore power than necessary they will pass and a new thought will eventually creep its way in. So basically if we let each thought come and go rather then picking at it over and over again then we have a better chance of being happy, for the most part. Some may claim that over thinking leads to better decision making which results in a happier life and more success however studies have shown that over thinkers are more prone to sadness and negative thinking patterns. In fact over thinking may be linked to impaired problem solving and irrational thoughts which can be dangerous for some people. It becomes increasingly harder to focus on the now when you're constantly stuck in the past going over every detail of something you have no control over and the more you go over a situation in your mind the easier it is to foster a pessimistic view and pessimism is a silent but deadly killer. Now a days when I find myself falling back into that old over thinking pattern I try to distract myself with something else and it usually works pretty well but sometimes I have to accept the thought, give myself a time limit and permission to only think about it for that short amount of time. I'm beginning to ask myself more and more if what I'm thinking of will have any affect on my life 6 months from now and if I feel it wont then it doesn't merit anymore thought than that, period.