3311: Get Stupid Quick: Advice On Overthinking From A Zen Master by Richard Paterson with Becoming Minimalist

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: This is Optimal Living Daily. Get Stupid Quick. Advice on overthinking from a Zen Master by Richard Patterson with Becoming Minimalist.com

[00:00:10] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm Justin Malik.

[00:00:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Happy Friday. This is the award-winning podcast where I read articles to you, hopefully adding a little bit of inspiration,

[00:00:19] [SPEAKER_00]: motivation, or happiness to your day. This is all with permission from the websites, by the way.

[00:00:24] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna keep this intro nice and short. So let's get right to it as we optimize your life.

[00:00:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Get Stupid Quick. Advice on overthinking from a Zen Master by Richard Patterson with Becoming Minimalist.com

[00:00:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Quote, A crowded mind leaves no space for a peaceful heart.

[00:00:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Christine Evangelou

[00:00:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I'll never forget a wonderful piece of advice I received from a Zen meditation teacher many years ago.

[00:00:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Get stupid quick were the profound words of wisdom he offered.

[00:01:02] [SPEAKER_00]: He explained how the village idiot is the happiest person in town because he has the least going on between his ears.

[00:01:08] [SPEAKER_00]: If we wish to live a simple,

[00:01:11] [SPEAKER_00]: peace-filled life, it's necessary to free ourselves of clutter both inner and outer.

[00:01:17] [SPEAKER_00]: The mind certainly has its uses.

[00:01:19] [SPEAKER_00]: It's undoubtedly helpful to remember which house you live in,

[00:01:22] [SPEAKER_00]: how to get to work, or how to cross the road safely without getting run over.

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Not to mention the good we're able to bring into the world with it. On the other hand, dwelling incessantly on your problems and shortcomings,

[00:01:35] [SPEAKER_00]: wallowing in doomsday thoughts about the future or blowing minor issues out of all proportion,

[00:01:42] [SPEAKER_00]: only serves to clutter your inner space and crowd out feelings of peace and calm. In this way,

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_00]: the mind can be a beautiful servant or a dangerous master depending on how you use it.

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I've spent the last 25 years helping people with busy minds find more inner peace and happiness in their lives.

[00:02:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Here are nine tips to help you kick the overthinking habit.

[00:02:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Number one, become consciously aware.

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Most of our overthinking happens on autopilot. The first step to freeing yourself is to notice when you're doing it.

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_00]: When you catch yourself fretting about the future or agonizing over a simple decision,

[00:02:23] [SPEAKER_00]: stop for a moment, take a breath and gently acknowledge,

[00:02:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, this is what is happening just now.

[00:02:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Bringing your thought patterns into the light of awareness is an important first step.

[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Number two, drop your resistance.

[00:02:39] [SPEAKER_00]: The more you resist and fight the mind, the more overwhelming and all-consuming it becomes.

[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Resistance creates more ammunition for the overthinking mind. If your patterns are there anyway,

[00:02:52] [SPEAKER_00]: it's better to work with them than struggle against them.

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Step back and watch them objectively with an attitude of non-judgmental acceptance.

[00:03:01] [SPEAKER_00]: The less you resist, the more peace you will experience.

[00:03:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Number three,

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_00]: question the mind.

[00:03:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Take everything the mind tells you with a large grain of salt.

[00:03:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Before you become enmeshed in an apocalyptic mind movie where you get fired, lose your house and become destitute,

[00:03:20] [SPEAKER_00]: all because you missed a deadline at work,

[00:03:22] [SPEAKER_00]: acknowledge that you're probably painting an overly pessimistic picture.

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_00]: A great question that will put an end to 90% of your overthinking is, do I know for certain that this is true?

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_00]: You'll find the answer is almost always no, and you won't overthink what you know to be untrue.

[00:03:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Number four, keep things in perspective.

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_00]: What kind of things upset you and trigger overthinking? Being stuck in traffic? Being treated unfairly?

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Not getting your way about something?

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Consider how important these things are in the bigger picture.

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Is it the end of the world if somebody said something mean about you? Is it really worth sacrificing today's peace over it?

[00:04:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Ask yourself, will this matter five years from now or even five days from now?

[00:04:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Number five, make time-limited decisions.

[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Being indecisive by nature, decision-making has always been an area where I can easily get sucked into overthinking.

[00:04:20] [SPEAKER_00]: When you take too long to make a decision, you can think yourself into a state of analysis paralysis.

[00:04:27] [SPEAKER_00]: I now have some simple rules I try to follow.

[00:04:30] [SPEAKER_00]: For small decisions such as where to go for dinner or which movie to watch,

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_00]: I give myself 30 seconds or less to decide. For bigger decisions, the time limit is one hour.

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_00]: The trick is to then stick with what you decide.

[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Number six, focus on the present moment.

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_00]: A quick and simple way to stop overthinking in its tracks is to gently shift your attention to the here and now.

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Engage the senses. Feel the weight of your body on the chair.

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Notice the warmth in the palms of your hands. Feel the sensation of your feet touching the floor.

[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_00]: What sounds can you hear around you right now?

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_00]: What happens to your thinking mind when your attention is fully present in the moment?

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Number seven, show the mind who's boss.

[00:05:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Overthinking is a bit like binging on Netflix. You find yourself

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_00]: unconsciously gravitating over and over to the same old channels. The worry channel, the self-doubt channel,

[00:05:27] [SPEAKER_00]: or the wanting to control everything channel.

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_00]: But the truth is, you're the one holding the remote control. If you decide right now to hit the stop thinking button,

[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_00]: the mind has to comply.

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_00]: The next time you catch yourself mid-episode in a replay of the 101 ways that my life sucks, tell the mind

[00:05:46] [SPEAKER_00]: enough. We're going to change the topic now.

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_00]: You're the one in charge.

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Number eight,

[00:05:53] [SPEAKER_00]: consciously distract yourself.

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_00]: When you catch yourself overthinking, it's a good idea to get up and move. Go for a walk or run. Do some yoga.

[00:06:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Moving will not only shift your mindset, but also help release any pent-up tension and emotion caused by overthinking.

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Lose yourself in a project. Learn to play guitar. Learn a language. Or best of all, learn to meditate.

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_00]: This will give you the skills you need to kick your overthinking habit for good.

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_00]: And number nine,

[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_00]: practice mindfulness.

[00:06:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Mindfulness is a wonderful tool to help you stop overthinking and create a more harmonious relationship with the mind and with yourself.

[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_00]: It teaches us to embrace our thoughts, positive and negative,

[00:06:40] [SPEAKER_00]: with an attitude of non-judgmental acceptance and to develop an intimate relationship with the present moment where the natural state of peace

[00:06:48] [SPEAKER_00]: is to be found.

[00:06:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Quote,

[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's a little-known fact that thinking is entirely

[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_00]: overrated. The world would be a much better place if we all did a lot less of it.

[00:07:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Laurie Vieira Riggler. You just listened to the post titled, Get Stupid Quick!

[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Advice on overthinking from a Zen Master by Richard Patterson with becomingminimalist.com and I'll be right back with my commentary.

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Look around. Smart watches, Wi-Fi enabled LED bulbs. It's no secret that the world keeps getting smarter

[00:07:25] [SPEAKER_00]: so your e-commerce business should too. Whether you're looking for incredible efficiency or your business has simply outgrown your old shipping solutions,

[00:07:33] [SPEAKER_00]: our sponsor ShipStation helps you take the next step.

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_00]: I love that ShipStation's automations allow you to smoothly print shipping labels at the click of a button.

[00:07:42] [SPEAKER_00]: This kind of robust automation and reporting combined with the simplicity of ShipStation's dashboard

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_00]: make it so easy for anyone to scale their business faster than ever before. And with industry-leading carrier discounts,

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_00]: it's the fastest, most affordable way to ship products to your customers with discounts up to 89% off UPS,

[00:08:01] [SPEAKER_00]: DHL Express and USPS rates.

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Unsurprisingly over 130,000 companies have grown their e-commerce businesses with ShipStation and

[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_00]: 98% of companies that stick with ShipStation for a year become customers for life.

[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Lead your e-commerce business into a smarter future with the shipping software that delivers. Switch to ShipStation today.

[00:08:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Go to ShipStation.com and use code OLD to sign up for your free 60-day trial.

[00:08:29] [SPEAKER_00]: That's ShipStation.com, code OLD.

[00:08:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you to Richard, a guest writer on Becoming Minimalist,

[00:08:37] [SPEAKER_00]: but the name might sound familiar because I narrate from his blog too. That's ThinkLessAndGrowRich.com.

[00:08:43] [SPEAKER_00]: And I thought that was a good point about the village idiot being the happiest person.

[00:08:48] [SPEAKER_00]: My mind definitely goes into overdrive a lot, even with this podcast. Am I saying the right things?

[00:08:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Is this what you want to hear? What can I do better? How can this reach more people?

[00:09:00] [SPEAKER_00]: I feel like my mind is always going and it can be exhausting.

[00:09:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And of course, I don't think the answer is literally being stupid,

[00:09:07] [SPEAKER_00]: but figuring out ways to let go of a lot of mental clutter.

[00:09:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Just like we try to keep our physical spaces minimal and less cluttered,

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER_00]: I think our brains crave the same thing. And like he said, perspective is everything.

[00:09:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I can get really worked up about being late to an appointment, for example.

[00:09:27] [SPEAKER_00]: It's rare that it happens, but it can.

[00:09:29] [SPEAKER_00]: And in that case, is it worth stressing about or having it ruin my entire day?

[00:09:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Will it matter a year from now? Probably not even a week from now.

[00:09:39] [SPEAKER_00]: So good stuff to think about this weekend or not think about, if you know what I mean.

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for being here with me every day and for telling others about this show.

[00:09:47] [SPEAKER_00]: That's the greatest thing you can do to help out. It means a lot.

[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_00]: So thank you again. And I'll be back tomorrow as usual, where your optimal life awaits.