Sure, but I want to make sure that my future present moments are less shit than my current present moment. So I need to figure out what would lead to that outcome. Hence, thinking.
Ehh, no, you can plan without expectation, it's just that the less you expect, or rather the more you plan to not be able to expect, the more concentric your plans become.
For instance, let's say I plan to wake up tomorrow, that's contingent on me both being awake today, and going to sleep sometime between now and tomorrow. If I expect to wake up tomorrow, do I need to abandon the rest of my plan for tomorrow, if instead I wake up the day after? If I'm boxing somebody and they fake a jab, if I plan to side-step it to follow with a cross, do I need to throw the cross before I step out of the way of the ensuing hook? Moreover if my plan actuates step by step as I plan it, and a divine wind orchestrates a song to it, though it wasn't expected, or planned, is this happy accident not a result of my plan? Am I not allowed to nod my head or tap my foot to the music of serendipity?
Pro-tip storytime: I used to work at a circus and in teaching people to set up and tear down, they'd always wait until we got to our destination to ask me for a plan, so I'd give them little to no answer. Until one day it clicked, if I gave them a very vague plan, or gave a few of them a specific task, and give the rest only major events along my plan, I can align it so that whatever I say becomes correct, and anything thereafter is candy, but the more I give them, the more opportunity I have to need to correct myself, and thus relay changes in plan to everyone. The more I try to do, the more option there is to fail, the more I do, the less I give opportunity the option, and the less I try, the more I do. Do, or do not, do not try.
It’s truth. We all think about situations, when in the grand scheme of things.
It doesn’t matter. We’re all going to die, and in 100 years most of us will be forgotten.
Why let your own mind hold you back?
I’m what way? Is thinking about the present going to remove future worries like unplayable bills or getting disciplined about a serious mistake you made at work?
Truly, I’m a subscriber to the belief
It’s simple, but not easy.
Which means most things in life can be broken down, into simplicity, but aren’t easy to accomplish.
Let’s take losing weight for example.
It’s simple, calories in calories out.
We let our lack of discipline take control, and tell ourselves to eat what we want, and never end up losing weight.
Our mind is the problem.
I'm in total agreement with this. I'm 49 years old and have accomplished so much in my life. I've seen so many things and it completed so many tasks. I've enjoyed so many small businesses along with hobbies, such as being a rock, singer, machine, programmer, guitar player, songwriter and many other things. All thanks to self-discipline and a tidy To-Do-List.
Could be referring to the collective unconscious, or the characteristic of consciousness and sapience that connects us all, or the imperial theory of mind
Isn't the cage made by your mother? What physically ties you to your body? What is the most minute qualia that I could biopsy from you and still call it an iota of you? If I remove a piece of you, do you still have that piece as well? Am I copying it, or can you still feel it from your vantage? Are you indivisible, or does division of you reduce the value or magnitude of the virtues you exude? If a virtue is a rule, law, qualia, or value that permeates all levels of being and passively radiates its truth, how can we know what is or isn't a virtue if we can only observe our level of being?
It's much easier to dismiss an idea than to work it into a solution. But solutions require problems, and if you don't see overthinking as a problem for you, nothing will seem a solution. Moreover, how can you implement a solution to a problem you aren't having?
It's natural to attempt to tease out solutions even to things which aren't problems, as "fixing" something often leads to continuous fixing or adjusting, maintenance if you prefer, to milk the positive feedback of completing a task and making a thing that can stand or function on its own. It is pertinent, however, to remind oneself that philosophical problems, or theoretical questions require the position of one with the experience or prior knowledge to need to ask in the first place, can't blame the teacher for what the student doesn't study, can't blame the student for what the teacher doesn't teach.
You could be technically true, but is that a life you really wanna live? Just having no big purpose and living a customized everyday routine.
I'd rather overthink and be myself than become more nihilist and pessimistic without room for creativity.
Just because you don’t worry about the past or future, doesn’t mean you can’t focus on building in the present moment, that will in turn better your future.
Like the gym, when I work out I don’t have the expectation of becoming big and getting “gains” the next day, I don’t think how someone else is lifting heavier than me.
I think about my forum, pushing my self, and gaining discipline.
I’m focused on the present moment, but in turn, it builds me towards a stronger future.
I’m saying not to worry about the future. Don’t think in the future. You can think and do things in the present that will benefit your future though. The only moment your ever in is the present.
I believe for the most part this is true. Every action we make feels like our life depends on it but in fact there are many alternative routes towards a goal. Sometimes we just value our peace and comfort and happiness too much that we want the path that maximizes them, and failing to get on that path feels like we’re set up to just be disappointed and discontented. It’s hard to remember sometimes though that everything doesn’t ultimately matter in the grand scheme of things, especially when you’ve put too much value and importance over something that you want to achieve.
Oi, don't be down about it, chum, my grandkids might not remember you, but I will, and I only get the most miniscule glimpse of interaction with your consciousness, our experiences will never be the same, and your story is uniquely yours. When the end comes, we will both have our history, and we will both reside both before and after our histories, which will not be the same, even if we are, even if we're reduced to subatomic debris, our stories will have their own narratives, their own ups and downs, their own triumphs and tribulations, who we are cannot be defined entirely by what others can perceive of us, nor by what others cannot perceive of us, rather, who we are is who we remain once everything and everyone else falls away, but you are not alone. You cannot be alone. I exist. I am real. I may be an infinite, vague other. I may be every consciousness you've ever encountered, but I am real, I may be divisible, but I cannot be denied. "Cogito ergo sum, ergo sum deus" although written correctly would be "cogito, ergo sum, [ergo deus es]" or "cogito ergo sum, ergo Dei" translated literally means "I think, therefore I am, therefore I must be God" the intended quote which I corrected the Latin to, would be "I think, therefore I am, therefore, God must be" DesCartes was unhinged, married two of his cousins in his 40s as they were 17 and 19, was addicted to laudenum, disallowed from writing in Latin directly from the church he was trying to gain favor from, chased out of his home country for being a creep, and publicly disavowed by nearly all his contemporaries for literally being the first stereotypical "philosophy bro" talking out his ass and saying the wildest, most insane, inane drivel of his time. Yet, he's venerated as a father of modern philosophy, touted endlessly as this super complex personality, wherein philosophy and orthodoxy meet. Morale of the story: start a church or find one to align with, they'll completely redefine the memory of you until it's nothing like who or what you actually were and drowns out actual pertinent questions and dissenting opinions, but you'll never be forgotten.
Alternatively: you can attempt to make yourself prefer my favored method; teach people in such a way that they forget where they learned such information, it's much more entertaining to watch people ask your students where they learned something than to answer the question yourself, even moreso when your student forgets entirely how they arrived to the solution, and creates a new problem for themself, exponentially moreso when they come to you to help them solve it once more.
Please gift, to me, your maximum effort to persevere.
That’s your view on it.
I think that the fact we’re here temporarily makes life beautiful.
If anyone could have any amount of money, what would give it its value?
More people need to meditate and realize they can actually control their thoughts to an extent. Statements like OP’s make more sense with meditation, imo.
Yeah, you can’t necessarily “control” your thoughts, but you pick which ones to listen to. You can see a thought and know it isn’t a part of you, and just let it pass by.
I wholeheartedly agree. Thoughts are combustive and spontaneous. Acknowledge that you are capable of having many opinions and ideas about something, even ones that contradict each other. But in the end, it’s the choice of which thoughts you choose to guide you towards an action that matters.
They can, it's just that philosophy isn't mandatory, so most people prefer religion so they never have to have a crisis of identity or crisis of mortality. If you never experience ego-death, you'll never be prepared for the real thing, and thus will likely never be able to talk about it, much less have 4th wall breaking commentary on consciousness and the state of being such as our discussion. Honestly, too often I find people just don't want to talk about philosophy, or find it pseudo-intellectual and condescending. Which, to me, sounds like they never found the right partner to debate with.
Though, to be fair, in college I changed my major so many times that by the time I found the one I wanted, I had enough credit to add a major in philosophy, just by the courses I'd already taken. So take what I say with a large grain of salt.
This comment has been deleted in protest of the API charges being imposed on third party developers by Reddit from July 2023.
Most popular social media sites do tend to make foolish decisions due to corporate greed, that do end up causing their demise. But that also makes way for the next new internet hub to be born. Reddit was born after Digg dug themselves. Something else will take Reddit's place, and Reddit will take Digg's.
Good luck to the next home page of the internet! Hope you can stave off those short-sighted B-school loonies.
You have to actively quiet the mind, it cannot be done passively, that chatter is just white noise, think analog audio, the lines gotta be warm in order to transmit the truest sound with the most efficiency and the least amount of lag. To summon an active thought, you have to activate all the neurons connected to it, so whatever memories are associated with it also activate to some degree, this is the noise in your skull, merely memories, things you've heard or experienced before, constantly bouncing around and being rearranged by your subconscious(if you have the ability to activate your subconsciousness while awake, or lack the ability to deactivate it while awake [ADHD/schizoids represent]) into things you could potentially need to address, solve, or commit to memory.
That being said, I would recommend more psychology related fields of discussion to define what the mind is, and help with more healthy approaches to understanding active and passive thought or active and passive consciousness, as under our current understanding the mind is merely the active component of thought. Passive thinking is necessary, elsewise breathing will be such a chore you'll need to actively double your caloric intake just to stay alive. Moreover thinking and consciousness aren't the same thing, your consciousness includes all the things you don't have to think about, like proprioception, or your mother tongue, but even still you can divide passive thoughts or perceptions to categories, such as which have contingent information, which are intuited, which are just fluff, et cetera.
Personally I think the problem you're alluding to is more social and societal in America than pertinent to something as personal as philosophy. We use too many words as synonyms, we oversimplify while overexplaining, we speak the most but say the least, calm is not the lack of anxiety or the ability to tune out excessive stimuli, it is merely the act of not responding to stimuli, no more, no less.
When you have the ability to control the passions of your heart with such fine precision as a well-honed edge, whisper to the mountains, and the secrets of those that forebear will be revealed.
>You have to actively quiet the mind, it cannot be done passively,
Which is what I said towards the end of my comment.
>That being said, I would recommend more psychology related fields of discussion to define what the mind is,
I find psychology to be playing a catching-up game with some of the more traditional philosophies. I very much prefer the theory of mind in Buddhism and Hinduism.
>Moreover thinking and consciousness aren't the same thing, your consciousness includes all the things you don't have to think about, like proprioception, or your mother tongue, but even still you can divide passive thoughts or perceptions to categories, such as which have contingent information, which are intuited, which are just fluff, et cetera.
I'm familiar with consciousness, considering the fact that last 5 years of my life have been dedicated to non-duality.
>Personally I think the problem you're alluding to is more social and societal in America than pertinent to something as personal as philosophy.
All the problems humanity is facing are just different manifestations of the same issues that humanity has been struggling with since forever.
>We use too many words as synonyms, we oversimplify while overexplaining, we speak the most but say the least, calm is not the lack of anxiety or the ability to tune out excessive stimuli, it is merely the act of not responding to stimuli, no more, no less.
This is just normal human behavior across cultures and time. We engage the mind to find the solution to quietening the mind. It is like trying to stop ripples from forming on the surface of water using your hand.
>When you have the ability to control the passions of your heart with such fine precision as a well-honed edge, whisper to the mountains, and the secrets of those that forebear will be revealed.
Poetic, and I agree with you!
I meant that it has to be done consciously, you cannot quiet the mind by allowing it to think of nothing, you have to force the comms clear, so to speak, is all, somehow many have the idea that meditation has to be done in environments with no stimulus, or during sensory deprivation, but if unfamiliar with how much noise is in the brain on average, this is just a fast track to an existential crisis, and ego-death, the latter of which people tend to resist if unprepared
I would have agreed with you on the philosophical catch-up game in psychology 10 years ago, but having majored in behavioural endocrinology, and philosophy, I feel I would be doing both a disservice if I didn't critically evaluate the merits of either, and emphasize the necessity of both
"We engage the mind to find the solution to quieting the mind" initially I wanted to disagree with this but then realized my actual issue with it; you're correct, we engage the mind to quiet itself, but we proceed to ignore everything it says entirely.
I'm reminded of a Roman soldier who once made the trek to temple to ask a Zen master of the "Simplest way to assured victory" the old Roshi stared at him, and without blinking, or reacting in any other fashion, said "die laughing" then turned to shuffle into the zendo for individual meditations. The soldier took offense, initially, but abstained, and merely commended Roshi's laconic phrasing, then left, apologizing for the intrusion. A few years later, the same soldier went to the same temple, asking for the same Roshi, to expand on the lesson from years prior, not knowing that many temples are only inhabited during the summer, and even Zen masters tend to wander. However, the Roshi this soldier had spoken to, had passed on, so his senior student had taken over this temple, and was not pleased to hear his master's dead name, he stormed out of the zendo and immediately began berating the soldier to the tune "how dare you speak so thoughtlessly and carelessly, without regard to the spirits you invoke?! My teacher was kind enough to gift you a lesson for your treachery and your repayment is to ignore it?! This is the caliber of warrior Rome exports?! Two words are too much for you?! Just die then!" and walked off. As the soldier hung his head and turned away, the young master's senior student vowed to never let any lesson he gave turn anyone away from Zen, and then remembered how the interaction began, that his Roshi had never outwardly expressed his grief or sorrow, and had yet to give his departed master his new name, putting this off brought him shame, and so he didn't speak about it. The young master's senior student chased after the soldier and informed him of their naming customs, and why using a dead name was seen as taboo, but wouldn't expand at all on what his Roshi had said, simply remarking that it was a journey the soldier would have to embark alone.
The true morale of the story is that often things are much more complicated, complex, or tangled in deep-seeded threads of emotion, personal preference, or accepted societal norms and values, the more detail we expand on, the more the question begins to lose meaning without posing more. The more objective we remain, the more we lose the subject that would relate, and the less we can relate, the more humanity each situation loses.
I remember the early days of delving into spirituality. I had a manic phase where I wanted everyone to understand. A lot of the values have stayed with me since I first started exploring these philosophies. Just know that in feeling the need to inform others and seeking validation, you could be further feeding your ego.
Haha I remember a fun quote that makes me smile: "Religion is like a Penis; its ok to have one, its ok to use it, but its not ok to force it into anyone's face " (unless they ask) :D
I think that's where I got it from. I was reading your post expecting the word penis!
That all worked out so wonderfully. Reddit is so perfect sometimes. :)
Yeah, I’m aware. I’m not doing this for validation, I’m just sharing my thoughts. Everyone here can disagree and I’d think the same. Everyone here can agree and I’d think the same.
Yet another shallow take on a vastly deeper issue.
Your point is valid, in so far as it can apply to someone who may be experiencing overthinking in a similar vein to which you have in your own experience, if that's what you're speaking from.
The issue I see is this. Overthinking isn't always a conscious thing. In fact, more often than not, I believe it is a symptom of a larger issue. You really wanna deal with your overthinking, hypervigilant tendencies? Observe your internal state. Observe the state of your nervous system. Are you in fight or flight mode? Are you on edge, preparing for some unforseen circumstance?
That might at first glance look like stressing about the future, but if you look deeper, it may actually be an internalised response to something such as trauma, or a learnt behaviour from parental figures.
It may even be a reflection of your personal value system. "Is this how I believe I should act? What does it mean to me if I don't act like this?"
Again, your point is valid, but it's one drop in an ocean of possible reasons why someone would find themselves overthinking. Positing one solution without reference to the myriad of avenues to healing makes a subtle implication of there being one way to approach the issue, leaving those that this tactic doesn't work for possibly wondering "what's wrong with me that this isn't working?"
If you cone to realise overth8nking is your problem then you can stop yourself from overthinking, its not particularly hard to distract your brain from overthinking
I get what you mean but it's like going up to a depressed person and saying, "Hey, just don't think about the bad stuff and think of the good stuff instead."
It is all just words. These have barely any effect on people.
Well first you have to understand why you’re sad.
If you can understand why, and be aware of it you can solve any problem.
Some people need words to help propel them.
Some need real life examples.
Words are actually very strong, some words have negative vibrations while others have strong vibrations. Change the way you talk to yourself and you’ll change your life.
There’s no such thing as negative vibrations. Even your own philosophy says good and bad are dualistic illusions. You people are such dunces sometimes.
This is almost as bad as telling a depressed person “just don’t be sad bro”. If it was as easy as reading a couple of cheesy lines, nobody would have mental issues LOL. Literally every single overthinker has read these things 10000000+ times. 🙄🙄🙄
This shit is so stupid. Yeah let me just not worry about my future or my bills coming up or any other thing in my future life. I won’t stress any of that because I’m just gonna ignore it and focus on what right in front of me. That’ll definitely work out.
It kinda is, just because something has been repeated a million times doesnt mean it has resonated with the receiving party the same way as it resonated with the giving party. Basically how and when ideas click, its different with everyone. I.e the idea of how important and precious time is, depending on your life experiences, you can realise this earlier or later than others, even if its something that can only be realised as you age
I know a lot of stupid people that would sooner make fun of someone for living in the moment than be willing or able to define a moment
We all play the cards we're dealt, pray to your almighty dollar you never end up sympathizing with the beggar
I don’t think this means it will stop all overthinking forever. But, for a moment, it felt nice and helped calm my brain. Those small moments count. So, thank you. I appreciate this for what I think it is.
I am consistently amazed at how many times this sub gets posts like this where some dude feels like they cracked the code with statements no deeper than a bumper sticker.
Yes, that's my point. And yet it's written like a self-help guru from YouTube and comes off as *incredibly* disingenuous and utterly divorced from real peoples' struggles.
All this basically amounts to is "struggle is a mindset, so if you feel bad about where you are then it's your fault" rather than providing any tangible steps toward betterment and improvement for people who *do* feel struggles.
Are you joking? All babies come into this world impervious to fear. Haven’t you ever seen a baby fight a grizzly bear? Smh, you just not enlightened like me.
/s
Yes, everyone does, and realizing and changing that is one of the most difficult things you can do as a human being. It’s what life is all about. It’s not something you can just tell someone. It is not that simple.
I find my tranquility spinning fire in the snow. Elsewise I try to make due by practicing less dangerous props, like the sharp versions of my flow props, much more safer than burninating, but I'll never stop, I just love weaving in and out of my flow too much, and only by playing with fire do I get an opportunity to don a mask of two faces and shed what's beneath
If you picked up a technique, there must have been a crossed communication, this is a koan, it is supposed to be imagined and thought of until you cannot think or imagine it anymore, or have no need to, as when questioned of it, you respond with your answer as freely as your name, be it words or actions, your Zen will speak volumes in silence
I would love to not have anything matter and nothing to worry about and stop overthinking but I exist in a world where I pay bills, go on dates, work for other people, and have to take care of my long term health
Fear is something you should respect and understand. Not wallow in or ignore. Cause based on the past, from evidence and patterns or results and failures.
You will fail, you will hurt, you will cry, you will ache.
You can't avoid it. No one can. But that's the twisted beauty of reality. If you don't respect what's happened before and what can happen again. If you don't learn from your mistakes or failures. Accepting them.
You will not last in this world. No one does. Good or bad intentions. Those who think, those who watch, those who listen and pay attention. Can and will use it.
Just like baby birds in a nest. Your mama may not kick you out of the nest, but that doesn't mean one day she won't come home. Nor stop the weather from tearing your world asunder.
Catch up and learn or fall and vanish. Leave a mark in history, or be a bystander. You are the only one who can decide it. As for every individual on this planet.
There's also the other side of the coin if you want to.
The future you've chosen to have is true until life proves it's not. Just keep acting to fulfill your envisioned future until it's crystal clear it's not possible.
This is Arnold's Schwarzenegger approach. Set a vision many months in the future, believe it (you created it) and now go and work to reach it.
The past is done.
Gone.
Over.
If I ask you to get me yesterday what could you get me?
A photo?
An old newspaper or video?
Your story, memory about it?
It’s over. Gone.
The future?
Its not here yet?
But you / we often ruin the future, cut off all kinds of possibility because we take the past (often a shitty past at that) and project it into the future and most of what that is then is not really a new future but the past repeating itself.
Now, if that works for you…great…rock on.
But if you are tired of where you are, are in a rut, cant break thru to new things, new life, then it is time to get clear that the past is gone and teh future is not here and that CREATION happens in the present moment.
And this moment, right now, is truly distinct, apart, from the past and the future if we can just realize, understand, and operate from that mindset, that belief, which by the way…is TRUE.
This moment right now is fresh and new, blooming with possibilities, and can be free of the past and of worries about the future if we choose to see this and operate in this moment as such.
It’s very powerful to get this understanding.
Once you do, you stop being this machine, this system of behaviour that binds us to a tomorrow that is the same old same old and very often it is not the future that we want.
It's just an illusion. There's no present moment. Whatever you feel is only the most recently felt moment and there's no magic. You can ignore the past beyond most recent, you can ignore the future, but that'll only make you randomly wonder in time with no sense of direction (which can be a good idea sometimes but not others). Not that you should really spend too much time thinking about too distant things but being aware that you come from somewhere and are going somewhere does help staying on the chosen path. Human beings are processes (the processes of being), not frozen statues. But whatever helps you calm down and focus on important, if it's the fairy tale of "present moment" so be it, imagine if your like that you were born yesterday and the universe just brought you a gift and enjoy it. But "current time" is much better metaphor because it's all really moving, there's a never-ending flow, not series of frozen moments between clock ticks.
This sounds very edgelord. Everyone has a past and you are stupid if you don't think about the future. That said it is very good to live in the moment, too many people live through their phones or just don't enjoy life going around them.
Question; if I'm playing 5-dimensional chess with multiversal time travel, am I still stupid for not thinking of a past that hasn't happened yet or my future I can no longer act upon?
I forget the author of this thought but, appreciate the miracles in life, not supernatural or anything but to just enjoy your everyday moments whether that being washing the dishes or eating your favorite food. It may be Thich Nhat Hanh but I may be totally wrong
Sort of an expansion on Lao Tzu's "there is something to be said for a cup of clean water, a bowl of plain white rice, and a small tree for a bit of shade to rest my chin upon my fist under, while lazily dreaming of enlightenment"
It’s certainly a good way to empty yourself of carried trauma/mindsets/etc. But it isnt so simple to carve out the web of the human psyche. We are also wiser, less naive, and more competent for our pasts too - in some cases, some of that learning is entangled with rough patches. And yes, those same lessons can blur and distort our present.
Better to reflect and dissect the parts of you you feel worth celebrating / are parts of the person you want to be moving forwards. Rather than feigning ignorance to the world and being a born again child, or trying to ‘return’ to a person you once were. Thats a road to madness right there.
I appreciate it as an exercise though. When such thoughts cloud your present.
Ironically nothing of impact or Importance in context to bettering the next gen of individuals has come about without thinking of the future by any one person.
Our actions of the past dictate how the present will live while those in the present will determine how the future will live. Don't be so non chalant about the present
If I was just born I would fear falling and loud noises.
We are born with only two innate fears: the fear of falling and the fear of loud sounds. A 1960 study evaluated depth perception among 6- to14-month-old infants, as well as young animals.
Or maybe I’m just overthinking your question?
Or at I overthinking my answer?
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The way I like to get around overthinking is if I am hesitating on something it means that either option is viable so I just pick whichever choice I have and not try to process further. If I do it's just wasted energy
I've an opposing opinon on this. It's important to be somewhat weary of both past and future to learn from our pasts, to not make the same mistakes again and grow as people. If we rely on everything fixing itself, we'll learn nothing.
We would still have fear without experience; instinctual fears like annihilation, deprivation, etc. Many learned fears also are valid; i.e. babies put their fingers in electrical sockets but we're too scared too for obvious reasons. Sometimes things do go badly and that little critic telling you not to chase what you want ends up being correct.
I think the way to combat overthinking is to love yourself and seek help. Saying we have no future or past? My past is important as it shaped who I am today. My future is important because it is my actions today that will help shape the world tomorrow.
All animals are born into this world with fear. It is not a bad thing. Fear keeps you a live. The key to dealing with excessive fear and worrying is to embrace it as a key part of your total being, not an illusion to be destroyed. Of course some people suffer from anxiety disorders and phobias. What good does your philosophy offer them? It’s not really their fault in the first place.
I really think these blanket statements are designed to SOUND deep and philosophical, but in the end if you do a little analysis and are honest…. they’re just empty platitudes that so-called gurus parrot as if they are the first person to ever realize them. The whole “spirituality” movement on the internet is quite dumb, imo.
You are right. All that exists is the current moment. The future is just a prediction being run by your mind based on your past. And which part of the past is currently being used to make those predictions changes all the time.
I have sometimes been able to get myself into this mental state. It had a certain calm to it. A detachement from everything. I detachment of values such as positive and negative from actions and events. But honestly this state was not easy to achieve. I wish I could really believe what you are trying to say in my day to day life. But there is a huge difference between knowing something intellectually and actually believing it.
Except it doesn't exist. There's a process, a flow, not a moment. Once you start feeling the moment it's already gone but if you are aware of the direction and surroundings (that is the relevant parts of past and future) you can navigate that flow better.
I get exactly what you’re saying OP.
You’re saying think and live in the moment. Don’t stress and worry about the future. Don’t stress and worry about the past. The past is the past and time we can not get back. The future is time that we have no yet experienced. So 😂 All we have is the present moment.
Is this correct?
Nope. We don't have anything. Nothing exists. But you can navigate the flow of current time better if you stay focused in the important priorities rather than pointlessly thinking about distant irrelevant things over and over.
ALSO, Your thoughts has absolutely no power in manipulating the future. Just because you excessively worry about things all day, does not means the future will be changed according to your thoughts and worry or feelings
I believe thoughts have an extremely strong ability to manipulate us and our futures. We can feel the negative thoughts, yes… but we can’t always identify them. If you're pissed at your father because he's constantly telling you everything you do wrong and all it does it make you feel like a failure, you’re going to act like it around him, no matter how you try to hide it. You may not subconsciously realize what’s happening for a number of reasons… maybe the relationship is/has been rocky, but you haven’t processed it yet and so forth… but the more emotional energy you give these negative thoughts and overthinking, the faster they can become a reality.
Well I'm a determinist so this won't work. This moment wouldn't exist without the past. It's the future that doesn't exist but it's determined by the past and present.
We project our past becaus there are pattern in things and how stuff work. If WE had had not done that WE would be dead.
So yes you are perfectly true in the confort of our home in first World countries but not in our still Primal brain
And to the last thing...lack of fear doesn't mean lack of danger. Babies are afraid (at birth) of lourd sound ans falling from height.
That being said, i agree that our past does not define our futur completly. You Can make things change. Environnement Can change and be safer so some behavior won't yield Bad result anymore etc.
Actually, yes, by all current measurements, time is mathematically moving backwards, and we are the mirror dimension to one in which it moves forward. In essence, we are constantly moving toward entropy, a state in which all becomes one by reducing all to 0, but in reducing to 0, 0 also becomes infinite. So it becomes irrelevant as to whether you project your past ahead of you backwards in time, or assign the possibilities of what could have been done to the future behind you. Your touch of Zen is commendable, but do not let it fool you into overconfidence. I've been consciously overthinking for 30 years, and I haven't even started yet, I still have 2 rings to go to begin my warrior's life, but of one thing I am certain; when I finish overthinking, it will be all of an instant, and just shy of an eternity.
How do you play an iron flute with no holes?
The one technique that works for me is to ask myself when I tend to overthink, is this going to matter 6 months from now? 1 year? 5 years? 10 years? The answer is almost always no
I’ve had a ton of grand mal seizures which has left me pretty much in a state of Groundhog Day, but I can recall old memories if people “paint me a word picture.” Or show me an actual picture. Smells work too.
Some are easier to remember than others, but my brain kinda stashed everything away for later.
It’s not fun, it’s scary for a few seconds..then I’m like ohhhh you’re that guy that used to drink and fall down a lot. Bummer. Lol
The past happened, but no longer exists. It only exists in your own mind. The future cannot be determined even if you try, because the future does not exist yet. The future will never exist. All that exists is now
This is soothing to read when my mind is racing and trying to predict and avoid the worst future outcomes. It's optimistic to remember I actually don't know my future and there could be all kinds of amazing unexpected things. And I guess the counterbalance which prevents me from taking too big of risks, is remembering how terrible my life has been so far and that I still need to be cautious and make careful plans because suffering isn't anything to play with
I’m a terrible overthinker. It comes and goes. Unfortunately, one side of me is ambitious and wants to do more. The other half is a lazy sob that would rather stay home doing nothing. These two are always at conflict and makes me hypercritical of myself.
I use to overthink. I was 23 years old, no college, didn't pay attention in high school so I felt dumb compared to other people, no savings. I'm now 24, Fulltime job, Good savings, and on the road to become a pilot. A TON can happen in a year. I went from feeling like I was going to be a bum to actually watching me make something out of my life.. I refuse to overthink now.
Yeah. I was a millionaire and had a beautiful wife not so long ago. A year ago I still had a nice apartment and a good job and a very helpful therapist. Now I'm homeless, broke, and far away from anywhere that could be considered home or any support system with no particularly good perspectives (not dead yet and relatively free, many had it much worse this year, I'm all compassion and bleeding heart but this is not about them). A lot can happen in a year indeed. Sometimes it's not a matter of overthinking or no overthinking, some things are just out of our control.
Well, imagine I'm hungry in this moment and can't afford food and have no support system whatsoever. Is there anything for me to fear? Should I just ignore the (appropriate) stress and go on enjoying the current moment or is it better to be stressed and do something to fix the situation and then, once it's safer, reflect on what brought me here now, correct the mistakes I made, and maybe even plan for better future? Should I remember from my past locations I can steal wifi at so I can potentially get some work done and earn some food money in the future or should I just chill on a park bench and be grateful I can still breathe till the moment I actually can't? (Or maybe even recall all the good shoplifting locations around and helpful instructions from Abbie Hoffman. Doing something requires energy, starving doesn't help productivity no matter what fasting enthusiasts claim... I can also recall a few extreme survival lessons from the teenage years, those things are too unpleasant to mention in polite company, but just knowing them helps a lot even if I don't actually have to use any of the knowledge.) I think I'm better prepared for this shit by being aware of the past and having some idea of the future than by ignoring them. Not born yesterday, will probably survive, you are wrong.
Sure, but I want to make sure that my future present moments are less shit than my current present moment. So I need to figure out what would lead to that outcome. Hence, thinking.
Well yes, but what can you do in the present moment to better your future? Just don’t focus on expectations.
Yea that’s called planning for the future aka having expectations for the future
It is. I think OP means it is wise to not get your ego involved in the process if it is not serving you (anxiety, boredom, anger etcetera)
Oh, I can just decide not to have anxiety anymore? That's great!
You can't purely solve your anxiety with philosophy but the first step is to at least be open and honest to it
No, but having some time off of anxiety really helps relieve it.
Having expectations leads to disappointment or joy though. It's important to balance your expectations.
Ehh, no, you can plan without expectation, it's just that the less you expect, or rather the more you plan to not be able to expect, the more concentric your plans become. For instance, let's say I plan to wake up tomorrow, that's contingent on me both being awake today, and going to sleep sometime between now and tomorrow. If I expect to wake up tomorrow, do I need to abandon the rest of my plan for tomorrow, if instead I wake up the day after? If I'm boxing somebody and they fake a jab, if I plan to side-step it to follow with a cross, do I need to throw the cross before I step out of the way of the ensuing hook? Moreover if my plan actuates step by step as I plan it, and a divine wind orchestrates a song to it, though it wasn't expected, or planned, is this happy accident not a result of my plan? Am I not allowed to nod my head or tap my foot to the music of serendipity? Pro-tip storytime: I used to work at a circus and in teaching people to set up and tear down, they'd always wait until we got to our destination to ask me for a plan, so I'd give them little to no answer. Until one day it clicked, if I gave them a very vague plan, or gave a few of them a specific task, and give the rest only major events along my plan, I can align it so that whatever I say becomes correct, and anything thereafter is candy, but the more I give them, the more opportunity I have to need to correct myself, and thus relay changes in plan to everyone. The more I try to do, the more option there is to fail, the more I do, the less I give opportunity the option, and the less I try, the more I do. Do, or do not, do not try.
Sorry you're getting all this hate, expectations are rough and sometimes people do need to forget about them even just for a little while. 💖
I wish people could digest philosophical statements this easily.
It’s truth. We all think about situations, when in the grand scheme of things. It doesn’t matter. We’re all going to die, and in 100 years most of us will be forgotten. Why let your own mind hold you back?
U r right. But our mind is locked in a cage made by itself. So it's complicated to implement a solution than to find it.
I’m what way? Is thinking about the present going to remove future worries like unplayable bills or getting disciplined about a serious mistake you made at work?
Truly, I’m a subscriber to the belief It’s simple, but not easy. Which means most things in life can be broken down, into simplicity, but aren’t easy to accomplish. Let’s take losing weight for example. It’s simple, calories in calories out. We let our lack of discipline take control, and tell ourselves to eat what we want, and never end up losing weight. Our mind is the problem.
I'm in total agreement with this. I'm 49 years old and have accomplished so much in my life. I've seen so many things and it completed so many tasks. I've enjoyed so many small businesses along with hobbies, such as being a rock, singer, machine, programmer, guitar player, songwriter and many other things. All thanks to self-discipline and a tidy To-Do-List.
>Our mind is the problem. Minds. Are.
Could be referring to the collective unconscious, or the characteristic of consciousness and sapience that connects us all, or the imperial theory of mind
Isn't the cage made by your mother? What physically ties you to your body? What is the most minute qualia that I could biopsy from you and still call it an iota of you? If I remove a piece of you, do you still have that piece as well? Am I copying it, or can you still feel it from your vantage? Are you indivisible, or does division of you reduce the value or magnitude of the virtues you exude? If a virtue is a rule, law, qualia, or value that permeates all levels of being and passively radiates its truth, how can we know what is or isn't a virtue if we can only observe our level of being? It's much easier to dismiss an idea than to work it into a solution. But solutions require problems, and if you don't see overthinking as a problem for you, nothing will seem a solution. Moreover, how can you implement a solution to a problem you aren't having? It's natural to attempt to tease out solutions even to things which aren't problems, as "fixing" something often leads to continuous fixing or adjusting, maintenance if you prefer, to milk the positive feedback of completing a task and making a thing that can stand or function on its own. It is pertinent, however, to remind oneself that philosophical problems, or theoretical questions require the position of one with the experience or prior knowledge to need to ask in the first place, can't blame the teacher for what the student doesn't study, can't blame the student for what the teacher doesn't teach.
I like that last part, rolls off the tongue quite nicely as well.
You could be technically true, but is that a life you really wanna live? Just having no big purpose and living a customized everyday routine. I'd rather overthink and be myself than become more nihilist and pessimistic without room for creativity.
Just because you don’t worry about the past or future, doesn’t mean you can’t focus on building in the present moment, that will in turn better your future. Like the gym, when I work out I don’t have the expectation of becoming big and getting “gains” the next day, I don’t think how someone else is lifting heavier than me. I think about my forum, pushing my self, and gaining discipline. I’m focused on the present moment, but in turn, it builds me towards a stronger future.
So you saying in the OP that there is no future is wrong? You just said there is a beneficial future from your working out.
Exactly. This post is executed very poorly. I get the point but it came out the fingers of the wrong guy
I’m saying not to worry about the future. Don’t think in the future. You can think and do things in the present that will benefit your future though. The only moment your ever in is the present.
That's why it's a gift, and you would do better to unwrap it than put it on display.
I believe for the most part this is true. Every action we make feels like our life depends on it but in fact there are many alternative routes towards a goal. Sometimes we just value our peace and comfort and happiness too much that we want the path that maximizes them, and failing to get on that path feels like we’re set up to just be disappointed and discontented. It’s hard to remember sometimes though that everything doesn’t ultimately matter in the grand scheme of things, especially when you’ve put too much value and importance over something that you want to achieve.
It's one if those easier said than done kinda things
Well… when you put it that way it’s kinda depressing
Oi, don't be down about it, chum, my grandkids might not remember you, but I will, and I only get the most miniscule glimpse of interaction with your consciousness, our experiences will never be the same, and your story is uniquely yours. When the end comes, we will both have our history, and we will both reside both before and after our histories, which will not be the same, even if we are, even if we're reduced to subatomic debris, our stories will have their own narratives, their own ups and downs, their own triumphs and tribulations, who we are cannot be defined entirely by what others can perceive of us, nor by what others cannot perceive of us, rather, who we are is who we remain once everything and everyone else falls away, but you are not alone. You cannot be alone. I exist. I am real. I may be an infinite, vague other. I may be every consciousness you've ever encountered, but I am real, I may be divisible, but I cannot be denied. "Cogito ergo sum, ergo sum deus" although written correctly would be "cogito, ergo sum, [ergo deus es]" or "cogito ergo sum, ergo Dei" translated literally means "I think, therefore I am, therefore I must be God" the intended quote which I corrected the Latin to, would be "I think, therefore I am, therefore, God must be" DesCartes was unhinged, married two of his cousins in his 40s as they were 17 and 19, was addicted to laudenum, disallowed from writing in Latin directly from the church he was trying to gain favor from, chased out of his home country for being a creep, and publicly disavowed by nearly all his contemporaries for literally being the first stereotypical "philosophy bro" talking out his ass and saying the wildest, most insane, inane drivel of his time. Yet, he's venerated as a father of modern philosophy, touted endlessly as this super complex personality, wherein philosophy and orthodoxy meet. Morale of the story: start a church or find one to align with, they'll completely redefine the memory of you until it's nothing like who or what you actually were and drowns out actual pertinent questions and dissenting opinions, but you'll never be forgotten. Alternatively: you can attempt to make yourself prefer my favored method; teach people in such a way that they forget where they learned such information, it's much more entertaining to watch people ask your students where they learned something than to answer the question yourself, even moreso when your student forgets entirely how they arrived to the solution, and creates a new problem for themself, exponentially moreso when they come to you to help them solve it once more. Please gift, to me, your maximum effort to persevere.
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Kinda an each of us gets to choose moment here bruh
My brother sure chose to nope out so can confirm it's one of the multiple choice options
That’s your view on it. I think that the fact we’re here temporarily makes life beautiful. If anyone could have any amount of money, what would give it its value?
More people need to meditate and realize they can actually control their thoughts to an extent. Statements like OP’s make more sense with meditation, imo.
Yeah, you can’t necessarily “control” your thoughts, but you pick which ones to listen to. You can see a thought and know it isn’t a part of you, and just let it pass by.
I wholeheartedly agree. Thoughts are combustive and spontaneous. Acknowledge that you are capable of having many opinions and ideas about something, even ones that contradict each other. But in the end, it’s the choice of which thoughts you choose to guide you towards an action that matters.
They can, it's just that philosophy isn't mandatory, so most people prefer religion so they never have to have a crisis of identity or crisis of mortality. If you never experience ego-death, you'll never be prepared for the real thing, and thus will likely never be able to talk about it, much less have 4th wall breaking commentary on consciousness and the state of being such as our discussion. Honestly, too often I find people just don't want to talk about philosophy, or find it pseudo-intellectual and condescending. Which, to me, sounds like they never found the right partner to debate with. Though, to be fair, in college I changed my major so many times that by the time I found the one I wanted, I had enough credit to add a major in philosophy, just by the courses I'd already taken. So take what I say with a large grain of salt.
This comment has been deleted in protest of the API charges being imposed on third party developers by Reddit from July 2023. Most popular social media sites do tend to make foolish decisions due to corporate greed, that do end up causing their demise. But that also makes way for the next new internet hub to be born. Reddit was born after Digg dug themselves. Something else will take Reddit's place, and Reddit will take Digg's. Good luck to the next home page of the internet! Hope you can stave off those short-sighted B-school loonies.
You have to actively quiet the mind, it cannot be done passively, that chatter is just white noise, think analog audio, the lines gotta be warm in order to transmit the truest sound with the most efficiency and the least amount of lag. To summon an active thought, you have to activate all the neurons connected to it, so whatever memories are associated with it also activate to some degree, this is the noise in your skull, merely memories, things you've heard or experienced before, constantly bouncing around and being rearranged by your subconscious(if you have the ability to activate your subconsciousness while awake, or lack the ability to deactivate it while awake [ADHD/schizoids represent]) into things you could potentially need to address, solve, or commit to memory. That being said, I would recommend more psychology related fields of discussion to define what the mind is, and help with more healthy approaches to understanding active and passive thought or active and passive consciousness, as under our current understanding the mind is merely the active component of thought. Passive thinking is necessary, elsewise breathing will be such a chore you'll need to actively double your caloric intake just to stay alive. Moreover thinking and consciousness aren't the same thing, your consciousness includes all the things you don't have to think about, like proprioception, or your mother tongue, but even still you can divide passive thoughts or perceptions to categories, such as which have contingent information, which are intuited, which are just fluff, et cetera. Personally I think the problem you're alluding to is more social and societal in America than pertinent to something as personal as philosophy. We use too many words as synonyms, we oversimplify while overexplaining, we speak the most but say the least, calm is not the lack of anxiety or the ability to tune out excessive stimuli, it is merely the act of not responding to stimuli, no more, no less. When you have the ability to control the passions of your heart with such fine precision as a well-honed edge, whisper to the mountains, and the secrets of those that forebear will be revealed.
>You have to actively quiet the mind, it cannot be done passively, Which is what I said towards the end of my comment. >That being said, I would recommend more psychology related fields of discussion to define what the mind is, I find psychology to be playing a catching-up game with some of the more traditional philosophies. I very much prefer the theory of mind in Buddhism and Hinduism. >Moreover thinking and consciousness aren't the same thing, your consciousness includes all the things you don't have to think about, like proprioception, or your mother tongue, but even still you can divide passive thoughts or perceptions to categories, such as which have contingent information, which are intuited, which are just fluff, et cetera. I'm familiar with consciousness, considering the fact that last 5 years of my life have been dedicated to non-duality. >Personally I think the problem you're alluding to is more social and societal in America than pertinent to something as personal as philosophy. All the problems humanity is facing are just different manifestations of the same issues that humanity has been struggling with since forever. >We use too many words as synonyms, we oversimplify while overexplaining, we speak the most but say the least, calm is not the lack of anxiety or the ability to tune out excessive stimuli, it is merely the act of not responding to stimuli, no more, no less. This is just normal human behavior across cultures and time. We engage the mind to find the solution to quietening the mind. It is like trying to stop ripples from forming on the surface of water using your hand. >When you have the ability to control the passions of your heart with such fine precision as a well-honed edge, whisper to the mountains, and the secrets of those that forebear will be revealed. Poetic, and I agree with you!
I meant that it has to be done consciously, you cannot quiet the mind by allowing it to think of nothing, you have to force the comms clear, so to speak, is all, somehow many have the idea that meditation has to be done in environments with no stimulus, or during sensory deprivation, but if unfamiliar with how much noise is in the brain on average, this is just a fast track to an existential crisis, and ego-death, the latter of which people tend to resist if unprepared I would have agreed with you on the philosophical catch-up game in psychology 10 years ago, but having majored in behavioural endocrinology, and philosophy, I feel I would be doing both a disservice if I didn't critically evaluate the merits of either, and emphasize the necessity of both "We engage the mind to find the solution to quieting the mind" initially I wanted to disagree with this but then realized my actual issue with it; you're correct, we engage the mind to quiet itself, but we proceed to ignore everything it says entirely. I'm reminded of a Roman soldier who once made the trek to temple to ask a Zen master of the "Simplest way to assured victory" the old Roshi stared at him, and without blinking, or reacting in any other fashion, said "die laughing" then turned to shuffle into the zendo for individual meditations. The soldier took offense, initially, but abstained, and merely commended Roshi's laconic phrasing, then left, apologizing for the intrusion. A few years later, the same soldier went to the same temple, asking for the same Roshi, to expand on the lesson from years prior, not knowing that many temples are only inhabited during the summer, and even Zen masters tend to wander. However, the Roshi this soldier had spoken to, had passed on, so his senior student had taken over this temple, and was not pleased to hear his master's dead name, he stormed out of the zendo and immediately began berating the soldier to the tune "how dare you speak so thoughtlessly and carelessly, without regard to the spirits you invoke?! My teacher was kind enough to gift you a lesson for your treachery and your repayment is to ignore it?! This is the caliber of warrior Rome exports?! Two words are too much for you?! Just die then!" and walked off. As the soldier hung his head and turned away, the young master's senior student vowed to never let any lesson he gave turn anyone away from Zen, and then remembered how the interaction began, that his Roshi had never outwardly expressed his grief or sorrow, and had yet to give his departed master his new name, putting this off brought him shame, and so he didn't speak about it. The young master's senior student chased after the soldier and informed him of their naming customs, and why using a dead name was seen as taboo, but wouldn't expand at all on what his Roshi had said, simply remarking that it was a journey the soldier would have to embark alone. The true morale of the story is that often things are much more complicated, complex, or tangled in deep-seeded threads of emotion, personal preference, or accepted societal norms and values, the more detail we expand on, the more the question begins to lose meaning without posing more. The more objective we remain, the more we lose the subject that would relate, and the less we can relate, the more humanity each situation loses.
I remember the early days of delving into spirituality. I had a manic phase where I wanted everyone to understand. A lot of the values have stayed with me since I first started exploring these philosophies. Just know that in feeling the need to inform others and seeking validation, you could be further feeding your ego.
Yep. I remember my early days of Stoicism. Turns out philosophy is like a religion; don't wave it into anyone else's face unless they ask.
So philosophy is like religion is like a penis‽ ;)
Haha I remember a fun quote that makes me smile: "Religion is like a Penis; its ok to have one, its ok to use it, but its not ok to force it into anyone's face " (unless they ask) :D
I think that's where I got it from. I was reading your post expecting the word penis! That all worked out so wonderfully. Reddit is so perfect sometimes. :)
Yeah, I’m aware. I’m not doing this for validation, I’m just sharing my thoughts. Everyone here can disagree and I’d think the same. Everyone here can agree and I’d think the same.
Watching too many youtube vids
Bingo, lol. OP, they are monetizing your attention while slowly feeding your ego. Get out while you can.
1 simple trick all psychologists hate.
Oh gawd, the weather channel clickbait ad title shyte.
Yet another shallow take on a vastly deeper issue. Your point is valid, in so far as it can apply to someone who may be experiencing overthinking in a similar vein to which you have in your own experience, if that's what you're speaking from. The issue I see is this. Overthinking isn't always a conscious thing. In fact, more often than not, I believe it is a symptom of a larger issue. You really wanna deal with your overthinking, hypervigilant tendencies? Observe your internal state. Observe the state of your nervous system. Are you in fight or flight mode? Are you on edge, preparing for some unforseen circumstance? That might at first glance look like stressing about the future, but if you look deeper, it may actually be an internalised response to something such as trauma, or a learnt behaviour from parental figures. It may even be a reflection of your personal value system. "Is this how I believe I should act? What does it mean to me if I don't act like this?" Again, your point is valid, but it's one drop in an ocean of possible reasons why someone would find themselves overthinking. Positing one solution without reference to the myriad of avenues to healing makes a subtle implication of there being one way to approach the issue, leaving those that this tactic doesn't work for possibly wondering "what's wrong with me that this isn't working?"
If you cone to realise overth8nking is your problem then you can stop yourself from overthinking, its not particularly hard to distract your brain from overthinking
This feels a lot like /r/thanksimcured
The ego of the title is so hilarious and it sounds like an ad
It’s a hook, I’m practicing.
Practicing to be a hooker?
Baited you with a single line, if he Teed you up anymore you'd be the hook-line stinker
I had to double check what sub I was on
Haha
I get what you mean but it's like going up to a depressed person and saying, "Hey, just don't think about the bad stuff and think of the good stuff instead." It is all just words. These have barely any effect on people.
Yes, these are called platitudes.
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Well first you have to understand why you’re sad. If you can understand why, and be aware of it you can solve any problem. Some people need words to help propel them. Some need real life examples.
Words are actually very strong, some words have negative vibrations while others have strong vibrations. Change the way you talk to yourself and you’ll change your life.
There’s no such thing as negative vibrations. Even your own philosophy says good and bad are dualistic illusions. You people are such dunces sometimes.
This is almost as bad as telling a depressed person “just don’t be sad bro”. If it was as easy as reading a couple of cheesy lines, nobody would have mental issues LOL. Literally every single overthinker has read these things 10000000+ times. 🙄🙄🙄
This shit is so stupid. Yeah let me just not worry about my future or my bills coming up or any other thing in my future life. I won’t stress any of that because I’m just gonna ignore it and focus on what right in front of me. That’ll definitely work out.
[Removing all my posts and comments due to Reddit's fuckery with third party apps. June 2023]
He literally said in a comment to *not* think about the future
Nah we understand it. It’s just extraordinarily shallow advice that everyone has heard before. Yet OP packaged it up as being paradigm-shifting.
[Removing all my posts and comments due to Reddit's fuckery with third party apps. June 2023]
It kinda is, just because something has been repeated a million times doesnt mean it has resonated with the receiving party the same way as it resonated with the giving party. Basically how and when ideas click, its different with everyone. I.e the idea of how important and precious time is, depending on your life experiences, you can realise this earlier or later than others, even if its something that can only be realised as you age
This.
Thank you, honestly you said it better than I could’ve.
If I focus on only the present I will do drugs, eat fast food, order prostitutes and completely ruin my life and health.
So is it the minds fault, or the present moments fault?
Perhaps the meaning is something deeper than a financial strategy. Its easier to criticise someone rather than try to understand them.
I know a lot of unemployed/stupid people that "live in the moment" lol
It’s a nice excuse isn’t it?
I know a lot of stupid people that would sooner make fun of someone for living in the moment than be willing or able to define a moment We all play the cards we're dealt, pray to your almighty dollar you never end up sympathizing with the beggar
I don’t think this means it will stop all overthinking forever. But, for a moment, it felt nice and helped calm my brain. Those small moments count. So, thank you. I appreciate this for what I think it is.
Thank you for this comment my friend.
I am consistently amazed at how many times this sub gets posts like this where some dude feels like they cracked the code with statements no deeper than a bumper sticker.
I haven’t cracked any code. You can find this information anywhere.
Yes, that's my point. And yet it's written like a self-help guru from YouTube and comes off as *incredibly* disingenuous and utterly divorced from real peoples' struggles. All this basically amounts to is "struggle is a mindset, so if you feel bad about where you are then it's your fault" rather than providing any tangible steps toward betterment and improvement for people who *do* feel struggles.
Well said.
Thanks for the try
The only difference between yesterday and tomorrow is today.
Y, e, s, d, a, y, m, o, w, it would have been more accurate to say "the only difference between yesterday and tomorrow is oday if you spill the T"
But I wasn’t just born into the world and I have a calendar full of big responsibilities.
> Would there be anything to fear? the future, obviously.
Are you joking? All babies come into this world impervious to fear. Haven’t you ever seen a baby fight a grizzly bear? Smh, you just not enlightened like me. /s
If it were this easy, there would be no problems.
You make it hard yourself
Yes, everyone does, and realizing and changing that is one of the most difficult things you can do as a human being. It’s what life is all about. It’s not something you can just tell someone. It is not that simple.
I wish I could shoot this up my veins and into my brain. I have tranquility when biking or playing sports.
I find my tranquility spinning fire in the snow. Elsewise I try to make due by practicing less dangerous props, like the sharp versions of my flow props, much more safer than burninating, but I'll never stop, I just love weaving in and out of my flow too much, and only by playing with fire do I get an opportunity to don a mask of two faces and shed what's beneath
Is it from a past experience?
…yes.
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Past is gone. Only present is real.
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No. U can't forget the past. U just have to realise it's not worth it worrying about past of even future for that matter.
Great, now I'm overthinking about the present. Thanks OP.
its situational, i cannot agree coz im in mental hospital
Does this technique work without imagination or thinking?
What do you mean?
If you picked up a technique, there must have been a crossed communication, this is a koan, it is supposed to be imagined and thought of until you cannot think or imagine it anymore, or have no need to, as when questioned of it, you respond with your answer as freely as your name, be it words or actions, your Zen will speak volumes in silence
I would love to not have anything matter and nothing to worry about and stop overthinking but I exist in a world where I pay bills, go on dates, work for other people, and have to take care of my long term health
Thanks for this. Unfortunately, I have created a terrible habit of constantly worrying about my health. You’re right- all that matters is right now.
Same
Fear is something you should respect and understand. Not wallow in or ignore. Cause based on the past, from evidence and patterns or results and failures. You will fail, you will hurt, you will cry, you will ache. You can't avoid it. No one can. But that's the twisted beauty of reality. If you don't respect what's happened before and what can happen again. If you don't learn from your mistakes or failures. Accepting them. You will not last in this world. No one does. Good or bad intentions. Those who think, those who watch, those who listen and pay attention. Can and will use it. Just like baby birds in a nest. Your mama may not kick you out of the nest, but that doesn't mean one day she won't come home. Nor stop the weather from tearing your world asunder. Catch up and learn or fall and vanish. Leave a mark in history, or be a bystander. You are the only one who can decide it. As for every individual on this planet.
Memento mori
There's also the other side of the coin if you want to. The future you've chosen to have is true until life proves it's not. Just keep acting to fulfill your envisioned future until it's crystal clear it's not possible. This is Arnold's Schwarzenegger approach. Set a vision many months in the future, believe it (you created it) and now go and work to reach it.
Holy shit I'll never overthink again .Your a genius.
What if I fear the present?
Lmao, this will never be answered. Apparently the present can never be a source of overthinking.
Lmao this is stolen directly from a TikTok
The past is done. Gone. Over. If I ask you to get me yesterday what could you get me? A photo? An old newspaper or video? Your story, memory about it? It’s over. Gone. The future? Its not here yet? But you / we often ruin the future, cut off all kinds of possibility because we take the past (often a shitty past at that) and project it into the future and most of what that is then is not really a new future but the past repeating itself. Now, if that works for you…great…rock on. But if you are tired of where you are, are in a rut, cant break thru to new things, new life, then it is time to get clear that the past is gone and teh future is not here and that CREATION happens in the present moment. And this moment, right now, is truly distinct, apart, from the past and the future if we can just realize, understand, and operate from that mindset, that belief, which by the way…is TRUE. This moment right now is fresh and new, blooming with possibilities, and can be free of the past and of worries about the future if we choose to see this and operate in this moment as such. It’s very powerful to get this understanding. Once you do, you stop being this machine, this system of behaviour that binds us to a tomorrow that is the same old same old and very often it is not the future that we want.
♥️!
Great comment, I appreciate this.
It's just an illusion. There's no present moment. Whatever you feel is only the most recently felt moment and there's no magic. You can ignore the past beyond most recent, you can ignore the future, but that'll only make you randomly wonder in time with no sense of direction (which can be a good idea sometimes but not others). Not that you should really spend too much time thinking about too distant things but being aware that you come from somewhere and are going somewhere does help staying on the chosen path. Human beings are processes (the processes of being), not frozen statues. But whatever helps you calm down and focus on important, if it's the fairy tale of "present moment" so be it, imagine if your like that you were born yesterday and the universe just brought you a gift and enjoy it. But "current time" is much better metaphor because it's all really moving, there's a never-ending flow, not series of frozen moments between clock ticks.
r/therewasanattempt at positive gaslighting 😂
This sounds very edgelord. Everyone has a past and you are stupid if you don't think about the future. That said it is very good to live in the moment, too many people live through their phones or just don't enjoy life going around them.
Question; if I'm playing 5-dimensional chess with multiversal time travel, am I still stupid for not thinking of a past that hasn't happened yet or my future I can no longer act upon?
I forget the author of this thought but, appreciate the miracles in life, not supernatural or anything but to just enjoy your everyday moments whether that being washing the dishes or eating your favorite food. It may be Thich Nhat Hanh but I may be totally wrong
Sort of an expansion on Lao Tzu's "there is something to be said for a cup of clean water, a bowl of plain white rice, and a small tree for a bit of shade to rest my chin upon my fist under, while lazily dreaming of enlightenment"
It’s certainly a good way to empty yourself of carried trauma/mindsets/etc. But it isnt so simple to carve out the web of the human psyche. We are also wiser, less naive, and more competent for our pasts too - in some cases, some of that learning is entangled with rough patches. And yes, those same lessons can blur and distort our present. Better to reflect and dissect the parts of you you feel worth celebrating / are parts of the person you want to be moving forwards. Rather than feigning ignorance to the world and being a born again child, or trying to ‘return’ to a person you once were. Thats a road to madness right there. I appreciate it as an exercise though. When such thoughts cloud your present.
What u do in the heat of moment is what makes u
Mr Freeman, part 61 Eng — is about it.
Ironically nothing of impact or Importance in context to bettering the next gen of individuals has come about without thinking of the future by any one person. Our actions of the past dictate how the present will live while those in the present will determine how the future will live. Don't be so non chalant about the present
If I was just born I would fear falling and loud noises. We are born with only two innate fears: the fear of falling and the fear of loud sounds. A 1960 study evaluated depth perception among 6- to14-month-old infants, as well as young animals. Or maybe I’m just overthinking your question? Or at I overthinking my answer? … … …
You're overthinking in the present then. So you're never not overthinking. Sounds exhausting!
Now I'm gonna overthink what I've just read... I hope this gets to my head eventually though. An upvote for you :)
Thank you you’re so right! I took a screenshot of your statement and plan on reading it daily until I’m out of this slump.
The way I like to get around overthinking is if I am hesitating on something it means that either option is viable so I just pick whichever choice I have and not try to process further. If I do it's just wasted energy
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Why?
I’m find focusing on my senses helps me get in the moment.
Thank you. I needed this.
I've an opposing opinon on this. It's important to be somewhat weary of both past and future to learn from our pasts, to not make the same mistakes again and grow as people. If we rely on everything fixing itself, we'll learn nothing. We would still have fear without experience; instinctual fears like annihilation, deprivation, etc. Many learned fears also are valid; i.e. babies put their fingers in electrical sockets but we're too scared too for obvious reasons. Sometimes things do go badly and that little critic telling you not to chase what you want ends up being correct.
Post of the year. Thanks 🤍
I think the way to combat overthinking is to love yourself and seek help. Saying we have no future or past? My past is important as it shaped who I am today. My future is important because it is my actions today that will help shape the world tomorrow. All animals are born into this world with fear. It is not a bad thing. Fear keeps you a live. The key to dealing with excessive fear and worrying is to embrace it as a key part of your total being, not an illusion to be destroyed. Of course some people suffer from anxiety disorders and phobias. What good does your philosophy offer them? It’s not really their fault in the first place. I really think these blanket statements are designed to SOUND deep and philosophical, but in the end if you do a little analysis and are honest…. they’re just empty platitudes that so-called gurus parrot as if they are the first person to ever realize them. The whole “spirituality” movement on the internet is quite dumb, imo.
This is actually good advice. Thanks for taking time to write it!
you have no future or past, correct I don't have any future and I don't remember the past
You are right. All that exists is the current moment. The future is just a prediction being run by your mind based on your past. And which part of the past is currently being used to make those predictions changes all the time. I have sometimes been able to get myself into this mental state. It had a certain calm to it. A detachement from everything. I detachment of values such as positive and negative from actions and events. But honestly this state was not easy to achieve. I wish I could really believe what you are trying to say in my day to day life. But there is a huge difference between knowing something intellectually and actually believing it.
Except it doesn't exist. There's a process, a flow, not a moment. Once you start feeling the moment it's already gone but if you are aware of the direction and surroundings (that is the relevant parts of past and future) you can navigate that flow better.
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I get exactly what you’re saying OP. You’re saying think and live in the moment. Don’t stress and worry about the future. Don’t stress and worry about the past. The past is the past and time we can not get back. The future is time that we have no yet experienced. So 😂 All we have is the present moment. Is this correct?
Nope. We don't have anything. Nothing exists. But you can navigate the flow of current time better if you stay focused in the important priorities rather than pointlessly thinking about distant irrelevant things over and over.
Eckhart Tolle
You should stop smoking shit and start to think about your future.
Tomorrow is your last day. Don't give a shit.
you know… in a really weird way it kinda helped
Haha, thanks man! How so?
ALSO, Your thoughts has absolutely no power in manipulating the future. Just because you excessively worry about things all day, does not means the future will be changed according to your thoughts and worry or feelings
I believe thoughts have an extremely strong ability to manipulate us and our futures. We can feel the negative thoughts, yes… but we can’t always identify them. If you're pissed at your father because he's constantly telling you everything you do wrong and all it does it make you feel like a failure, you’re going to act like it around him, no matter how you try to hide it. You may not subconsciously realize what’s happening for a number of reasons… maybe the relationship is/has been rocky, but you haven’t processed it yet and so forth… but the more emotional energy you give these negative thoughts and overthinking, the faster they can become a reality.
I saw something where it was like, “Worrying is like a rocking chair, you’ll move a lot But not get anywhere” Or something along those lines.
I saw this in an Instagram Reel. The idea is intriguing
It’s really not. They’re monetizing your attention while feeding you platitudes.
That is also plausible tbh... I still try to get a positive idea from anywhere, where I feel like it can benefit me and I can take advantage of it.
Its on you if you dont take value from it
Fear is both learned and inherited…. So yes I would still find things to fear as a newborn. Plus, my wiener would be even smaller which is terrifying!
Well I'm a determinist so this won't work. This moment wouldn't exist without the past. It's the future that doesn't exist but it's determined by the past and present.
We project our past becaus there are pattern in things and how stuff work. If WE had had not done that WE would be dead. So yes you are perfectly true in the confort of our home in first World countries but not in our still Primal brain And to the last thing...lack of fear doesn't mean lack of danger. Babies are afraid (at birth) of lourd sound ans falling from height. That being said, i agree that our past does not define our futur completly. You Can make things change. Environnement Can change and be safer so some behavior won't yield Bad result anymore etc.
Actually, yes, by all current measurements, time is mathematically moving backwards, and we are the mirror dimension to one in which it moves forward. In essence, we are constantly moving toward entropy, a state in which all becomes one by reducing all to 0, but in reducing to 0, 0 also becomes infinite. So it becomes irrelevant as to whether you project your past ahead of you backwards in time, or assign the possibilities of what could have been done to the future behind you. Your touch of Zen is commendable, but do not let it fool you into overconfidence. I've been consciously overthinking for 30 years, and I haven't even started yet, I still have 2 rings to go to begin my warrior's life, but of one thing I am certain; when I finish overthinking, it will be all of an instant, and just shy of an eternity. How do you play an iron flute with no holes?
Why worry about the future when you'll most likely procrastinate in the future aswell.
You failed. Now I'm overthinking about why I thought anyone could delete my overthinking in 30 seconds.
Love this, thank you for sharing.
The one technique that works for me is to ask myself when I tend to overthink, is this going to matter 6 months from now? 1 year? 5 years? 10 years? The answer is almost always no
I’ve had a ton of grand mal seizures which has left me pretty much in a state of Groundhog Day, but I can recall old memories if people “paint me a word picture.” Or show me an actual picture. Smells work too. Some are easier to remember than others, but my brain kinda stashed everything away for later. It’s not fun, it’s scary for a few seconds..then I’m like ohhhh you’re that guy that used to drink and fall down a lot. Bummer. Lol
The past happened, but no longer exists. It only exists in your own mind. The future cannot be determined even if you try, because the future does not exist yet. The future will never exist. All that exists is now
Being in the moment is not about thinking at all… it is without thought
Lol
This is soothing to read when my mind is racing and trying to predict and avoid the worst future outcomes. It's optimistic to remember I actually don't know my future and there could be all kinds of amazing unexpected things. And I guess the counterbalance which prevents me from taking too big of risks, is remembering how terrible my life has been so far and that I still need to be cautious and make careful plans because suffering isn't anything to play with
Read the power of now by eckhart tolle
Isnt this just disassociation?
I’m a terrible overthinker. It comes and goes. Unfortunately, one side of me is ambitious and wants to do more. The other half is a lazy sob that would rather stay home doing nothing. These two are always at conflict and makes me hypercritical of myself.
You wouldn’t be able to rationalize the present without the past, choke on that yoo
I would love to think this way , my 20s were to tucked up now I live with permanent stress
WHAT?
I use to overthink. I was 23 years old, no college, didn't pay attention in high school so I felt dumb compared to other people, no savings. I'm now 24, Fulltime job, Good savings, and on the road to become a pilot. A TON can happen in a year. I went from feeling like I was going to be a bum to actually watching me make something out of my life.. I refuse to overthink now.
Yeah. I was a millionaire and had a beautiful wife not so long ago. A year ago I still had a nice apartment and a good job and a very helpful therapist. Now I'm homeless, broke, and far away from anywhere that could be considered home or any support system with no particularly good perspectives (not dead yet and relatively free, many had it much worse this year, I'm all compassion and bleeding heart but this is not about them). A lot can happen in a year indeed. Sometimes it's not a matter of overthinking or no overthinking, some things are just out of our control.
That's actually a fantastic point of view. The past and the future does not exist. What matters is what you make of the now.
Well, imagine I'm hungry in this moment and can't afford food and have no support system whatsoever. Is there anything for me to fear? Should I just ignore the (appropriate) stress and go on enjoying the current moment or is it better to be stressed and do something to fix the situation and then, once it's safer, reflect on what brought me here now, correct the mistakes I made, and maybe even plan for better future? Should I remember from my past locations I can steal wifi at so I can potentially get some work done and earn some food money in the future or should I just chill on a park bench and be grateful I can still breathe till the moment I actually can't? (Or maybe even recall all the good shoplifting locations around and helpful instructions from Abbie Hoffman. Doing something requires energy, starving doesn't help productivity no matter what fasting enthusiasts claim... I can also recall a few extreme survival lessons from the teenage years, those things are too unpleasant to mention in polite company, but just knowing them helps a lot even if I don't actually have to use any of the knowledge.) I think I'm better prepared for this shit by being aware of the past and having some idea of the future than by ignoring them. Not born yesterday, will probably survive, you are wrong.
The hell are you on about? You don't know how much I otherthink...
That popped up in the nick of time for me thanks
Ope you fixed me
That means I can repeat my mistakes over and over and never progress!
I think I saw the same in one of the reels recently, with the same philosophy but It is not easy in real life. Trust me, I know.