Flourishing Life Society
  • Home
  • Human Flourishing
    • Addiction Recovery
    • Mindfulness Archive
    • Non-Profit Donation Links
    • Coronavirus 2020
    • Personal Development >
      • Personal Development Archive
  • Psychology of Wellness
    • Emotion >
      • Emotional Data Base
      • Emotional Fitness
    • Psychology Archive
  • Flourishing Relationships
    • Intimate Relationship Articles
    • Society and Others Archive
  • Health and Fitness
  • About Us

Overactive Mind

Quieting the Noise

BY: T. Franklin Murphy | November 2016
 A empty chair on a beach. An article on quieting the overactive mind
Adobe Stock Images
Overactive minds plan, prepare and calculate. Overactive minds also struggle to shut down, interfering with rest, joy and peace.
The human ability to plan has blossomed into technological wonders of the modern world. This fantastic ability extends possibilities, providing not only grand discoveries but an escape from simple reactionary behaviors. The ability to plan has shaped the world and our lives. With planning, we become active players in creating futures. But a thinking mind isn’t all wonder and no ache. Consciousness contributes to complexity but disrupts harmony. Our overactive minds constantly ruminate on errors in the past and worries over tomorrow.

The Burden and Blessing of Thinking

Thinking has flaws. We entertain justifications, invent blame and over-think ourselves into depression. We ponder victimhood; and ignore responsibilities with complex theories to excuse personal culpability. Thinking is a burden and a blessing. We are not constrained to live chained to unwholesome and meddling thoughts, with work, our thoughts can constructively serve our interests.

Solitude Can Calm Our Overactive Mind

Thinking is an activity of the brain, mulling over the past and considering possibilities for the future. Thinking gives additional meaning to experience that we can access to productively guide choice, but thinking can disrupt calmness. When we should be sleeping, our overactive mind keeps us awake. We need space from the chaotic thoughts that haunt and intrude. We need the calmness of solitude.

Quieting An Overactive Mind Requires Practice

​Thoughts aren’t simply turned off on command. Escaping disrupting thoughts requires skill and practice. We invite solitude through practices like meditation, prayer, Tai-Chi and Yoga. Many people enjoy solitude with controlled reflection, religious practices, music or nature. The possibilities are many. Most rejuvenating practices must be invited through intentional scheduling. Long absences of solitude, indulging in the overactive mind, make excursions into peace disquieting. Feelings previously ignored with distractions of business often surface during quietness. When Habitual thoughts disappear, raw feelings are exposed.

​See Inner Peace for more on this topic

Key Definition:

The overactive mind is constantly busy, always ruminating on problems, planning, and pasts. Guilt and worry constantly disrupt peace. 

We are Accustomed to the Noise

Moments of solitude and the rich rewards of quietness are often feared. Mindless clicking of facebook, blankly watching repeats of an evening sitcom and a barrage of superficial text messages distracts. We effectively escape the frightening feelings present during quietness. Our demons must be faced, we shouldn't dampen the wondrous feelings of living behind the noise of an overactive mind.

We can challenge the fears and be freed. Like many things in life, if we desire a quiet mind, we must structure breaks from the overactive business. Only then will we discover that in the dark corners of our minds, away from thinking, away from distraction, lie the secrets that bring the richness and flourishing we seek.
Please support FLS with a share:
Twitter Reddit LinkedIn Email
T. Franklin Murphy
T. Franklin Murphy
Wellness. Writer. Researcher.
​T. Franklin Murphy has a degree in psychology. He is dedicated to the science of wellness. In 2010, he began publishing his findings.

Index:

Flourishing in Life
  • Personal Development
  • Mindfulness
  • Addiction Recovery
  • Wellness 
Psychology of Wellness
  • Emotions​
  • Personality
  • Defense Mechanisms
Flourishing Relationships
  • Intimate/Romance
  • Parent/Child
  • Society
Health and Fitness
Key Word Archives
Research
About Flourishing Life
Banner link to Flourishing Life Society's Mindfulness articles
Flourishing Life Society Link to articles from 2010-to 2015
External Links:
External Link: The road beyond McMindfulness
External Link: Drawing From the Well of Emotional Strength
External Link: What Coping Strategies Can Help Manage Stress?
External Link: A sharper mind: tai chi can improve cognitive function
External Link: Friedrich Nietzsche: Why Life Isn’t Meaningless
Flourishing Life Society Link. Sunshine and Mental Health
We must manage worry to push action without burdening with overwhelm. Concern for the future is important but easily can become all consuming.
Experience dredges up the past, uncovering hurts and tender parts of our souls. To survive, we must find productive avenues through these moments without damaging the present and future.
Flourishing Life Society Link. Ego Depletion. The strength model of self-control
We live blind and deaf to the primary motivating force of action. Feelings unnoticed nudge us to act. We gain a deeper appreciation for life and measured control when we develop our relationship with emotion through focusing.
FLS link. The Joy of Being. We find joy in living through a more serene path than accumulation and achievement. We find joy in relishing small moments of simply being.
The breathe brings life to the body, feeding the heart and brain. Mindful attention to this life giving process can change our lives.
FLS Link. Emotions and Empathy. The feelings of living come to life, pushing experience into a new aliveness. For some feelings are scary and they avoid deep contact with feeling experience. This not only limits their experience but interferes with connection to others.
Living is serious business, give yourself a break. Harsh judgments hurt the soul and slow progress.
Our emotions can be great teachers or callous task masters. We need emotion as part of the rich experience of humanness to guide us through the complexities of connection and survival but we must monitor feeling to keep us on task.
FLS Link. Regret: Five Steps for Dealing with Regret
A Flourishing Life Society article link. Self Deprecating
A Flourishing Life Society link. Overactive Mind


Subscribe to Newsletter
Home
  • Relationships​
  • Personal Growth​
  • Wellness
  • Emotions
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Human Flourishing
    • Addiction Recovery
    • Mindfulness Archive
    • Non-Profit Donation Links
    • Coronavirus 2020
    • Personal Development >
      • Personal Development Archive
  • Psychology of Wellness
    • Emotion >
      • Emotional Data Base
      • Emotional Fitness
    • Psychology Archive
  • Flourishing Relationships
    • Intimate Relationship Articles
    • Society and Others Archive
  • Health and Fitness
  • About Us