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How I Went from Being a Chronic Overthinker to Understanding “Be Where Your Feet Are”

Live in the present. Be where your feet are.

The most basic statement encouraging us every day to not lose ourselves in the past or in the future and instead be where life is happening right now.

Right now.

Have you ever stopped, for once, doing your work and thought about what these implications really are? Can you confidently say that you live in the present? Have you wholly and comfortably let go of the past, and are you conveniently and patiently looking forward for the future, at the same time consciously reminding yourself not to waste your today on it?

Have you learnt the art of how to live in the present moment?

Let’s discuss.

● Life is Happening Right Now ●

Life is happening right now in the moment you are reading this blog.

Life is happening right now in the moment you are talking to someone, or catching up on an important deadline by giving it your all, or simply just binge-watching your favourite show. Life is happening right now.

Do you live it that way? Do you live in the present? With the fervor and freshness that only comes with realizing that you’ll never get this moment back? Because you won’t.

Once it’s gone, it’s gone for good.

You’ll never live this moment again, never be this young again, never walk past this path again. It’s done.

You can’t waste this precious moment like this by being a worrisome overthinker of the future.

Does that now motivate you enough to start consciously looking at your life and making sure that you aren’t making a huge mistake by either looking at the past or at the future? Does that motivate you enough to be where your feet are?

● How We Waste Time Remembering the Past ●

The past and the future are just illusions in the never-ending sphere of time. They aren’t real. They don’t happen anywhere except in our imagination.

Imagine this: We recount an embarrassing incidence that has happened in the past, and we recount it again and again. We think about it, worry, we remember all the humiliating little details. Even if we want to forget it, we just can’t. There’s just something holding us back.

But do you think that just because you remember the detail so vividly, so perfectly, so reluctantly, everyone else does too? Of course not, people probably didn’t even see it that closely to remember it for years. That embarrassing little thing doesn’t exist anymore. It did, in the past, at that very point of time when it happened, and then it was gone, vanished in thin air because it was just another one of the endless moments that make up our life.

Of course you aren’t going to base majority of your life on that one moment, are you?

Because so many of us spend major parts of our days, weeks, or even months regretting moments of the past that don’t even have a significance anymore in our lives—and that is just sad.

Those mistakes, those bad memories, the past—that just doesn’t matter. All the mistakes you made in the past, just learn the lesson from them and move on.

● How we Waste Energy Overthinking the Future ●

Same thing with the future; suppose, you’ve got some important thing coming up that makes you nervous. Maybe in a good way, maybe not. But it makes you nervous, and you’re letting it.

Or maybe you’re scared about what might happened in the future. Many people are. Whatever the case might be, it makes you feel hesitant and apprehensive of the future.

Why are you feeling this way?

The future isn’t here yet. That moment in the future that scares you doesn’t exist yet. This doesn’t mean you should stop planning or preparing yourself for the future. You should do that in fact, but you should not let your future define you.

You should live in the present. You should breathe in the present. You should be where your feet are.

Define what happens today in the present. I’ve done these far many times myself and I’ve realised to stop, noticing how stupid it was of me.

Because, for me, whenever one thing passed and happened and I was satisfied with how it went, another thing came up. And that’s the case with all of us. You worry about something in the future, you spend days worrying, not fully being where your feet are, and then that thing comes up and passes and you feel relief because you had worried all for nothing.

But then another thing comes up. You start overthinking again.

This cycle goes on.

● I Was A Chronic Overthinker ●

I was a chronic overthinker. Yeah, does that term exist?

I think it should, because it’s valid.

Many people who’ve thought about their lives a lot, sometimes more than they’ve lived it, can guarantee that this is true. Chronic overthinkers are people who (over)think all the time: when they’re walking (about something that happened or might happen sometime), talking (does this person like me? What was the meaning of those words they said just now? They sounded rude), reading (Oh my God, do the two lovers get together in the end? There are just so many complications!), trying to sleep (I’ve got a test/interview tomorrow, what’ll happen!?!?!?) …and many more. Chronic overthinkers think about everything (except probably the lovers-getting-together-or-not part. That’s the writers’ department, who are another breed of overthinkers).

My point is that I was a chronic overthinker.

My point is that I’ve changed.

● How to Live in the Present Moment ●

What I want to do instead is not just think about life, but actually live it. Not just think about my past, but rejoice in it and only focus on the good memories. Not just worry about my future or feel scared of it, but actually look forward towards it with excitement.

This is what being in the present makes you feel. Fearless.

You are not wasting your time and energy anymore on negative thoughts, overanalyzing your self-image, thinking hard about what someone said to you in the past. You’re instead using your present time to focus on yourself, your growth, your skills, value-sets.

And it’s helping you because you feel more and more confident in yourself. So now you aren’t afraid of the future anymore. Whatever it will be, you know you’ll survive. More than survive, in fact.

The past has got nothing to do with you. You’ve got nothing to do with the past either. So let it go and let every new moment of your life come with a newness and a kind of freedom.

As Louise Hay briefly said in You Can Heal Your Life, “Would you really dig into yesterday’s garbage to make today’s meal? Do you dig into yesterday’s mental garbage to create today’s experiences?”

Let every moment be a new decider of what you’re going to do now.

Start new as many times as you need to, to finally get to the kind of life you want to reach.

Similarly, the future is still a distant horizon for you, no matter how close it might seem. It’ll be here, surely, no doubt.

But instead of worrying about how to handle it, you should prepare yourself for it. The future will be yours to conquer if you wish. So put your mind to yourself right now.

Nothing else matters in this moment, except that you live it like it won’t come again (because it won’t) and that you are here.

● Conclusion ●

You are here.

On this blog. While you’re already here, why not look at some more things that be helpful to you.

SUGGESTED READS:

How To Stop Overthinking? Train Your Mind and Calm Its Storm

13 Ways How To Get Your Life Back Together (After Losing Your Way)?

7 Beautiful Mantras: Life is Short & Your Dreams Can Come True