Is an active mind a healthy mind? Most people think so. However, it turns out that your mind, while powerful, mostly gets in the way of your ambitions to live a fulfilled and satisfied life. There is tremendous power to be found in thinking less.

In this article I’ll discuss a different way of achieving big things in the world, a way predicated on thinking less (not more) and following an unconventional and less mentally taxing route to living up to your full potential.

The full potential of your mind

A New York Times article by Dr. Moshe Bar, Professor of Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School, cites a curious quality of the mind:

“Many psychologists assume that the mind left to its own devices, is inclined to follow a well-worn path of familiar associations. But our findings suggest that innovative thinking, not routine ideation, is our default cognitive mode when our minds are clear.”

Note the final part of the statement: “…when our minds are clear.”

The jury is out on how many thoughts we have per day. The number 70,000 is tossed about online. It’s undoubtedly well into the thousands if my own experience is correct! It makes sense to me that all this mental noise can cover up the precious signal of insight and wisdom lurking down below.

If our minds are naturally innovative and creative, as Dr. Bar asserts, it’s worth better understanding what keeps us functioning this way most of the time. The impediment seems to be all that mental chatter going on upstairs. Let’s take a more in-depth look at the problem with our thinking.

The problem with thinking

We live in the feeling of our thinking, not as the world really is. This is true for everyone, all the time. It’s not a bad thing either. Thoughts carry all sorts of ideas and insights in their midst that help us make our way in the world.

I’m happy that I get to think. It’s how I get to write articles like this, plan my trips, and come up with all kinds of exciting games to play and adventures to pursue. You probably feel the same way. Your thoughts aren’t all that bad. In fact, it can feel kind of good to think!

However, what happens when you are stuck in a bad feeling? Someone cuts you off in traffic. Your boss passes you over for a promotion. A competitor beats you. Your cake comes out of the oven looking a little flat. Mental chatter amplifies and with it, a bad feeling arises that seems to last forever.

None of these external circumstances carry an inherently harmful quality. The person cutting you off might be a surgeon rushing to save a patient’s life. The competitor might be the better athlete and more deserving. The flat-looking cake might still taste amazing. Still, we feel buffeted by our feelings about the changing winds of an external world. This doesn’t pose a problem until, well, we feel that it does.

The human brain has a knack for amplifying the negative; therefore, we tend to overemphasize the less-than-positive thoughts which are felt as crummy feelings. We take our perceptions too seriously instead of seeing them as merely the product of our thinking, which varies depending on who the thinker is and which side of the bed they woke up on!

Reality is in the mind of the beholder

As described by spiritual teacher Sydney Banks in The Enlightened Gardener:

Take that rose bush, for example. We are all looking at the same plant, but our perception of it varies according to the way we each think and see. One person may see a vigorous rose, another may see a rose that could benefit from a little pruning, and a third may see a mess that no amount of attention would save. The rose bush isn’t changing; it’s the way we personally perceive it that differs, the way each of us thinks that colors our perception.

Sydney Banks

The truth is that it’s not your circumstances that create what you feel, be they positive or negative feelings; it’s your thinking about the circumstances that cast a spell. Spell? You might say it is magic or a curse, depending on the feeling that goes along with the thinking!

I’m spending so much time discussing the nature of our thinking and how it runs our life experience since this understanding is fundamental to sorting out how to make our way in the world more fruitfully. If your thoughts get you into trouble more often than not, wouldn’t it be logical to see that thinking less is a promising solution to your predicament?

How to think less

Let’s conduct an experiment: Try not to think about what you will eat for your next meal. Don’t think about how good the food will taste, where you will eat it, who you will eat it with, or what you will have for dessert!

How successful are you at not thinking about it?

Not very.

What we push away grows stronger. Our thoughts are the same way. It’s not possible to force thinking to stop. I’ve never been able to do it, and I’ve wasted a lot of energy trying!

Instead of trying to eliminate your thinking, you can follow the path set forth by experienced meditators and spiritual seekers. This is a path that works wonders for top-performing Executives who are looking to improve their Emotional Intelligence. It’s also effective for elite athletes looking for peak mental performance. It’s all about getting out of your own way. Noticing an obstacle makes it easier to contend with. The obstacle is your nonstop mental chatter.

Notice your thinking, and allow it to move through you. The less you hold on to your thinking, the less the thoughts weigh on you. No judgment. No story. Just let them go every time. It’s a process of letting go vs. trying to do anything actively.

This is where a meditative practice can be invaluable. Dr. Barr calls meditation one of the few practical tools we have to cultivate a calm and clear mental state:

It is clear to me that this ancient meditative practice helps free the mind to have richer experiences of the present. Except when you are flying an F–16 aircraft or experiencing extreme fear or having an orgasm, your life leaves too much room for your mind to wander.

As a result, only a small fraction of your mental capacity remains engaged in what is before it, and mind-wandering and ruminations become a tax on the quality of your life. Honing an ability to unburden the load on your mind, be it through meditation or some other practice, can bring with it a wonderfully magnified experience of the world — and, as our study suggests, of your own mind.

Dr. Moshe Barr

Meditation is an art. There is no right or wrong way to do it. You can practice it while walking, eating, writing, working, playing or doing any other activity. I enjoy going for a quiet walk or sitting in meditation. You can cultivate whatever practice seems to work for you. I highlight three simple ways to meditate here.

The important thing is to find a way to notice what is happening in the world outside of yourself and inside your thinking mind. After all, your thoughts are part of your world too! Allow your thinking to arise and flow through you without ruminating on them. Stop buying into the stories you want to tell about them. Naturally and inevitably, your mind will settle and the benefits of a relaxed cognitive state will be revealed.

What benefits? Try it and see for yourself!

Get out of your head!

You can do your best when you have less on your mind. You can be more creative at work, perform better on the playing field and feel better overall. What gets in the way is overthinking and attachment to your thoughts.

Thoughts have a purpose, but when you engage in the world, you are best served by being present and connected to what is actually happening, not stuck gazing at the movie theater of your mind.

While we can’t stop our thoughts, we can notice them and remember to observe but not grasp them. Meditation and mindfulness practices also work wonders. What is revealed through the settling down of the mind is a more creative, innovative and relaxed state that will undoubtedly lead to positive outcomes in many parts of life.

Modern scientific research, such as the work done by Doctors Bar, Goleman, Davidson and others, are starting to uncover these benefits. However, there really is no need to wait for scientific proof to catch up, you can experiment for yourself and experience the benefits if you are willing to try.