Coping with overthinking

In an entropic world, when chaos and uncertainty are all around, people lacking a coping mentality gravitate towards overthinking – a state between thinking and action – making life worthless. Schopenhauer's 'all life is suffering' stands true in such a milieu. It disapproves of Leibnizian optimism that "ours is the best of all possible worlds."

In Voltaire's satirical novel Candide, Dr Pangloss swaggers that "all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds." If God could have created a better one, surely he would have. So one will have to cope with whatever falls in one's way and then let the chips fall where they may.

Overthinking is also stimulated by the fear of social judgement and public failure. TS Eliot's Prufrock – the generic representation of modern man – is the epitome of inertia parented by overthinking. Shakespeare sculpted the character of Hamlet as the embodiment of collateral damage spurred by his overthinking.

All attention to our persona and recognition has made us hypercritical and self-doubting. A sort of mental paralysis ensues all too often. Overthinkers are often caught between hyperfocus and time blindness. Sometimes, they rush their assignments and sometimes unnecessarily delay the urgencies. Also, they always have a plan B as an escape plan. They happen to be the busiest self-talkers, soliloquising their victimhood.

Part of the problem lies in our education, formal or informal (via social media), which teaches students to think but never when to stop thinking. The philosopher Alain de Botton said that "the art of thinking clearly involves knowing when to stop." But in a culture that worships productivity and busyness, cerebral stopping becomes unnatural. Also, the constant vulnerability to conflicting narratives causes cognitive fatigue.

One ought not to wish the mitigation of challenges. Rather, one should strive for strength and stamina to shoulder the burden. Martin Luther King Jr's "Unearned suffering is redemptive" encourages one to adopt a cheerful attitude to welcome challenges as opportunities. Otherwise, overthinking would suck all energy and mettle, rendering one incapable of pitching a manly fight.

In the fairy tales, the existence of monsters and djinns is not there to scare the readers but that they can be subdued with indomitable courage and brave readiness. The jo-hoga-dekha-jaega attitude – that warm welcome to life in all its entirety – is gone as we want to rein in every variable, have clairvoyance to foresee every outcome and rehearse every emotion. In the process, the art of spontaneity is unlearned.

To its credit, the change of locus can transform overthinking into reflection or meditation. Faith can offer the antidote to overthinking. The believers who have a clear conscience tackle problems with a stoic approach. The delinquent and repentant, however, may fall on either side: overthinking might haunt them into depression and anxiety, or they may talk to the Omnibenevolent in the heightened intensity of 'overthinking'.

The things beyond human ambit had better be left to the Omnipotent. Akbar Allahabadi says, "Aql mein jo ghir gya la-inteha kiun kr huwa." The realisation that uncertainty is a part of this earthly existence calms down the hazy storm of anxiety. Uncertainty will have to be entertained as something full of opportunities. Life needs a bit of lemonading – the ability to creatively imagine and pursue positive possibilities while continuously spotlighting the challenges.

Overthinking, at its core, is defiance against the present. Overthinkers, though unknowingly, dare rival the Omnipotent as they might try and manoeuvre the animate and inanimate to rig the outcomes. Babul Ilm Hazrat Ali (AS) condenses volumes in a sentence: "By the fragility of my resolves, I have known the Omnipotent."

Overthinking is like constantly turning the rudder of your lifeboat without ever raising the sail. The mindfulness expert Jon Kabat-Zinn reminds us, "You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf." Overthinking is the problem, not the solution. Only a person with the lowest entropy can survive in an entropic world.

Listen to Kishore Kumar's existentialist melody: "Jeevan kay din chhotay sahi".