You misunderstood me. I'm a full time overthinker with years of experience. My mind turns blank when i'm socializing within a group of people. The only thought i might have it's self-conscious thoughts.
I used to have automatic long conversations with myself and that really helped me. But after the start of an important period in my life the cognitive back and forth stopped, and a lot of times i tried to re-start it but my attempts were in vain.
For example:
"What do i want to eat today"
"Yesterday you eat X but you being thinking about ordering Y for a long time"
"Yes, but i don't want to spend that much money for Y. It doesn't worth it. I can by Z with that money."
" Well... then thing something else... you can by something that costs less"
That back and forth also applied to more serious matters.
I've tried to listen his podcast, but i couldn't get into it. I don't know why. it's just puts me off. I don't think it's the content. The content was the main factor that made me check it out.
It's not the medium per se, although i space out a lot when i'm listening to something. But, i might being totally wrong, his podcast comes off as self-help voodo that comes from someone with a academic background.
Funnily enough, I've never been into coffee. Probably because i haven't really explored the various flavors and types of coffee. But i do drink a lot of beverages that contains caffeine, and it's in my plans to stop entirely.
I've tried to keep a journal. I'm about to start again -- for the n-th time-- but i don't know how to use it, beyond writing my thoughts. How am i going to use the reflections i wrote nine days ago? Sometimes i re-read what i wrote, but i can connect with the words and thoughts that are written on the paper.
Personally, I had a specific time (Friday mornings) dedicated to journaling.
Before writing anything, I would read the previous entry.
Usually, I'd include a small goal I thought was achievable for the upcoming week.
That allowed me to slowly build up good habits. I'd reflect on how well my attempt over the past week went.
Beside the habit forming, I found value in just reading my thoughts from the past week. It was helpful to recognize negative thoughts that persisted week to week. And I spent time thinking about ways to improve the situation. It was also helpful to recognize desires I had that I wasn't making progress on and translating those into actionable steps.
The _key_ imho is the reviewing. That helps you set yourself up for improving instead of ignoring issues and stagnating.
> In the short term, try to understand that fear of failure is basically fearing the inevitable, since you will fail at many points in life, but fear will actually increase the probability and impact of failure. At the same time, failure is somewhat meaningless unless it affects your health or life (like failing to free solo a cliff).
Your comment is the only take on failure that spoke to me. For a while I try to find something about failure, but everything I've read-heard didn't spoke to me.
Your comment also made me realize that, at least for me, there are two types of failure: Life/health failure and failure of ego. I live in this state for so long that I cant differentiate the two (with the exception of imminent harm or death)
Usually ruminating about the past, worrying about the immediate/long term future, browsing mindlessly or listening to music and do everything mentioned.
Today i went for a 30minute walk after i woke up (A while i go i used to run everyday and i want to start again. That's why i walked today), then i finished a chapter from Le guin's "The dispossessed". Watched a movie and always thinking about the assignments :P
> For me the issue was external factors. Don't ignore your social and romantic needs, don't try to do more than it is required of you to impress. Don't define yourself purely through your academic abilities, as annoying as that might be.
I think a big size of my mental problems are the lack of social and romantic satisfaction. I have social anxiety but i love people. I love going to parties, having interesting conversations, flirting etc. To the extent that some people wondered why i choose to study computer science :P (my second choice is sociology and political science, which i want to study someday).
