Overthinking: Are You Collecting Flowers or Thorns?
A positive approach towards your life!
Overthinking: Are You Collecting Flowers or Thorns?
Overthinking and distractions are things everyone faces nowadays. No matter how much success you achieve or how many things you acquire, you may still feel restless and worried about the future.
People are surrounded by many conveniences that make their lives more comfortable, yet they can still become trapped in overthinking about the future. It could be their career, job, marriage, salary, personal growth, children, finances, or simply their ability to get by.
At some point, we all need security, health, love, and peace in our lives. Every person works hard to achieve these things, yet we may still find ourselves constantly overthinking and worrying. Worrying does not provide a solution; proper planning and a positive approach do. I am reminded of a story that relates to this topic.
There was a man who worried about almost everything and was stuck in the trap of overthinking.
He worried about things that had already happened, things that might happen, and even things that probably would never happen. His mind was always busy creating one thought after another.
His wife noticed that his habit of overthinking was taking away his peace. One day, she suggested that he visit a spiritual master.
The man went to the master and told him about his problem.
"I think too much," he said. "My mind never stops. Even when there is nothing wrong, I find something to worry about."
The master listened quietly.
Instead of giving him a long lecture, he asked him to go into the jungle and bring back some beautiful flowers and fruits.
The man went into the jungle.
He walked for hours, searching carefully. He noticed flowers growing among the trees, colorful fruits, the sound of birds, the fragrance of plants, and the beauty of nature around him.
By the end of the day, he had collected what the master had asked for.
He returned and placed the flowers and fruits before the master.
The master smiled and said, "Come back tomorrow."
The next day, the master gave him another task.
"Go back to the same jungle and collect thorns and dry leaves."
The man was surprised, but he followed the instructions.
This time, his attention was different.
He started noticing the thorny bushes. He had to be careful while walking. Some thorns scratched his hands and caught on his clothes. What he had barely noticed the previous day suddenly seemed to be everywhere.
After returning, the master asked him,
"What did you notice today?"
The man replied, "Thorns. They were everywhere. I had to be very careful. They hurt me several times."
The master looked at him and said,
"Yesterday, you were looking for flowers. Today, you were looking for thorns. Both were present in the same jungle. But what you were searching for determined what you noticed."
The man became silent.
Perhaps, for the first time, he understood what was happening inside his own mind.
What Are We Collecting Every Day?
Our lives are not very different from that jungle.
There are flowers, and there are thorns. There are beautiful moments, and there are difficult ones. Some things go according to our wishes, while others completely disappoint us.
But our minds have a habit of focusing on whatever we repeatedly look for. If we constantly look for problems, we will find problems everywhere. If we keep thinking about what could go wrong, our minds will keep producing more possibilities. If we replay an unpleasant conversation again and again, it becomes bigger in our minds than it actually was.
And sometimes, nothing is happening in the present moment, but our minds are already living in ten different imaginary futures.
This is overthinking. Overthinking doesn't always solve a problem. Sometimes, it simply makes the problem live inside us long after the situation has passed.
The Mind Needs Direction
Our minds are powerful.
But if we don't consciously guide them, they can take us anywhere. A small worry can become a mountain. A simple mistake can become a story about our entire lives. One uncertain situation can become hundreds of imaginary possibilities.
And the strange thing is that many of the things we worry about never actually happen. We spend so much energy preparing ourselves for pain that hasn't arrived yet. Meanwhile, the present moment quietly passes. We miss the flowers because we are too busy looking for thorns.
This Doesn't Mean We Should Ignore the Thorns
Choosing flowers doesn't mean pretending that problems don't exist.
Life will always have thorns. There will be disappointments, losses, failures, difficult people, and unexpected situations. We cannot control everything that happens to us, but we can learn how to respond.
A thorn needs attention when it pricks us. We should remove it, learn from it, and move forward. We don't need to keep holding it in our hands and hurting ourselves again and again.
The same is true of our problems. Think about them. Learn from them. Take action when action is needed. And then, when there is nothing more you can do, allow yourself to let go.
Ask Yourself One Simple Question
The next time you catch yourself overthinking, pause for a moment and ask:
"Am I solving this problem, or am I simply thinking about it repeatedly?"
There is a big difference between reflection and overthinking. Reflection helps us understand. Overthinking keeps us trapped.
Reflection asks, "What can I do?" Overthinking asks, "What if something goes wrong?" Reflection brings us back to the present. Overthinking takes us into imaginary futures.
Sometimes, the best thing we can do is simply return to what is happening right now. Take a breath. Look around. Notice the people you love. Notice the sky. Notice the trees. Notice the small things that are going right. There is always something.
Where We Place Our Attention Matters
Perhaps the master wasn't really teaching the man about flowers and thorns.
Perhaps he was teaching him about attention. Whatever we repeatedly give our attention to begins to occupy more space in our consciousness.
If we constantly feed fear, fear grows. If we constantly feed anger, anger grows. If we constantly feed gratitude, gratitude grows. If we consciously look for beauty, we begin seeing the beauty that was already there.
The flowers were not created on the second day. They were there all along. The man simply wasn't looking for them.
And perhaps there are flowers in our own lives that we have stopped noticing because we have become too focused on the thorns.
- A loving family.
- A healthy morning.
- A meal on our table.
- A friend who checks on us.
- A child's smile.
- A quiet moment.
- A second chance.
- A beautiful sunrise.
These may seem like ordinary things, but sometimes the ordinary things are the greatest blessings we have.
So, What Are You Collecting?
Every day, life places both flowers and thorns in front of us.
We cannot choose everything that comes our way, but we can become conscious of what we carry with us.
Do we keep collecting every hurtful word someone has said? Every mistake we have made? Every fear about tomorrow? Every regret from yesterday? Or do we also make space for gratitude, love, hope, forgiveness, and the beauty that is already present in our lives?
Life will always have flowers and thorns. We cannot change that. But we can choose what we keep collecting.
So, the next time your mind starts running in a hundred different directions, stop for a moment and ask yourself:
"Am I collecting flowers, or am I collecting thorns?"
Perhaps that one question can bring you back to peace. Because sometimes, peace is not found by changing our entire lives. Sometimes, it begins by changing what we choose to notice.
If you like this article, subscribe to our website, The Healthy Kingdom, for more information about health and wellness, and check out our book, *How to Use Women's Powers - to Make a Healthy World*.
Thank you for your time. I hope you find some valuable information here!
Stay healthy and safe!
