The Joy of Not Thinking: A Radical Approach to Happiness

by Tim Grimes

we’re usually way too serious in how we think.

You’re fine just as you are, as long as you don’t think about it. You’re probably going to get the sense that, on a deep level, everything already is okay—because it is. You’re fine as you are, however much you consciously try to deny it. Not thinking allows you to see this for yourself, which is nice. And when you start to know there’s nothing truly wrong with you, it gets harder and harder to make up a story that there is.

Thinking less and becoming more relaxed is, surprisingly, enough to positively change things.

But when you feel like crap, you’re going to find it incredibly helpful to say, “Screw it,” and drop the serious thinking as best you can.

Hearing about everyone else’s troubles overwhelms us. It makes us suffer unnecessarily and painfully overthink things that we probably shouldn’t be thinking about at all. We can’t even solve our own problems, and now we’re somehow supposed to expertly solve the issues of others? Please! There’s clearly a time and place for listening and helping others with issues they may have, but the truth of the matter is that we have to focus on our own well-being first in order to help others with any sort of real success.