Overthinking, And How It Can Be Detrimental To Our Lives.

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One of the most infamous sayings that many of us have heard throughout our lives is that too much of anything can be bad for you. I'm sure that at some point or another that we've all had moments where we've had to ponder on that saying. We really had to sit down think to ourselves if there could be anything in this world that we could overdo without it being harmful to us. One of the things that I changed my tune towards some years back was the idea of drinking too much water. I mean we're told that we should drink as much water as we can because it is healthy for us right? So I thought to myself that too much water can't really be bad for us, that is until I read a story of a person that consumed so much water that they died from it. That's pretty scary if you ask me, but the point is that I've yet to find a direct challenge to the idea of how too much of anything can be bad for us. Now every single one of us engage in the idea of "thought" through various points throughout the day. What exactly is thought? Thought is defined as "the action or process of thinking". Since nearly every action and decision that we make requires thought in order to come to a decision, the idea of thinking is something that is both normal and healthy for us. The idea and action of thinking is part of life, but as with the saying that I brought up in regards to the idea of too much of anything can be bad for us, thinking too much aligns with this idea also. Overthinking is something that we all engage in, some of us more than others. However, regardless of how little or much we overthink, too much of it can be detrimental to our lives.

Yo! What is going on once again people? This is your boy Brad H. back on the mic, and I'd like to welcome you all once again to another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I am back to bring you all another topic that I think would help us to move forward in our lives. How has everything been going for you all? Good I hope! Well I thought I would be giving an NBA talk a rest since the finals concluded, but I gotta bring up the big trade that happened between the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder. So the Rockets sent Chris Paul and some draft picks to the Thunder for Russell Westbrook. Wow! I think most of us figured Westbrook would be leaving OKC since they are clearly reloading their roster, but I didn't expect to see him dealt to the Rockets. It's going to be very interesting to see how two high usage players like James Harden and Westbrook play together. I know they played together previously when Harden was in OKC, but that was a different situation. Neither player were the players that they are now, so the dynamics are different. As for Chris Paul, I can't really say that I feel all that bad for him in this situation. He clearly prioritized getting paid over winning when he signed that max contract with the Rockets last season. Maybe he knows he is on his way out of the league in a couple of years and wanted to get paid, but he probably has very little chance of winning a title now. We'll have to see if he ends up playing the entire season with OKC, but with their roster going younger, I don't see it happening. Like I told one of my buddies the other day, seems like the off season of the NBA is more interesting than the regular season. Well that's enough talk for my soapbox, so lets talk more about this week's theme of overthinking and how it can be detrimental to our lives.

Before I tackle this week's topic of overthinking, I want to emphasize that the detriments it can create in our lives isn't singled to only one thing. I'm going to provide a couple of examples of how I personally feel that overthinking hurts us, however, these examples are only a small portion of how overthinking can be a detriment in our lives. I just wanted to get that out there before going into the points that I'm trying to make. Now when it comes to the idea of a person being in thought or the act of thinking, I can see how it may be hard to grasp how being in too much thought can be a bad thing. After all, the action of thinking is how nearly everything in this world that we live in operates and functions. For there to be roads, computers, and any other thing that operates in this world, someone had to have an idea to create those things. This means that there was thinking involved that went into those ideas coming to fruition. The process of thinking isn't a bad thing, so I'm not implying that thinking is bad. As I have stated already, it is the overthinking that can create the problems. Now in saying that overthinking can create problems, I'm not even necessarily saying that overthinking is that bad of a habit if it is practiced within proper context of what it's aiming to accomplish. I know that may sound a bit counter-intuitive, and a direct contradiction to this week's topic, but the overthinking, though not entirely bad is what gives birth to the potential problems that we create.

Now that we've talked over the act of overthinking, it is time for me to provide a few examples of why overthinking can be hurtful us. One of the statements that I've heard my mom say a lot throughout my life is how we as people "get in their own way". She'll be like; "You keep getting in your own way", or she'll say something along the line of; "so and so are getting in their own way." Now I'm just speculating what I believe she means by saying that, but when I hear a statement like "getting in your own way", I instantly think how we as people often times block our own door towards the path that we need to take. I think of this quote when it comes to the act of overthinking, so I guess I have to thank her for that statement, though I'm sure she isn't the only person that uses it. Some of us right now have something that we want to do or accomplish, yet we haven't made an progress towards it because we're thinking too much instead of just acting. This hurts us from reaching our full potential, and can even keep us away from opportunities that await us. There are some of us right now that have something that we want to say to someone that care for, but because we're wondering what their reaction to what we want to tell them will be, or how we will look while saying it, we'd rather just not say anything and keep it inside. For those of us that have engaged in these type of habits, we're well aware of how bothersome it can be when you keep things bottled up inside of you. Quite frankly, keeping things inside for too long can affect both our physical and mental well-being.

Now that we've established a general definition of what overthinking is and touched on a couple of examples of what I believe are instances where we tend to overthink, the question to this week's topic is why exactly can overthinking be a detriment to us? Well from my own perspective and besides the examples that I talked about previously, overthinking in my opinion causes us to be too much in our heads rather than just living in and enjoying the moment. When we're overthinking and dwelling on the "what ifs", it drains us from being able to be present and in the moment. We don't want to live our lives thinking way too much because when you're overthinking things in this life, you are playing out scenarios that likely will not even play out in the manner in which you're thinking about. Furthermore, it is also possible that these scenarios won't even come to fruition, which means you ultimately spent time and energy towards something that wasn't worth it in the end. Also, I could be wrong saying this since I'm not a medical expert, but I believe overthinking plays a big role in why so many people struggle with some form of anxiety. So in summation, thinking isn't a bad thing, but we want to find a healthy balance of doing so. Life is for the living, and thinking too much doesn't allow us to live. Rather that being thinkers, we should strive to be doers. Overthinking and being too much in our heads will cause life to pass us by, and if that's not what we should want since we only get one shot at life.

Well we have reached the end once again, so I'm going to sign off for now. Thank you all once again for those of installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I hope this topic was able to touch someone out there, and I hope there was some understanding that could be taken away from it. Please feel free to leave any feedback below, or you can connect with me via Twitter at the handle @BradrickH. Also, everyone stay cool out there. I know there is a major heatwave going on in the country right now. I was mowing the grass the other day, and I had to take more water breaks than normal because it was so brutal outside. Be safe and be smart my friends. Alright guys, I'll see you all in the next one. Thank you all, and peace out!

©2019 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.

The Importance Of Accepting Things For The Way They Are.

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There's an old and famous saying in life that goes; "You can't have your cake and eat it too!" Most of us have heard this before and know what it is referring to. It's basically a way of saying that you can't have everything you want in this life without giving up something. Once you eat the cake it is gone, which means you can no longer have it. I somewhat liken it to the idea of a person being selfish. If we're going to be completely honest with ourselves, I believe that most of us can grasp onto the idea that we're all selfish at times. Some people are selfish more than others, but regardless of how unselfish a person may claim they are, there is no way around we as individuals being selfish at times. We all have certain moments and instances in our lives where we have our own individual agendas that we want to work out in our favor. If you ask me there isn't anything wrong with that, especially when it doesn't come at the expense of hurting other people. I mean it's our lives, so we should do all that we can in order to make ourselves happy. Well unfortunately in this game of life that we're navigating through, there are going to be also be moments when things will not work out for us in the way that we'd like them to. We all have different ways of dealing with such moments, but there are times when these moments can become too much for a person to bear. Moments of this nature can cause us to become uncomfortable and can lead to unhappiness in our lives. I'm a believer that the majority of the unhappiness that many of us experience in our lives is pretty much self induced due to the fact that most of us have a hard time accepting the harsh realities of life.

Hey, what's going on people? This is Brad H. back once again, and you are now tuned into another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I am here for another week to bring you all a topic that can serve as a bit of inspiration to us all. Thank you all in advance for visiting, and I hope that things are going well in your life. You know, I'm beginning to believe that free agency in the NBA is becoming more exciting than the season itself. So since free agency has started, we've had several key moves happen. However, the biggest move happened last night/early morning when the biggest free agent on the board, Kawhi Leonard finally made his decision. He decided to join the Los Angeles Clippers, and equally as big was the Clipper acquiring Paul George from the Oklahoma City Thunder. All I can say is WOW! I'm personally happy with this, because though I'm not a Clippers fan, I think this is big for their team. Another aspect I noticed was how the sports media were trying so hard to push Kawhi to go play with LeBron James on the Los Angeles Lakers. You had guys saying that the Clippers had no shot of landing Kawhi, and some saying that there was a 99% chance that Kawhi would go back to the Toronto Raptors. I think that just proves that most of these guys that are commentators really don't have inside information like they claim. Not only do I think it's pretty dope how Kawhi zigged when everyone else seemed to want him to zag, but I think this move makes the NBA much more competitive. I mean lets face it, had Kawhi joined LeBron and Anthony Davis on the Lakers, it would likely be a foregone conclusion that the Lakers would win it all next season. It has been a very interesting free agency period so far, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens next. Alright, now that I've gotten on my soapbox for a bit, lets go ahead and talk more about this week's topic of the importance of accepting things for the way they are.

Now before I go into the heart of this week's topic on the importance of being able to accept things for the way that they are, I want to preface it by saying that pretty much anything can be applicable to this topic. It's not limited to just one or a few things, but more so applies to us as individuals in our own lives. As I've stated many times before, we're all individuals that have varying viewpoints. There are some things that certain people will be able to accept on move on from, while others may not be able to do so. It all comes down to you as a person. So now that I've gotten that point taken care of, lets go ahead and get into the meat of this week's topic. I think it would pretty accurate for me to say that we as people in general prefer to be in control of things. Like I pointed out earlier, we're all selfish in our own ways, so it would make sense that we'd prefer to have things go our way at times. Now I'm not speaking for anyone else, but I'm pretty sure that most of us have found ourselves in certain circumstances that we had little to no control over. It could have been a situation involving a family member or a friend, or maybe even a complete stranger. It could have been a situation or scenario that involved some sort of events happening that you had little to no control over. If we really think about it for a second, I think most of us can agree that we've dealt with dilemmas of this sort. Now if you think about a child that doesn't get their way, what does a child do when they don't get their way? They often cry or pout right? Well even as adults, many people act in this manner, yet instead of pouting we often become angry and frustrated right? From my perspective, it is in here where the problem lies when it comes to accepting things for the way they are.

Now expanding on my points of anger and frustration, from my perspective, they are often the starting points for more potential issues taking place in our lives. I mean most of us don't properly channel the anger that we experience in positive ways, which means that our anger frequently works against us. Last week I saw a video online of a Walmart employee throwing objects off of the shelves because he had been let go. Obviously he was angry, which is why he raged out in the manner that he did. Now depending on the circumstances and how much of a role that he played in what caused him to be let go, it is understandable why he would be angry. However, being let go by the company is something that he he no control over once they made the decision to part ways with him. It was no longer under his control, which means that there wasn't much more that he could do to change the situation. Rather than seeing the situation that he was in for what it is and thinking that maybe there is a greater meaning behind what happened to him, he made the situation worse with his actions that followed. Not only is he no longer employed with the company, but he will likely be facing criminal related problems. This is a prime example of what I mean when I say that we don't always properly channel our anger. It is also an example of what I mean when I say that anger and frustration are the breeding ground for more potential issues in our lives.

So why is it important to accept things for the way that they are? Well from my perspective, and from what I've already touched on, there are so many aspects of this life that you're never going to be able to change. It's like being in a relationship with someone that you want to change their ways, yet they never do, unless they are ready for it. It's not something that you can control, so it sorta defeats the purpose of even worrying about it. I believe that this is much how life in general is. We worry about and stress over so many things that we have absolutely no control over, which in turn causes us to be unhappy. There are many of us right this moment that are struggling with being happy in our lives because we're overly concerned with circumstances that we don't have the ability the change. I haven't always felt this way, but I believe one of the best ways to find happiness in this life is accepting life the way that it is. There has to be an understanding that not everyone is dealt the same hand when it comes to life, and that is one aspect of life that just has to be accepted. However, rather than focusing on people and circumstances that we cannot change, wouldn't it be more beneficial to put more energy towards the things that we do have power over. What am I primarily talking about right here? Yes, got you it, I'm talking about OURSELVES! We are the only ones that have the power to change our lives in a manner in which we can find peace and happiness. I believe that by doing this, we're able to gain a sense of power over ourselves and how we react to the world around us. So with all that being said, remember that there is only so much in this world you can control.

Well that pretty much does it for this week's topic. I'm going to go ahead and bring this one to a close as I feel that I've been able to get my point across. Thanks once again to every single person that stopped by for another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I really appreciate you all, and you all inspire me to keep on dreaming and believing. If any of you have any comments or feedback to give, please feel free to do so. You can also connect with me on Twitter at the handle, @BradrickH. I hope you all have a great weekend, and I'll see you all in the next one. Oh by the way, stay safe out there everyone. I know there was a big earthquake in California yesterday, so everyone be safe and cautious wherever you are. Take care everyone! Peace!

©2019 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.