Are you Stuck in Your Head?

June 7th, 2011, by Shelley Riutta

A common thing that I notice in my work with clients is the pattern of being stuck in one’s head attempting to “figure” things out. As mentioned to my client this a.m. —”If this kind of mental activity was productive I would be all for it.” –but the reality is that this type of mental activity is not productive and just creates stress and anxiety.  Oftentimes, this stuckness in one’s thinking is just a negative thought pattern–or patterned ways of thinking that do not lead to creative solutions or resolution of a problem.  The more you think along these lines—the more you feel stuck.

Sometimes you may be trying to “figure” something out that just cannot be resolved in the moment because of circumstances. It could be that the situation is out of your control—there is nothing that you can do.  Or it could be that the situation is in process and that other people are involved and you don’t know what their decisions will be.  In these cases—thinking about the situation is unproductive—there is nothing that you can do–so the best thing to do is to let it go and bring yourself back into the present moment. Ask yourself “What do I need to do to be loving with myself right now?”  Oftentimes the only power you have is to take care of yourself in the here and now —trusting that over time the situation will reach some resolution.

Many of things that we worry about or overthink never even come to pass—what in the moment seems like a “big issue”—ends up resolving itself with the passage of time or a slight shift in your own perception of it. A client recently reported that a long standing struggle she had with a situation resolved itself in moments with a shift of her perception of it and the pain instantly evaporated.  This surprised her and opened the doorway for her to do the same thing with other issues that have been “tormenting” her for years.

When you are stuck in your head—ask yourself “Is this thinking productive–it is moving forward with a solution–or am I just going around and around with something that is unsolveable in this moment?”  If it is currently unsolveable–than let it go and bring yourself into the present moment and do something loving for yourself.