ENDLESS LOOP

Have you ever found yourself endlessly thinking in a loop over a certain conundrum? Constantly thinking more and more about a problem only to discover no solution and go more insane?

Take the idea of finding a soul mate. You may try more and more to find them and think and wonder why you feel more and more hopeless when you don’t. The harder you try, the further you get, and you may come up with the most diabolical of ideas to obtain your prize; except you won’t. Instead, you go more crazy and loose all hope. Wondering why the world is against you.

Or think of your career. You have been told that special paradise is out there in the world for you to grasp, if only you could find it. So you take all the personality tests and try all your efforts to comprehend what would be that perfect work for your special self, but the more you try, the more exiled you feel and the more lost you become.

Or what about conspiracy theories? You find bits and pieces of information that are surely the answer all your problems. You go down the rabbit hole only to discover that you are more irritable and restless than before and burdened by the truth you discover. You ruminate on the thoughts day by day discovering the walls closing in. There is no way out.

I’ve been there, with all three of these examples. Overthinking is like running without stopping. If you keep running and running, beyond the point of exhaustion, you may think you are getting far, but you are a fool, because you can’t go anymore.

““To accept everything is an exercise, to understand everything is a strain … It’s the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.” - G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy.”

When we try to understand everything about our situation, we loose our wits, because there is more to the situation than to us. Even when we think we comprehend everything, the thing is not very much worth comprehending. Take the idea of materialism. If the only thing that truly exists is matter and everything can be explained by physical laws, then what a small universe that is. It’s not really much of a universe.

But once we acknowledge the truth of infinity or Zeno’s Paradox, and that there is a bit of infinity in everything, then the universe is a big place indeed and one worth living in. The key is in the paradox, in the mystery.

VISUALS

Let’s explain with visuals. If we try to comprehend everything and overthink, we draw a circle around what we know. We know everything in that circle fully, but we are unable to encircle all things. The bigger we draw our circle, the more we overthink and the more we loose our wits. The circle is fixed in size. It’s perfect and infinite. The symbol becomes one for reason and madness. We go round and round, overthinking, trying to draw more in, but only going more insane. The irony is that the bigger or smaller it is, it does not matter, it is still only just a circle. That small circle of the materialist is still just a small circle, although it encompasses the whole universe.

We need an object that stretches out in every direction without changing shape. We need a cross. With it’s center of contradiction – of paradox, it reaches it’s ““arms to the four winds; it is a signpost for free travelers.” – G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy.” It’s a symbol of mystery because it embraces mystery. At it’s very heart is a paradox that can expand everywhere without changing. From the one thing that is not understood, can be understood all things.

Look at nature, the one thing that cannot be looked at, the sun, is the very thing from which we can see all things. By allowing a mystery, all the work is done for us, and we are free to roam and explore with the sanity of our minds.

POTENTIAL ANSWERS

That soul mate is out there, but you are free! Free to choose her, if she chooses you. By loving her, she becomes your soulmate, because you chose each other to love. It’s not perfect, because love is messy, but it’s true because it was decided to be so. That’s the mystery of love.

That job exists, but it’s just a job, and those are the best jobs. You don’t expect it to be perfect, because it isn’t, but that is the perfect job because you are free to enjoy life the most. It doesn’t need to become something it’s not – your life. The mystery of a freeing job is that it’s just a job.

Ah, the conspiracy theories, well, that’s an easy one. Those are just mysteries, that’s why it’s a conspiracy, otherwise it would be fact – and that is a mystery. Especially when the mysteries are facts.

The key to stopping overthinking then is this, that man can understand everything by that he does not understand.

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Godspeed!

Nicholas Harper