Playing in the Deep End of the Pool: Sink or Swim

Over Coming Over-Thinking

I was recently doing a personality inventory which entailed asking a few of my nearest and dearest friends a few questions about my strengths and weaknesses (courtesy of White Hot Truth‘s Danielle LaPorte).  The feedback I received was actually very interesting.

When my friends were asked what aspect of my personality they would change “for my own sake” their responses were freakishly similar: “over-thinker” and “analytical.”

Ironically (and  rather predictably) this made my head begin to reel with questions:

How do I stop over-thinking?

Is this something that can be changed?

Can I overcome my addiction to examining subtext, body language and the nuances of inflection and word choice?

Where do I even begin?

My friends were right.  I am a chronic and habitual over-thinker.

Epiphany

Then I had an epiphany (Sorry, Oprah…it’s not an Ah-ha! Moment and you did not invent them…people have been having them since the dawn of time…epiphanies…look it up.).  I know exactly what I have to do.

I have to LEARN to LIVE in THE MOMENT.

This, my dear friends, is a very scary thought to me.  My head is a giant “what-if” machine, cranking out every single possible outcome to any and all possible scenarios for any given course of action.  My brain examines all the possible outcomes and develops “how-to’s” to deal with every eventuality that may occur.  I feel anxious but prepared.  My what-if’s are like crack to me.  I rely on them.  I need them.  It’s scary to think of letting go of who I am for who I can become.  Does that make sense?

So what would my life look like if I learned to live in the moment?  How do I go about making this realization a reality?
Honestly?  I have no idea…but I’m going to try.

Maybe you would like to join me in my journey of living in the moment, experiencing life and joy without expectations and the limitations that what-if’s create?  I’m going to attempt this journey and I would love it if you came along.  I might succeed, I might fail, but I’ll never know until I try.

So here goes nothing.
Let’s dive into the deep end and see how well we swim.

Kisses & Chaos,
Alli Woods Frederick

PS- I’m going to begin my adventure by checking out  Eckhart Tolle‘s book “The Power of Now*”.  I’ll check back in with you as soon as I’m done with it.  If you want to discuss experiences and results I can either try to set up a forum here or we gab about it on my facebook page.  Let me know if you have a preference.