One of my all time favorite Ted Talk videos is called, "How to forget s&%t and be happy." If you can get past the speakers colorful and quirky way of speaking, he has a a very interesting idea. He believes that the only way to truly be happy is to "get dumb."
You are probably thinking, "Get dumb? That doesn't make sense!" You are right it sounds completely counterproductive to all of our life goals and goes against all of the well-intentioned advice to "think it over." Here's the thing though, I believe MOST IF NOT ALL of my problems are a direct result of "thinking it over" or "considering my options." And, you may not be surprised to discover you might just be the same way.
When is the last time you have thought your way into depression, sadness, anxiety or stress? I love the expression, "Your mind is a dark place, you should never go in there alone," mostly because it is crazy true. I have had so many moments where I was perfectly content and suddenly left alone with my thoughts. Before I knew what was happening I was ugly crying about falling off my chair in kindergarten and simply unable to pull myself together.
In fact, it seems like very little is really THAT bad, until I have analyzed it and overthought it to death. In fact, sometimes, I am doing this with things in the future which may or may not ever happen. Or ruminating about what I THINK people think, when I honestly have no idea.
What if, we all took the advice from a TED talk, and "got dumb?" Rather than thinking about things so much, we instead feel and experience them in the present moment. What if we didn't overthink what people thought abut us or if we were going to get that promotion? Instead we just enjoyed the company of those who love us and had fun at work?
I have spent my whole life thinking the harder I think, the smarter I am, but I think its time for this doctor to become a little bit dumber and a lot bit happier!
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