Why We Overreact: Unlearning Primal Instincts in a Modern World

We strive to solve big questions in life.

We make minor problems larger than life because we don’t have better problems.

To solve the bigger problem it feel heroic.

Why?

We have formed a habit of reacting to things in a very exaggerated manner.

We were taught to react that way. When a problem arises, the first thing that comes to mind is to shout and call the town.

In many ways, it is also embedded in our DNA.

To react to a threat like it is the end of the world. It must have saved our ancestors from many troubles.

It might also have been a question of life and death in those times.

Imagine a mammoth charging towards you. I am sure you won’t tell yourself, “All is well; this will pass soon.”

But the time has changed and the mammoth is gone.

The only place where they exist is in your imagination.

I love the Chinese. “If we are talking about an elephant we are talking about nothing.”

Then what happens when a little hindrance in the flow of life makes you overreact?

You react!

We have come a long way as a human being.

From caves to homes that no other animal can imagine living in.

Yet, we have some of the instincts to the threats left in us.

We might not be hunting or in situations of immediate danger. But our reaction to the situation seems like one.

We are still evolving, and revolutions have gone ahead of us.

Industries no longer create what is in demand, they create the demand.

And our hunting-gathering instincts hunt for things in the mall and gather them in our houses.

The point is, that we possess instincts that no longer serve the purpose in this modern world.

But there is a way to get out of the vicious cycle of reacting and acting and reacting.

Breath. Let go of your thought. Let go of your past and idea of a future.

If there is courage, it is not in facing the imaginary threats, but to face the unknown and the uncertainty of life.

Impermanence.

Unlike other animals, we possess the power to think about what we are thinking.

If anything is most significant in our course of evolution, it is this fact that we can decide the course of our thoughts.

They can be recognised at the source, as a creative expression of the mind and can be released even before they manifest into actions or reactions.

In the West, this power has been used to capitalise on.

It is a shallow way of looking at it — I am pointing towards affirmation, positive thinking and the law of attraction.

Does it work? — Yes, for people who have mind control and people who can decide whether to think or not.

East has learned to stay in the thoughtlessness, which connects us directly with the divine.

Concomitantly, the urge to use this power to create emanated apparitions and illusions comes from fear.

Fear of losing out and fear of not having enough.

But the East has found the crux of this understanding, which is profound.

Eastern philosophies, religions and spiritual lineages have always urged to use this power of recognising the thought just to release them.

Be empty.

I say it is profound because when your mind is empty, your mind loses its purpose to be.

A mind without a purpose is a mind liberated.

And the liberated mind becomes nothing and everything at the same time?

To ask for things and to not get them adds to the convolutions of mind. It feeds the mind and it grows bigger than you.

You react. Act. Overreact.

A liberated mind is aware and alert.

It doesn’t act nor react, but it is ready to receive.

The Grace, The Abundance and the Spontaneity which aligned to your nature.

To receive what is needed in the very moment, not what the ego mind wants.

It bestows wisdom to understand the impermanent nature of things.

Would you rather have the whole cake or be satisfied with only the cherries on the top?

Is easy to transform the thoughts than to translate them.

If you stop reacting to every thought that comes to your mind and go — “Oh my god!” over it; you are bound to suffer.

Overthinking is not biological, it is psychological.

You put yourself into a situation, only to involuntarily participate in something that is not permanent.

A thought changes in nature even before you think about the thought.

Then what is there to cling on and what is there to react on?

So what is the solution you might ask?

Meditate

Look closely at the nature of thoughts, as you see them they disappear if you don’t react.

As they disappear, your mind becomes empty.

As your mind becomes empty, you see your true nature.

This is easy and difficult. Depends on your willingness to let go of your thoughts.

You might as well ask if it is possible to unlearn the ancient instincts.

Yes, it is.

Horses have the instinct to freak out when someone mounts on their back.

This instinct is developed in animals due to predators attacking them from back for generations.

Yet when the horse is tamed and trained, he welcomes his owner to ride on the back.

Let your mind be like that tamed horse.

He lives, He is happy and he has learned to unlearn the ancient instinct of being in danger all the time.

Embrace the inner stillness and the world will be yours.

Don’t ask for things as they might disappoint. Be grateful for what you receive as you were destined to possess it.

Live life as it comes. Make every moment a celebration and not a threat.

Rejoice in the very fact that you are alive and be blissful in your content and being.

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Originally published at https://jett.me on October 15, 2024.