When life doesn’t go how you want, it’s easy to think something is wrong with you.
You start wondering why you can’t move forward, why things feel so hard, or why you don’t feel happy.
So you try to fix yourself.
You go to therapy, read self-help books, do healing work, and look for answers in your past.
And therapy is good. There’s a right time for it.
But sometimes, you don’t need to heal everything from your past to move forward. Not every challenge in your life comes from your childhood or past.
And even if some of it does, you don’t need to spend years trying to fix every single wound.
Sometimes, you just need to notice what your mind is doing.
Right now, if you’re suffering, it’s probably because.
- Your mind keeps replaying old memories, making you feel the emotions as if they were happening right now.
- Your mind worries about problems that don’t exist yet and may never happen.
And your body believes it. Your heart beats faster. Your muscles feel tight. Your stomach feels heavy.
You feel tired, anxious, or stuck.
It’s not because something is wrong with you.
It’s because your mind is sending your body signals of danger when there is none.
You are not broken. You are just overthinking.
You don’t always need to fix yourself or heal everything.
You just need to see that your thoughts are running in loops.
When you notice it, your body starts to calm down.
Your mind feels clear again. Your energy comes back.
And then you naturally start moving forward.
Arianna Huffington’s Wake-Up Call
Arianna Huffington had it all. She was building a groundbreaking media empire. She was raising two children on her own.
She was working harder than anyone around her and believing that her overthinking was the secret to staying ahead. Every decision had to be perfect.
Every mistake had to be anticipated. Every outcome had to be calculated.
Then one morning in April 2007, everything stopped.
She collapsed at her desk, hit her head, and broke her cheekbone. She woke up in a pool of her own blood.
The doctors ran tests and told her nothing was physically wrong.
They told her she had burned out.
It was her mind that had finally betrayed her.
The very skill that had propelled her to success had also trapped her.
Every choice, every project, every detail had been overanalyzed. Her thoughts ran in circles, replaying past mistakes and forecasting impossible futures.
She called it her “obnoxious roommate,” the relentless voice of doubt and criticism in her head.
She had been trying to solve every problem in her mind at once. She had forgotten what it meant to just live.
In that moment, Arianna understood something profound.
She had spent years believing that exhaustion was proof of commitment, that mental chaos was part of ambition, and that solving everything in her head was the only way forward.
The collapse made her realize that her mind could only carry so much. She needed space. She needed pause. She needed life beyond the loops of her own thoughts.
She began to rebuild, not her career, but her relationship with herself. She prioritized sleep. She practiced mindfulness.
She allowed her mind to rest. Slowly, clarity and energy returned.
She discovered that letting go of overthinking was more powerful than any decision she could ever make.
Years later, she founded Thrive Global to help others escape the trap of burnout and overthinking.
Her story is a reminder that overthinking is not ambition. It is a prison. You are not broken. Your mind is simply doing too much.
The Three Pillars Of Mental Wellbeing
Sahil Bloom, American author of 5-types of wealth shares that mental well-being stands on three mighty pillars:
Purpose.
Growth.
Space.
When these three are in balance, your mind relaxes, and so does your life.
Let’s break them down.
1. Purpose: The Chase That Keeps You Alive
Let’s bust a myth first: purpose is not some lofty thing you have to discover in a mountain retreat or post on Instagram.
It is not a big mission statement or a life-changing slogan.
Purpose is simple.
It is the thing that makes you feel alive, the thing that pulls you forward even when life feels heavy.
Without a chase, your mind has nowhere to go but inward. That is when it starts replaying mistakes, worries, and “what ifs.” It turns on you.
Look at Robert Downey Jr. He was trapped in cycles of addiction and decline. Life felt heavy and impossible. Then he found his purpose again through acting.
Playing Iron Man did more than rebuild his career. It gave his pain direction. It became a chase worth running toward.
Purpose is that simple. It could be a project, a skill, a dream, a relationship, a creative pursuit, anything that makes you excited to wake up.
When you have something to run toward, you stop running from yourself. Your energy shifts from overthinking to doing, from doubting to creating.
2. Growth: The Environment That Expands You
Growth happens when you place yourself in the right environment, where new ideas, experiences, and perspectives naturally expand your thinking.
Bill Gates does this with his “Think Week,” a twice-yearly ritual where he steps away from everything else to read, reflect, and dream. Some of Microsoft’s most groundbreaking ideas are born in that quiet space.
Oprah has a similar practice with her “Sacred Sundays.” She blocks out long, uninterrupted stretches of time for reading, reflection, and silence.
These moments allow her mind to wander, explore, and connect dots she wouldn’t see in the noise of daily life.
Being in the right environment does not always mean doing more.
It means opening yourself up to ideas, conversations, and experiences that stretch your perspective and make growth inevitable.
3. Space: The Room to Breathe
Space is the room to breathe, the moments where your mind can rest, recover, and imagine.
John D. Rockefeller, one of history’s most relentless entrepreneurs, had a secret ritual.
In the middle of intense negotiations, he would take long walks through his gardens, sometimes for hours, while others waited.
He understood something most of us forget: silence is not the absence of action. It is the preparation for it.
Space is not laziness. It is how clarity emerges.
Without space, your mind can’t recover, reflect, or see new possibilities. If you feel broken, it may be because you’ve given yourself no space to be whole.
What would change if you treated rest as a responsibility, not a reward?
How Do You Put This Into Action?
When your mind feels trapped in the same loop, start by simply noticing what it’s doing.
Write down the exact thoughts that keep repeating. Seeing them on paper breaks their spell and gives you distance.
Then, instead of fighting your thoughts, ask what they’re trying to show you. Every repetitive worry hides a need such as rest, clarity, connection, or space.
The moment you name that need, you shift from self-criticism to self-care.
Once you have noticed the loop and named the need, it is time to strengthen the part of your mental ecosystem that is weakest.
Look at the three pillars: purpose, growth, and space.
Ask yourself:
- Is my sense of purpose fading? Am I drifting without a chase that excites me or gives me direction? If so, reconnect with a project, goal, or activity that makes you feel alive.
- Is my growth stalling? Am I stuck in the same patterns, consuming the same ideas, talking to the same people? Seek experiences, books, or conversations that challenge your thinking and expand your perspective.
- Am I lacking space? Am I running constantly, filling every moment with action, without pause? Give yourself permission to rest, reflect, and simply be. Walk, sit quietly, or create intentional silence in your day.
You don’t need to fix everything, just strengthen the pillar that feels weakest. When you nurture one, the others naturally rebalance, and your mind begins to breathe again.
Reflection: Which pillar needs my attention today? What small, deliberate step can I take to nurture it?
Reflection Prompts
Ask yourself:
- When I feel broken, am I actually just overthinking?
- Which pillar, purpose, growth, or space, feels weakest right now?
- What is one simple way I can give myself more mental space this week?
- Who in my environment helps me grow with peace, not pressure?
- What is a chase I could fall back in love with?
Your Action Steps
If you are feeling stuck or convinced that something is wrong with you, pause for a moment.
- Notice where your mind is looping.
- Name what you truly need.
- Strengthen the pillar that feels weakest.
Even a small interruption like this can shift your energy, your focus, and your perspective. You do not need to fix yourself. You need to give yourself the space to see clearly, feel clearly, and act from clarity rather than chaos.
If you’d like me to support you on this journey, I want to invite you for Greater Inside – my program designed for service-based founders.
This is where we take the guesswork out of growth and replace it with a proven operating system.
Over 12 months, you will install the systems that help you scale to $500,000 without sacrificing your time, energy, or meaning.
You will gain clarity on decisions, recover hours each week, and build a business that works for you instead of wearing you down.
Imagine ending the cycle of overthinking, burnout, and constant trial-and-error, and stepping into a rhythm where every action pulls you forward with ease.
How did we do?
If this gave you a perspective you haven’t heard before, share your thoughts in the comments below. I read every comment — your feedback helps me create content that truly moves you forward.
