Blog
Mind
Where everyday experiences sit on the map: overthinking, anxiety, stress, low mood, happiness. Each post names the position, traces it to the book, and ends with one small thing to try.
Why do I feel refreshed after a holiday, and why does it fade?
Why do I feel refreshed after a holiday? On the map, new sights and sounds pull attention into the present. At home the old chains resume. Why, and what helps.
Why do I feel like a failure? The identity that only exists while you think it
Why do I feel like a failure? The setback happened once. The feeling of being a failure is built again each time attention goes back to it.
Image: AI-generated
Why do I get angry so easily? The second thought that turns a moment into a fight
Why do I get angry so easily? Anger rarely comes from the event itself; it builds in the thoughts that follow it, one at a time. Here is where to catch it.
Image: AI-generated
How to stop stressing about money: where the money problem actually lives
How to stop stressing about money without pretending the bills aren't real: the balance is real, but most of the stress lives in the past and the future.
Image: AI-generated
Why do I compare myself to others? The comparison that only happens close to home
Why do I compare myself to others? You never envy the richest person alive, only the colleague at your level. That one detail shows where comparison lives.
Can overthinking make you depressed? What long habits of dwelling do to mood
Can overthinking make you depressed? Long habits of dwelling on the past can be one of the things that pull mood down and keep it there. Not the only one.
Image: AI-generated
Can't stop thinking about your ex? Why the mind keeps going back
Can't stop thinking about my ex? Every visit back is a thought in one of a few positions, and each one starts the next. Here is the loop, and the way out.
Image: AI-generated
How to be happy: the happiness that does not depend on conditions
How to be happy when every condition you fix is replaced by the next one? Happiness is not added by conditions. It is uncovered underneath them.
Image: AI-generated
Why do I wake up anxious? The first thought of the day
Why do I wake up anxious? Before your senses report anything, the mind can produce a first thought already charged and already in the future.
Why do I feel overwhelmed? Many chains, one moment
Why do I feel overwhelmed? Not the list itself, but attention switching fast between a dozen thought chains. The present only holds one next thing.
Image: AI-generated
Why do I feel sad after being happy? The pendulum the mind swings on
Why do I feel sad after being happy? Clinging to a high pushes the mind off balance, and the swing back overshoots. The low is the other half of the high.
Why am I always anxious? Anxiety that has become a habit of position
Why am I always anxious, even when nothing is wrong? Because a position held often enough becomes a disposition. Habits of attention can be unlearned.
Image: AI-generated
Why do I feel stressed for no reason? The reason is a thought you did not see arrive
Why do I feel stressed for no reason? Some thoughts arrive already charged, with nothing in front of you to start them. The reason is real; it is not present.
Image: AI-generated
Why do I overthink everything? Because the machine does not check the subject
Why do I overthink everything? Because the mechanism that turns one thought into a chain never checks what the thought is about. Small subject, same chain.
How to stop overthinking: the five-step sequence that traps you
How to stop overthinking starts here: it is not a character flaw but a five-step sequence that runs the same way every time and breaks at one point.
Image: AI-generated
Can't sleep because you're thinking? The loop, and why fighting it feeds it
Can't sleep because I'm thinking? You lay down to plan tomorrow, somewhere in there the tile changed, and fighting it is what keeps it going.
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Can't stop replaying conversations? Why the argument keeps running
Can't stop replaying conversations? The loop is Past + Dislikes, it feeds itself, and fighting it adds a round. What actually ends it.
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Why am I never satisfied? Both sides of every circumstance hurt
Why am I never satisfied? Having children produces difficult thoughts; so does not having them. Both sides hurt, so the circumstance was never the source.
Emotional regulation's blind spot: feeling good is the part nobody trains
Emotional regulation is practised when we feel bad and abandoned when we feel good. That asymmetry is why steady wellbeing stays out of reach.
Image: AI-generated
What anxiety actually is, structurally
On the map, anxiety is attention held in the future while carrying dislike. Not a mood, not a flaw in temperament. A position, and positions can change.
Image: AI-generated
The nine attention states: a map of where your mind actually is
A mindfulness meditation map: your attention is always somewhere in time and always carrying a charge. Nine positions, and only one costs you nothing.
