How to Stop Overthinking? | Sadhguru Answers

Sadhguru: People have no energy because mental diarrhea. You eat bad food and then try to stop diarrhea, it's not going to work. This much you do. Tonight, before you go to bed, keep it down and go to bed. In a little while, if you simply sit here, things around you will reverberate. Is it possible to do it without using specific mudras, whatever? Yes. These are all small help, little assistance. You don't see a Shiva or a Krishna holding mudra and sitting like this, (Gestures) simply intense. Nor will you ever see me sitting like this. (Gestures) No. You will not see me practicing Shambhavi or this or that. If I just close my eyes for 20 seconds, I'm done. I am ready for the day. So these are all… This is all good help. But is it the only way to do it? No. You can simply sit. If you learn to simply sit, you'll become tremendously intense. Right now, your energy is simply expended by doing unnecessary endless activity. When you have so much mental diarrhea, how can you have energy? Suppose you have diarrhea, do you see how weak you feel? (Laughter) Yes or no? Right now this mental diarrhea, that's why people have no energy. They want to just eat and sleep all the time because mental diarrhea, it's very exhausting. (Laughs) If you have physical diarrhea, you know how exhausting it is. Yes? This is also equally exhausting. People are sleeping eight hours – ten hours a day not because they are working so much or their body is in such a bad state. It's just mental diarrhea. If you stop the mental diarrhea, there's enough energy to make this (Referring to oneself) very, very intense. Now "How do I stop mental diarrhea?" If you have diarrhea… physical diarrhea, what is the first thing to do? Hmm? What? Participants: (Unclear) Sadhguru: Yes, run to the toilet, I know that. (Laughter) I am saying (Laughs) as a corrective measure, what is the first thing you do? No, as a corrective measure what is the first thing you do? First thing is stop eating, right? Yes or no? Diarrhea means in some way we've eaten something that the body doesn't want. It's trying to throw it out. Yes? You have taken something inside which the body doesn't like. It wants to throw it out. First thing is stay away from food for some time. You eat bad food and then try to stop diarrhea, it's not going to work. So similarly, bad food for the mind is just this. You have gotten identified with things that you are not. The moment you get identified with things that you are not, mental diarrhea is inevitable. It's bad food for the mind – now it will run endlessly, do what you want. You do any damn meditation, you say Shiva, Rama, it's not going to stop. (Laughs) It's not stopped, isn't it? Because bad food is being eaten. Every day you're getting identified with more and more things and you want to stop your mind. You do whatever kind of circus, it is not going to stop. If you dis-identify with everything – if you understand "what is you" and "what is not you," if you keep a little distance from that, mind will become still. If you want you can use it, otherwise you can keep it. Now my hand is there, if I want I can move it, otherwise I can keep it. This's a useful hand. Suppose it starts jumping like this, (Gestures) you clearly know there is some kind of an ailment, isn't it? Yes or no? So if hand is jumping, you know it's an ailment. If mind is jumping, is it an ailment or no? Participant: Yes. Sadhguru: Ahh. The ailment has come because continuous wrong diet. You tell your mind, that "I am this, I am this, I am that, I am that," it's having diarrhea. You stop giving it wrong food. If you clearly see, what… Even if you do not know "what is me," at least you know "what is not me," isn't it? This much you do. Tonight, before you go to bed, sit on your bed and sit down and discount everything that is not you. This house in which you are living, is this me? No. This loving parent or mother, father, wife or husband or child, they are wonderful, but is this me? No. Now this nice clothes I am wearing, is this me? No. Now my body, I like it but is this me? No. Now I'm having so many thoughts, is this me? No. Now I am having wonderful emotion, is this me? No. Like this, everything that's not you, before you sleep, keep it down and go to bed. Tomorrow morning, you will wake up considerably more intense than today. Every day you do it. In a little while, if you simply sit here, things around you will reverberate, really. A few years ago… couple of years ago I was in America and this is a very typically American question – this lady (Laughs) comes up to me and she's very angry. "I have been doing this yoga for last 35 years, nothing happened. But you went and just sat on a rock and things happened to you. (Laughter) This is not fair. Where is that damn rock?" (Laughter) She thinks it's the rock which did it. (Laughter) The only sadhana that I did in my life is, right from my very early age, though I was very actively involved with everybody around me, I never identified myself with my parents or my siblings or my endless number of friends or the society or the religion or the country or anything around me – never identified, not that I was not involved. I was very involved, very active. Even today I am very active and involved but not identified. If you don't identify with anything, there is enough energy in this (Referring to oneself) to become intense. See I want you to understand, your life energy right now in this body, how many things it's doing here as you're sitting here! Hello, do you know the complexity of activity it is doing? Every cell in the body, your liver, your kidney, your damn spleen and all kinds of stupid things that we cannot even figure even today, yes? Just see as you sit here, how many things this energy is doing. Obviously it must be intense to do all this. You are not able to experience it because of diarrhea. (Few laugh) Tch… When you have a diarrhea, (Gestures) that's how you feel, isn't it? Yes or no? So that's how it is. Stop the diarrhea, stop eating bad food, diarrhea will stop. Once diarrhea stops, there's enough energy in this to sit here and reverberate in a very intense way.