Thinking out loud and going for walks often

[kyle barnett]

Hey guys. Just started to come back to these forums after some time so pardon me if I haven't seen this posted already.

But I love with my wife and I am always telling her that I am going out for walks, during the day and during the night. I love the night sky, I love to get exercise, but at the same time I also do most of my obsessive thinking. For years I've had a half hour meditation morning practice but been stuck in alot of situations where I am not working. Been dealing with some personal issues so been unemployed for a while, But at the same time, I get into ruts where I stop watching videos and instead try to think my way around every problem in my life.

Am I normal?

The problems in my life is my negative views of the world and I had a realisation that all thought is essentially problem solving (or trying to leave the current moment you're in for some other experience) ... Hence if you're thinking all the time. You're inevitably looking for problems or escaping reality by default.

I have recently started doing the odd hours long meditation... And I've realised that meditation can change your perspective on time. For example a boring job is only suffering because with an unstable restless mind, time drags on. But having a more concentrated mind, situations that are unpleasant you are able to tolerate and even embrace. 

Sometimes I follow spiritual teachers and get a vibe that they key to enlightenment is to just give up thinking.

But I also noticed that me contemplating so much. I find more problems with the world, that even my associates who would smoke weed, watching tv and play videogames all day long are more positive then me since they're less stuck in thoughts.

 

Love to hear your guys thoughts. Cheers.

[BipolarGrowth]

Thinking isn’t negative. Negative thoughts are negative. And labeling a thought as negative is a negative thought. If you would like to get out of such ruts as you mention, I think it’s going to take a change of perspective. Thought is not bad, and I actually doubt it’s much of your problem at all. 
 

You can say obsessive or negative thinking is your problem, but I’d say we need to “go meta” on this situation and see that your lack of trust in life and love of life in whatever moment comes is the real issue. At the end of the day, this is what meditation is meant to cultivate. Your meditation shouldn’t be measured by the lack of thoughts you find. It should be measured by the degree of love for life that you find after doing meditation or a certain spiritual practice. If whatever practice or type of meditation you’re doing isn’t producing this, a mistake is being made somewhere. 
 

Examine your life carefully to find moments where whatever you’ve just done has seemed to produce the result of loving and embracing life. You’d particularly be looking for constructive behaviors rather than destructive behaviors obviously. After the first hit of heroin, a lot of people can love life for a bit, but we’re after behaviors that are sustainable. 
 

Your walks sound like an activity which has many positive effects on you. You can try using that as a sort of meditative practice. Instead of seeing obsessive thinking during the walk as a type of failure or undesirable element of the moment, you can work on being able to notice that activity in a somewhat detached manner all the while you continue enjoying the good parts of your walk like normal. 
 

Maybe all of this “advice” is wrong and doesn’t work for you. If that’s so, throw it out and forget it. This is only one perspective. Anyway, best of luck. 

[Ishanga]

8 hours ago, kyle barnett said:

Hey guys. Just started to come back to these forums after some time so pardon me if I haven't seen this posted already.

But I love with my wife and I am always telling her that I am going out for walks, during the day and during the night. I love the night sky, I love to get exercise, but at the same time I also do most of my obsessive thinking. For years I've had a half hour meditation morning practice but been stuck in alot of situations where I am not working. Been dealing with some personal issues so been unemployed for a while, But at the same time, I get into ruts where I stop watching videos and instead try to think my way around every problem in my life.

Am I normal?

The problems in my life is my negative views of the world and I had a realisation that all thought is essentially problem solving (or trying to leave the current moment you're in for some other experience) ... Hence if you're thinking all the time. You're inevitably looking for problems or escaping reality by default.

I have recently started doing the odd hours long meditation... And I've realised that meditation can change your perspective on time. For example a boring job is only suffering because with an unstable restless mind, time drags on. But having a more concentrated mind, situations that are unpleasant you are able to tolerate and even embrace. 

Sometimes I follow spiritual teachers and get a vibe that they key to enlightenment is to just give up thinking.

But I also noticed that me contemplating so much. I find more problems with the world, that even my associates who would smoke weed, watching tv and play videogames all day long are more positive then me since they're less stuck in thoughts.

 

Love to hear your guys thoughts. Cheers.

I can relate to what You said above!

I'm not sure if its negative thinking to see the world and the chaos that is happening in it (Human related, otherwise the world/planet is just fine), or one is just seeing it as it is? I'm very much out and about in the world in my job on a daily basis, while I can see the beauty in the natural world, and how we as Humans have integrated into it in inventive ways, and at times there is beauty in that as well, I can see the craziness that is happening as well. I live in Toronto, there is too many ppl here, its lineups and chaos everywhere, You cannot go anywhere here where this is really any peace and quiet, maybe a few places, if You have an idea to do something here, 10,000 other ppl have the same idea and are doing it too, so because of that, there is chaos everywhere, I honestly feel we could do much better than how we are doing it now.. Canada is a huge country, why does everyone want to live in only a few places is beyond Me lol..

Walks in nature bring us intouch with Nature which is a sort of perfection in Creation, we are a part of that Creation too, so when in nature we instantly connect if You have some Awareness within You that is intense, if not then You won't feel it at all, too much thinking going on which is part of the path to Enlightenment, stop the "Compulsive" thinking, its not the thinking itself that is the problem, its the Compulsiveness of it that is problematic!

[kyle barnett]

Thanks heaps for your input guys. Appreciate it alot.