The Buddha's Advice for People Who Can't Stop Overthinking

It's 4:52 on a Tuesday. Your manager sends five words: "Can we talk tomorrow? Thanks." By five o'clock you've read it eleven times. By midnight you're explaining yourself, out loud, to the ceiling. About 2,500 years ago, the Buddha described that evening almost exactly. He called it the second arrow. The first arrow is what happens. The second arrows are everything we fire into ourselves afterwards: the rereading, the rehearsing, the "why me". This film walks through the studies that show the second arrow is real (you can even see it in a brain scanner) and gives you four ways to stop firing it. The question from the film: First arrow, or second? The four tools: 1. Trade the why for a how. 2. Name it: the feeling, then the arrow. 3. Talk to yourself by name. 4. Give the second arrows an appointment. "Overthinking" is our word, not his. He was teaching about pain. The fit is close enough that the picture has lasted. Previous film: How to Fall Asleep When Your Mind Won't Stop →    • How to Fall Asleep When Your Mind Won't Stop   Chapters 0:00 4:52 on a Tuesday: five words 1:05 The two arrows 2:48 The stubbed toe 3:54 The machine that can't tell 5:43 The earthquake 7:23 The why trap 10:28 Tool one: trade the why for a how 10:54 The arrow you can measure 12:49 Naming it 13:48 Tool two: name it 14:15 Say your own name 15:33 Tool three: talk to yourself by name 15:54 The appointment 16:51 Tool four: give it an appointment 17:19 The escape that isn't 18:32 An honest note 19:02 Five arrows you'll recognise 21:48 How to start 22:53 What's your first arrow? 23:22 8:10, the next morning Sources / further reading Sallatha Sutta, The Arrow (Samyutta Nikaya 36.6), trans. Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Cula-Malunkyovada Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 63), the poisoned arrow, trans. Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Killingsworth, M. A., & Gilbert, D. T. (2010). A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Science, 330(6006), 932. Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Morrow, J. (1991). A prospective study of depression and posttraumatic stress symptoms after a natural disaster: the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61(1), 115-121. Lyubomirsky, S., Caldwell, N. D., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (1998). Effects of ruminative and distracting responses to depressed mood on retrieval of autobiographical memories. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(1), 166-177. Watkins, E., Moberly, N. J., & Moulds, M. L. (2008). Processing mode causally influences emotional reactivity: distinct effects of abstract versus concrete construal on emotional response. Emotion, 8(3), 364-378. Zeidan, F., Martucci, K. T., Kraft, R. A., Gordon, N. S., McHaffie, J. G., & Coghill, R. C. (2011). Brain mechanisms supporting the modulation of pain by mindfulness meditation. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(14), 5540-5548. Grant, J. A., Courtemanche, J., & Rainville, P. (2011). A non-elaborative mental stance and decoupling of executive and pain-related cortices predicts low pain sensitivity in Zen meditators. Pain, 152(1), 150-156. Lieberman, M. D., Eisenberger, N. I., Crockett, M. J., Tom, S. M., Pfeifer, J. H., & Way, B. M. (2007). Putting feelings into words: affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli. Psychological Science, 18(5), 421-428. Kross, E., Bruehlman-Senecal, E., Park, J., et al. (2014). Self-talk as a regulatory mechanism: how you do it matters. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106(2), 304-324. Borkovec, T. D., Wilkinson, L., Folensbee, R., & Lerman, C. (1983). Stimulus control applications to the treatment of worry. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 21(3), 247-251. If the second arrows are wrecking your sleep, your appetite or your days, please talk to a doctor or a therapist. This film is for ordinary overthinking. It isn't a treatment. Written by me. Narrated with an AI voice from my own script. Original visual essays about the mind, and what the old traditions got right about it. Illustrations are created with the assistance of generative tools. Original score and sound design composed for this film. #overthinking #buddhism #intoshunya —— Shunya - the questions worth sitting with. New video every week. #consciousness #philosophy #meditation