Overthinking is a common trap people have experienced for eternity.
We get lost in our thoughts, tell ourselves fabricated stories, we make up scenarios, we stress about the future and hypotheticals and emotions. We look back on the past and what we should have said, or what we wish had happened differently…
Meanwhile our REAL lives in the present pass us by. We are living out of sync, out of time.
I do not believe there is any mental prescription for this problem. You cannot solve overthinking with more thinking. Its a contradiction in terms.
The solution for this trapped mental state does not come from the mind, it comes the body.
It comes from MOVEMENT.
Since becoming a founder and meeting other founders, Ive watched how peoples mental load becomes a silent weight on their life and function. And I feel this myself every day as well.
How could you NOT feel this?
You are betting your whole life on a high risk idea, you spend hours daily obsessing over a topic, people depending on you, constant problem solving, grappling with unknowns all the time.
Your thoughts can circle for hours on an infinite drain to nowhere, it doesnt end, and the body internalizes ALL of this.
For the sake of your long term durability and mental function, I am telling you
YOU NEED TO MOVE
More thinking is not going to alleviate all the thinking.
Movement is the direct path out of this stressed state. Movement is how you can reset your nervous system. Movement is how you can process your stress and not be overwhelmed by it. Movement is how you maintain a robust body and mind that can handle what you are building.
Live by this
Move now, understand later.
Before reading the rest of the article, I am going to ask you to watch this video and MOVE FIRST, get some oxygen to your brain. Then come back and read the rest
Now that your brain metabolism has gotten a boost, I want you to internalize the following principles. These principles are best learned through action.
1. Movement is how you change the Mind
Popular culture often treats the mind as the commander and the body as a sort of passive machine that just goes along for the ride. This is not accurate. Neuroscience, physiology, and phenomenolgy all support a more integrated view: the brain continuously constructs perception, emotion, attention, and action using information from the body; heart rate, breathing, blood chemistry, muscle activity, joint position, pain, temperature, balance, and signals from internal organs.
The brain and body are not separable operating systems. They flow bidirectional. The Mind is the body. The Body is the Mind.
They are in constant two-way communication through the nervous system, endocrine system, immune system, circulation, and sensory pathways. Movement changes that incoming information and changes the body’s state. These changes can shift mood, stress, arousal, attention, and cognitive performance. All this is achievable within a few movements of movement, and consistently through regular training.
This is not mysticism. It is physiology: physical activity changes neural signaling, cerebral blood flow, autonomic regulation, metabolites, inflammatory signaling, and exercise-responsive molecular messengers (exerkines as they are called). The result is that changing the body through movement can meaningfully change the mind.
2. Stress comes from physical position as much as it does mental
There is nothing wrong with sitting a desk or using a keyboard. The real issue that these physical positions become wired with stressful emotions and stressed nervous system. You are looking at emails, messages, spreadsheets, cortisol is increasing, adrenaline may spike. Sitting is normally passive, but your mind is active. You get tight, stiff, and this gets reinforced for hours at a time. Sitting down to open the laptop is the opposite of relaxing.
Its a funny problem to think about; your body is still, but the mind is active and anxious.
Whats the solution? SWITCH THE TWO.
3. Movement returns Agency almost instantly
Simple movement that emphasizes breathing, elongating muscles, getting blood flowing, and returning the body and mind back to a calm state is how we all can reclaim agency. You spend hours on things they cannot finish in an afternoon. That mental tab never closes.
You can give yourself short periods of achievement through movement and exercise. Endorphins make you feel good. You can change your state on demand. The daily midday walk clears your mind and takes you away from problems. A finished workout is a deposit on your future self performing better.
The worst position to be in is feeling trapped by your obligations, responsibilites, and calendars. Sitting and ruminating is how people trap themselves.
Movement is the antidote.
4. Your Focus needs to rest to be Effective.
When you are a founder, entrepreneur, operator, you are in the position of being the problem solver. At times there are challenges that absolutely demand your attention, no question. But what is also true is that you hit points regularly you cannot THINK about this anymore than you already have. You will find yourself on a loop.
It becomes essential that you give your focus a break, and allow this ability to recharge itself in your subconscious.
Again, this is where movement becomes essential. The mind gets a temporary job that is physical, finite, and done.
5. You don’t need to take time off for Movement to Work
A lot of founders and entrepreneurs shun vacations. You might give yourself that occasional day of less work, or you get forced into taking a day off of some sort because of travel or family obligations. A lot of self care gets pushed into the future.
What is available to you daily though that keeps you healthy? MOVEMENT.
Exercise. The only obstacle to this is disregarding yourself as a priority. Which is irrational, as the entire company is riding on YOU being healthy and sharp enough to lead it to success. Dont make that trade of “I’ll be unhealthy now and then get healthy later”
6. Pain and stiffness are terrible narrators.
Once the body begins to get stiff and hurt, your entire day to day life slowly gets rewritten. You groan, you strain, you dread stairs, you wake up and your body feels like its working against you. Clothes get tighter, your face gets blood, the stress you feel internally is clearly expressing itself. Dread can creep in. When your back is stiff and your neck is tight and you feel tired, there is no trick to tell yourself “I FEEL GREAT”. Your mental health and physical health are too clearly intertwined.
The best narrator is physical STRENGTH. Endurance. Feeling that regardless of what life throws at you, you can handle it, overcome it, and at the very least survive it. This state is what real, practical fitness is. And its available to you to live, provided you MOVE enough to create it.
En Summa
Overthinking has no mental cure. More thinking cannot end thinking. The way out is physical: movement first, explanation later.
If you are living the founder/entrepreneur life, you must apply this. You bet years on an idea, carry other people’s dependence, and live in unsolved problems. Your mind loops. The body stores the loop as stiffness, tension, and a nervous system that never clocks out. Durability is more than a mindset. It comes from a Body that is resilient. Breathe, stretch, and in your allotted time, go to the gym.