Dear constant-thinker,

I know all too well how it feels to be paralyzed by thinking.

Your thoughts scare you, drain you, annoy you. They make you want to run away from yourself- only you can't.

You try to escape the inner noise by drowning it out or coping. You turn to music, external chatter, TV, your phone, drugs, drinking, food. But that incessant voice never quiets.

It yammers on, plaguing you with thoughts about whether you're good enough, pretty enough, smart enough, small enough. It says, "Why did I just say that?" "I sound so dumb." "I'm being too much." "What if I can't do this?" "I'll never have that."

It focuses relentlessly on what others might think. "They're going to think I don't like them." "Will this hurt their feelings?" "I'll only look stupid." "If I open up, I'll only feel worse." "They think I'm so weird." "They're mad at me, I know it."

Your thoughts keep you awake in the night. Their rapid regeneration of anxieties and outcomes baffling you with each passing second as you beg for peace and silence...just once.

To feel captive of your thoughts is feeling like you can't protect yourself from a threat because the threat is you. Like you are drowning yourself.

But sometimes, in the midst of drowning, if we pause, our thoughts can become something other than a threat.

When we feel trapped in our own heads, we have to return to ourselves. Return to the essence of you who are not concerned with the thoughts of others or today's list of worries. Return to the essence of you who feels joy simply by being and doing what you love.

Then, be still. Breathe in. Know that it is you who controls your thoughts, not your thoughts that control you. Do not give power to thoughts that are hurtful, untrue, or things that cannot be changed. Breathe out. Now, create. Pour every last fear, doubt, idea, plan and worry into creating something outside of you.

Write. Dance. Visualize. Garden. Draw. Journal. Cook. Speak. Design. Sing. Paint. Move. Craft. Film. Teach. There is no limit to creation when there is no limit to the thoughts your mind produces. Channel them.

We can treat our endless thoughts as burdens and let them keep taking over. They can be our worst enemies, our biggest critics, and our heaviest weights. Or, we can treat our over-production of them as our gifts.

Gifts that we can someday share with others and use to inspire. Gifts that teach, heal and help us all grow. Gifts that became something amazing even if they began in the darkest parts of who we are.

After you return to yourself and pause the noise, how will you begin sharing your gifts with the rest of us?

Sincerely,

Your fellow constant-thinker.