Are you an over-thinker who analyses everything to the point of exhaustion? Or do you know people who prowl around with a magnifying glass hysterically analyzing every situation or every person around them? Does analysis sometimes lead you to paralysis? Does everything really need to be analyzed?
Complexities outside slowly percolate into complexities inside. Simplicity is about living the present moment with gratitude and satisfaction. Complexity is about sulking over past events and ruminating with anxiety about future happenings.
Analysis is a strength but over-analysis is a blemish. Analysis leads to clarity but over-analysis leads to garbled thinking. Analysis leads to action; over-analysis leads to paralysis. Effective analysis is a by-product of simplicity but over-analysis is a ramification of complexity.
In the Ramayana, Lord Rama shows us the way. Intriguingly, He never over-analyzed why He was banished or who was responsible for His banishment. The simplicity in His persona just accepted the unchangeable reality and embraced it gracefully.
Over-analysis stems out of two extremes in human thought process: blind over-confidence in oneself and utmost insecurity. These two make one carry immense amount of negative charge. At some point such a person blows up like an unqualified electronic circuit holding too much current. Handling too much negativity while already being filled with negativity is a sure shot way to self-immolation.
In an airplane, one has to switch off all connections with the lower plane. In fact we are warned that any connection to the lower plane affects the performance in the higher plane. Similarly, for one to go higher in one's thought process, one has to switch off the lower thought processes and lower connections. Rather than using our ability to analyze in downgrading our mind, we should use it to upgrade our mind. Rather than downgrading and analyzing who is responsible for our predicament or why we landed in this predicament, one should upgrade and analyze what I can learn from this opportunity.
A very inspiring way of overcoming the paralysis-by-analysis syndrome is visible in Arjuna’s example in the Mahabharata. When he was cursed by Urvasi to become a eunuch for refusing her advances, he did not over-analyze his decision or her intentions, but accepted it as a gift of life. When it came to analyzing others' actions, Arjuna used simplicity as a tool, keeping his analytical abilities aside, without downgrading Urvasi.
Subha Vilasa Dasa is a motivational speaker and a spiritual lifestyle coach. He is also the author of the six-volume series Ramayana — The Game of Life (Book 1). His email: ramayana.shubhavilas@gmail.com