Particularly when all you can think about is negative, you know the works — worry, stress, fear and the like. I know it’s your mind and at times you can’t help but get into that infinite regression. That is fine. But only at times. You can’t make your mind the hotbed for all things negative or the bunch of tasks that you need to strike off of your list.
I think our biggest problem is that we think too much. Our minds are always preoccupied with something or the other. None of which would actually matter. Our mind, as William James would put it, should work for us. Which means that the mind is a tool and like any other tool we can get skilled to use it for it’s most useful purpose — help you succeed. It’s just that we put a lot of crap in it. Literally treating it like a trash can.
Here’s a fix that worked for me — focus only on the important things. Screw the rest! Literally. I won’t worry about any of what’s NOT on my focus list. If something comes up, it comes up. I’ll deal with it when it does. What that helps me to do is stay on course with 5-6 of the most important aspects of my workday and not lose my mind.
The result is that I get a crapton of stuff one. That said, every day is a struggle. Using your mind as a tool doesn’t come easy and requires a lot of practice/training. Meditation and affirmations are great options to start with before you explore more advanced routines/experiments. But then, if you’re focusing on all that… you’ve clearly missed the point. 😉