On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Do THIS 2 Minute Trick To Stop a Negative Spiral INSTANTLY (Overthinkers You Need to Hear This Episode!)
Fri, 02 May 2025
Have you ever caught yourself stuck in a spiral of negative thoughts? Do you have a go-to way to reset when you’re feeling overwhelmed? Today, Jay dives into one of the most common modern struggles: overthinking. Whether it's an unanswered text, a mistake at work, or uncertainty about your next step, our minds often trap us in loops of doubt, fear, and frustration. But what if the path to peace starts with a few spiritual truths? In this episode, Jay shares timeless wisdom from the Bhagavad Gita and Buddhist teachings to help you finally stop spiraling and start releasing. He walks you through five powerful shifts—from learning how to emotionally declutter your space and mind, to embracing the truth that pain is part of life, but suffering is a choice. Jay also introduces practical rituals—like writing and discarding thoughts—that are scientifically proven to help you regulate difficult emotions. With heartfelt insight, Jay explores how we can become friends with our own minds and stop rehearsing conversations and conflicts that never happen. He urges us to face the things we’re avoiding, take action instead of postponing, and learn the art of letting go with intention. In this episode, you’ll learn: How to Stop Thought Spirals Before They Take Over. Why Writing Down Your Emotions Can Help You Let Go. The Difference Between Pain and Suffering—and How to Reduce Both. How Your Environment Impacts Your Mental State. Why Speaking the Truth Sets You Free from Overthinking. This episode is your invitation to choose presence over perfection and peace over pressure. Whether you're caught in a loop of overthinking or simply craving clarity, this conversation will bring you back to stillness. With Love and Gratitude, Jay Shetty Join over 750,000 people to receive my most transformative wisdom directly in your inbox every single week with my free newsletter. Subscribe here. Join Jay for his first ever, On Purpose Live Tour! Tickets are on sale now. Hope to see you there! What We Discussed: 00:00 Introduction 00:43 How to Let Go Gracefully 04:58 #1: How Writing Down Your Thoughts Calm Your Mind 09:00 #2: How to Start Decluttering Your Mind 15:23 #3: How Acceptance Lessens the Pain 20:11 #4: How to Have Difficult Conversations Real Time 21:30 #5: Don't Delay What Can Be Done TodaySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
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When we can shift that story to instead of why is this happening to me, all the way through to, well, what can I do about it? What skill is this asking me to develop? What is this reminding me that I've forgotten? What wisdom is inside of this that I need to learn? As soon as you shift to a solution, proactive approach, You don't have the suffering. You will always have the pain.
You don't have to suffer from it.
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Chapter 2: How can I let go of negative thoughts?
It's not just walking into a clean space. When you start cleaning, when you start organizing, it's almost like you're filing away files in your mind. Have you ever felt like you have too many tabs open on your laptop? Imagine how many tabs are open in your mind. When you start to clean up the tabs on your laptop, the tabs on your screen, all of a sudden you start to mentally declutter.
Now let's look at the research on this. Clutter affects your mind. The first way is cognitive overload. Clutter competes for your attention, leading to cognitive overload. This constant visual distraction can impair your ability to focus and process information.
A study using fMRI scans found that individuals in organized environments were better able to concentrate and process information compared to those in cluttered spaces. Clear your space to clear your mind. Clean that closet, clean the table, wash the dishes, put away your clothes and see how your mind starts to feel more creative, more productive, boost your energy.
It may feel like a chore and a task, but it's something that will actually heal you. I couldn't be more excited to share something truly special with all you tea lovers out there. And even if you don't love tea, if you love refreshing, rejuvenating, refueling sodas that are good for you, listen to this.
Radhi and I poured our hearts into creating Juni Sparkling Tea with adaptogens for you because we believe in nurturing your body and with every sip, you'll experience calmness of mind, a refreshing vitality, and a burst of brightness to your day.
Juni is infused with adaptogens that are amazing natural substances that act like superheroes for your body to help you adapt to stress and find balance in your busy life.
Our Super 5 blend of these powerful ingredients include green tea, ashwagandha, acerola cherry and lion's mane mushroom and these may help boost your metabolism, give you a natural kick of caffeine, combat stress, pack your body with antioxidants and stimulate brain function. Even better, Juni has zero sugar and only five calories per can.
We believe in nurturing and energizing your body while enjoying a truly delicious and refreshing drink. So visit drinkjuni.com today to elevate your wellness journey and use code ONPURPOSE to receive 15% off your first order. That's drinkjuni.com and make sure you use the code ONPURPOSE. The second way that clutter affects us is that it actually elevates our stress hormones.
Research indicates that individuals, particularly women, who perceive their homes as cluttered have higher levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. If you want to start reducing your daily stress, Start by organizing your home. Start by putting things in their place. One of the things I like to think about is how my home can be like a home hotel.
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Chapter 3: Why is writing down my thoughts beneficial?
Chapter 4: How does acceptance lessen emotional pain?
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Are you still thinking about something that happened last week at work and you're kind of embarrassed about it? Or maybe you're waiting for someone to text you and you're wondering why they haven't replied for 24 hours. Or maybe you've been on a dating app recently and someone ghosted you and you're totally overthinking it. Overthinking, spiraling, crashing out are things we do every single day.
It almost feels like our minds are overflowing with the same negative thought patterns all the time. What do we do? If you've experienced any of those things before, this episode is for you. I want to share with you spiritual truths that help us understand how to stop overthinking and actually learn to let go. The first is everything is impermanent.
It's important that we learn to let go gracefully. The Bhagavad Gita has a beautiful verse, 2.14, that says, "...the non-permanent appearance of happiness and distress and their disappearance in due course are like the appearance and disappearance of the winter and summer seasons." They arise from sense perception and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.
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Chapter 5: What are effective ways to have difficult conversations?
I love this verse from the Bhagavad Gita and it's something that I really want you to take in. When you wake up in the morning and it's raining, if you let that define your mood, if you overthink it, it will totally ruin your day. If you wake up and you only feel happy when it's sunny, It sets you up for failure on a day when it's dark and it's not sunny.
How do we learn to tolerate this, as the Bhagavad Gita is saying? How do we get to a point where we don't overthink everything that happens around us and let it affect what's happening inside of us? I want to talk to you about the skill of recognizing impermanence. There's a beautiful story of the farmer and his son. It's a Zen story that I love to share.
While the son is wandering the land, he comes across a horse. He's able to ride this horse back and they have a great sense of compatibility and he brings the horse back home. All the villagers gather around and they say to the father, this is amazing, what great news, your son has this horse. And the father replies, good thing, bad thing, who knows?
The next day when the son is riding the horse, the horse has a slight trip and an accident and knocks the son off and the son breaks his leg. The villagers gather around and say, oh no, this is the worst thing that could have happened. This is so terrible. You should have never let the horse come back. The farmer says, good thing, bad thing, who knows?
A few months later, while the boy is still healing, Every single man in this village is recruited to join the army, apart from the son because of his broken leg. The villagers gather and say, you're so lucky, you're so fortunate. This is the best thing that could have happened. The father replies, good thing, bad thing, who knows? And of course, the story goes on.
What this story teaches us is not that we want bad things to happen to us, or it's not that we want negative things to happen to anyone, but that we realize that all of these things are impermanent. They're not going to last forever. They're ephemeral. A sunny day doesn't last forever and a rainy day doesn't last forever. These things come and go like the seasons. This is what we have to learn.
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Chapter 6: Why should I stop delaying actions I can take today?
We learn to let go when we're prepared for the season. If you know it's going to rain, but you've got your rain boots and you've got your umbrella, it doesn't matter. You're prepared. If you know it's going to be really hot out and you've got your flip flops and your sunscreen, you're prepared. Letting go isn't about doing nothing. It's about focusing on what you can prepare.
Letting go is not the act of not being worried or not worrying about the consequences or not thinking about what's going to happen. Letting go is being proactive and preparing in the way that you can. Whatever season is going to come your way, do you have the appropriate clothing in your closet? Whatever season is going to come your way, is your mind prepared to deal with it?
Let us remember that both good and bad experiences are both impermanent. Now, let's say that you feel the same thoughts spiral in your mind every single day. The same things trigger you, block you, and slow you down. What do you do about it? The first piece of wisdom is getting the thought out of your head and onto a page.
It's really hard to filter thoughts while they're spiraling and circling around your mind. When you actually write down how you're feeling, you're extracting that emotion from within yourself and taking it into a place that you can get tactile with it. If a thought's outside of your head, you can now actually do something with it.
one of the things that's recommended is either ripping it up and discarding of it, potentially even burning it to really let go of it, or allowing yourself to throw it into the trash. Now, you may think these are woo-woo ideas, but actually, the Nagoya University study in 2024
found that participants who wrote down their angry thoughts and then shredded or discarded the paper experienced a significant reduction in anger. In contrast, those who kept the paper saw only a minor decrease in anger levels. The act of physically disposing of the paper played a crucial role in alleviating negative emotions. Think about that for a second.
The act of writing something down and discarding of that paper, ripping it up, throwing it in the trash, burning it, actually starts to free you from that emotional experience. It's mind-blowing to even think about it. And did you notice what I said there in the study? If you hold on to it, like a journal or even keep it around, it actually doesn't have the same impact.
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Chapter 7: How does my environment affect my mental state?
Another example is the Ohio State University research from 2012. A study published in Psychological Science demonstrated that individuals who wrote down their negative thoughts and then threw the paper away were more likely to mentally discard those thoughts. Conversely, those who kept the paper were more likely to dwell on the negative content. So it's not just about writing it down.
It also is about releasing it. Studies show that burning photographs of an ex-partner can serve as a powerful symbolic act to facilitate emotional release and closure after a breakup. This is from a study that I read in PMC. How many of you have held on to things that your ex gave you?
How many of you have kept in a shoebox letters, mementos, gifts from an ex-partner because there's a part of you that still is connected to them? Burn it. Let it go. Discard it. If you truly want to release someone from your life, release items, memories, and things like that physically. Actually let it go in order to mentally let it go.
Another study from ResearchGate that analyzed personal grief rituals found that symbolic actions, including the disposal of objects through elements like fire, support emotional healing by providing a tangible method to express and release complex feelings. I remember when I interviewed Nessa Barrett on my podcast On Purpose, and she had this song called Burn Box.
This idea of really being able to release something. So next time you find a thought appearing in your mind every single day, I want you to write it down on a piece of paper. I want you to rip it up. I want you to shred it. I want you to put it in the fire, burn it and let it go and see how you feel lighter and liberated from that weight. Spiritual truth number two.
We all have heard that your inner world shapes your outer reality. But there's an even more hidden truth here. Your outer reality shapes your inner world. If you feel like you're overthinking, clean that closet, tidy that cupboard, reorganize your desk. The practical act of cleaning, tidying or reorganizing literally cleans and orders your mind.
Waking up to zero clutter frees you from the stress you feel when you see unwashed dishes or that messy desk or that piece of art on your wall that is slightly off center. It's fascinating to me how many of us are hoping to have a peaceful mind in a chaotic living room, a peaceful mind in a messy kitchen, a peaceful mind in a disorganized bedroom. And it's actually the act of decluttering.
It's not just walking into a clean space. When you start cleaning, when you start organizing, it's almost like you're filing away files in your mind. Have you ever felt like you have too many tabs open on your laptop? Imagine how many tabs are open in your mind. When you start to clean up the tabs on your laptop, the tabs on your screen, all of a sudden you start to mentally declutter.
Now let's look at the research on this. Clutter affects your mind. The first way is cognitive overload. Clutter competes for your attention, leading to cognitive overload. This constant visual distraction can impair your ability to focus and process information.
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Chapter 8: What practical steps can I take to declutter my mind?
It may feel like a chore and a task, but it's something that will actually heal you. I couldn't be more excited to share something truly special with all you tea lovers out there. And even if you don't love tea, if you love refreshing, rejuvenating, refueling sodas that are good for you, listen to this.
Radhi and I poured our hearts into creating Juni Sparkling Tea with adaptogens for you because we believe in nurturing your body and with every sip, you'll experience calmness of mind, a refreshing vitality, and a burst of brightness to your day.
Juni is infused with adaptogens that are amazing natural substances that act like superheroes for your body to help you adapt to stress and find balance in your busy life.
Our Super 5 blend of these powerful ingredients include green tea, ashwagandha, acerola cherry and lion's mane mushroom and these may help boost your metabolism, give you a natural kick of caffeine, combat stress, pack your body with antioxidants and stimulate brain function. Even better, Juni has zero sugar and only five calories per can.
We believe in nurturing and energizing your body while enjoying a truly delicious and refreshing drink. So visit drinkjuni.com today to elevate your wellness journey and use code ONPURPOSE to receive 15% off your first order. That's drinkjuni.com and make sure you use the code ONPURPOSE. The second way that clutter affects us is that it actually elevates our stress hormones.
Research indicates that individuals, particularly women, who perceive their homes as cluttered have higher levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. If you want to start reducing your daily stress, Start by organizing your home. Start by putting things in their place. One of the things I like to think about is how my home can be like a home hotel.
What I mean by that is I want my home to have the warmth of a home, the comfort of a home, but I wanted to have the organization of a hotel. Have you ever noticed when you go into a hotel, the hairdryer is in one of the drawers, the ironing board is in the same place, the steamer, whatever it may be, everything has a place.
Start by figuring out what deserves a place in your home and what that place is. One of my favorite exercises from Marie Kondo was this idea of items that spark joy. What's the first thing you see in the morning? Is it a messy desk? Or is it a picture of your family that makes you feel happy? What's the first thing in the morning? Is it the dishes that haven't been done from last night?
Or is it a piece of art that inspires you? What's the first thing you see when you get back from work? Is it a disorganized cupboard? Or is it a closet that has everything in the right place? When you change what you see first thing in the morning, first thing when you come back from work, and last thing before you go to bed, you transform your day.
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