The Torture Is Real: What It's Like To Be Trapped Inside Your Own Head

One of the biggest issues I’ve faced, now more than ever before, is keeping myself in touch with the reality outside of me.  I feel like this is a common problem in the world we live in today.

With all the new technology and ever-growing drive our generation has, we spend most of our lives thinking and doing. We no longer take the time to consume the world around us.

Everyone experiences this from time to time, but there are those of us who spend more time inside our heads than the average person. Such individuals are often incredibly intelligent, but also often a bit unstable.

Living in a quick-paced world, and maintaining a healthy mindset can prove to be incredibly difficult.

Sometimes, we feel like we’re trapped in our own minds without any idea of how to navigate our way out. I’ll be honest: It can be scary at times.

You lose track of time -- sometimes, days at a time.

It’s not that you don’t see or understand the days are flying by. It’s that the time passed before realizing just how much time has passed is much greater for you than it is for most other people.

When you’re trapped in your head for most of the day, it can be difficult to get yourself to notice the passing of time.

You’re not just sitting in place and thinking; you’re going about your day, your work, your social life, all while remaining in your own head.

This can, of course, be dangerous, as being on such a constant rotation inevitably wears us out.

Most people don’t understand that our minds, like all other facets of our lives, need to be kept tidy.

If we don’t slow down our minds and clear out those thoughts hiding beneath the surface, not only will days pass without us noticing, but we'll also feel the effects of struggle.

You’re a hell of a thinker.

You can’t be inside your mind all day without fine-tuning your thought process.

Your mind is basically a complex filing system. We file thoughts, memories, feelings and everything else that makes us human, then find ways to link them all together.

Like all things, thinking takes practice. If you want to improve your intelligence, you need to exercise your mind. Likewise, if you don’t use your mind, you lose it. Those who don’t make a point to exercise their minds often end up suffering from disorders like dementia.

However, thinking can get you into as much trouble as it can do you good. Just because you think a lot doesn’t mean you think rationally. Mix that in with a bucketful of emotions, and you can be incredibly dangerous to yourself and those around you.

You most likely have a very good understanding of the person you are.

How could you not when you spend most of your life rummaging around in the cupboards of your mind?

You like to analyze things because that’s what a mind is for; being the egocentric being that you are, you’re surely going to spend significant time analyzing yourself and your life.

To be fair, no amount of analyzation without experience will do you any good. You need to experience life and all the ups and downs it offers in order to both understand yourself and your place in the world.

You’re usually pretty happy.

Not always happy -- because who is these days -- but usually happy. Or rather, content. You spend most of your time with yourself; so as long as you like yourself, you’ll be content with your life.

Your life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows; you still live in a world where human cruelty appalls you, but you’re generally happy with the person you are, where you’re heading in life and how you're spending your precious time. Usually.

Everybody is a little bit different.

At times, when life throws you a curve ball, you can get emotional.

This is usually what gets those trapped in their own heads, into trouble. Having time to think and explore your mind is an incredible thing, but only if you stay positive.

When you allow your negative emotions to get the better of you, you’re likely to head down a dark path.

Intense thinkers are, more often than not, obsessors. We obsess. We’re able to focus on a single thing, or person, and spend countless thoughts with one subject in mind.

When your life is on the up and up, staying in the right mindset is easy. It’s when finding hope and motivation becomes difficult that being trapped in your mind can turn into torture.

You’re able to love more intensely.

Not necessarily more deeply, but definitely more intensely. We don’t only obsess over the little things; we obsess over the big things just the same.

Falling in love is in itself, partially, an obsession. When it comes to love, those of us who are already prone to obsessing will obsess two-fold.

This can be an incredible thing, as it allows for an intense and passionate romantic love experience. However, if things start to go south, or if we even believe they’re starting to go south, the pain and/or confusion is unimaginable.

At the same time, if we’re wise enough and have enough experience to understand how our minds and emotions can take us for a ride, we can avoid such pitfalls.

People often think of you as a loner, and it sometimes sucks.

You like your alone time -- clearly -- yet spending so much time alone in your head makes finding people to be with -- people you need to be with -- difficult.

Relationships take time to build, as well as time to maintain. For those of us who are always in our own heads, making and maintaining relationships isn’t always at the top of our priorities.

Even when we want to maintain such friendships, losing track of time and delving into our work can often make it seem as if we’re not trying, or as if we don’t care.

Spending so much time in your head makes interacting with reality seem less… real.

This one is a bit difficult to put into words. It’s like “watching” a movie without paying attention to it -- even when you’re trying to.

When you’re prone to spending a lot of time in your own head, the outside world begins to almost feel superfluous.

Even when you try to focus on the physical world and the present moment, it can be difficult to feel as if you’re actually alive, existing in that moment.

If you meditate and focus, the combination of living within your head and in the world outside it, will allow you to create incredible things.

In all honesty, meditation and focus is a must for every single individual who finds him or herself lost in thought 90 percent of the time.

Meditation will ground you and allow you to feel more as if you are part of what's going on around you.

Taking a few moments to just breathe and close your eyes, or breathe and take in the world is the only way to feel as if you’re part of the world, not just watching from the outside in.

It’s the only way to keep your mind tidy and the only way to get a clear understanding of the path in life you wish to take.

You see, thinking is great, but you need to have things to think about. You need to actualize your thoughts by pursuing your goals and dreams.

Your mind is a wonderful place, but you should never feel trapped within it. You need to have a clear door from which to enter and exit at will.

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