5 Unsettling Thoughts That Haunt Our Daily Lives (And How to Deal with Them)
As per Andy Puddicombe, we spend, on average, close to 50 percent of our lives distracted, lost in thoughts. Although certain thoughts are fleeting in nature, there are a few thoughts that keep occurring again and again. These recurring thought can vary person to person but for people like me who is in their 30’s and have spent decent time in their career, thoughts about money and status are something which is almost on the list of recurring thoughts
These thoughts are not only unnecessary most of the time but also drain us out without doing much work. So let's talk about these in detail. This article will be useful for anyone who finds themselves lost in thoughts while doing most of the things throughout the day.
I have been doing meditation for almost 4 years and practicing active mindfulness for almost 1 year, but I still find myself lost in thoughts. Given that I am now a father of a very active baby, I notice that whenever my mind gets little time, my mind starts thinking about the future or the past just because it has the habit of working and it has never learned how to do nothing when you don’t have anything to do.
The Constant Urge to Compare Yourself with Others
The comparison habit runs deep in me—ingrained since childhood by my father—causing me to compare myself with strangers whenever I see someone who appears well-off. Here’s an example: I commute to the office three days a week and encounter all sorts of people. While I ignore most, I find myself closely observing certain individuals who seem successful, and my mind immediately begins making comparisons.
I analyze details like their age, reasoning that if they’re older, I’m somehow doing better for my age. When they wear expensive clothes—which is often the case—I scrutinize the brands and tell myself they might just be showing off without real wealth. These are just a few examples of the many thoughts that flood my mind. The pattern is clear: spot someone who appears successful, then mentally work to prove myself superior to them.
While I’ve used strangers as examples, this habit manifests even more frequently with friends and family during social gatherings, which occur regularly—except during the COVID period.
I don’t have much respect
There was a time when my financial situation wasn’t good, and I thought all my problems stemmed from not having enough money. However, once I started earning and investing properly, that issue was resolved—and that’s when I realized money wasn’t actually the problem. All along, the real issue was my ego and status. Since childhood, I had been taught that good status comes from earning more, and once this misconception was cleared, the actual issues began surfacing.
Whenever someone says something I don’t like, my mind immediately jumps to one conclusion: that I have no respect. I had been practicing meditation before COVID, and during the pandemic, when we were mostly working from home, we had minimal interaction. For someone like me with constant mental chatter, this was actually a blessing.
But when I returned to the office post-COVID and interactions with colleagues resumed, those feelings of unworthiness and lack of respect started resurfacing in my mind. Even though I can clearly see the pattern my mind is creating, sometimes I still find it hard to overcome.
Despite Academic Excellence, I Haven’t Reached Peak Earnings
This is something unique to me, or maybe a few people who were good in study resonate with this. Since childhood I have been told that if you want to become successful and wealthy, study is the only way out, and so because of this and my desire to become wealthy, I make sure I study well, even when on a few occasions I don’t like doing it.
When I started earning, I saw a new pattern: the way you were ranked in studies doesn’t align with how you would be earning among your friend circle. When I tried digging it deeper, I found that a calm and focused mind is more important than how good you were in studies.
The quality of being resilient and not hoping from one profession to another and from one skill to another makes a lot of difference. You have to believe that how you succeed in life is different from how you succeed in studies. People who excel without much iteration succeed in studies, while people who know how to do as much iteration as required to succeed without distraction will succeed in life.
Always planning ahead
The mind prefers not to live in the present. It either dwells on past incidents—imagining how things could have turned out differently with better choices—or fixates on planning future events.
For example, if you’re catching a flight tomorrow morning, instead of sticking to your usual route to the airport, your mind might suggest trying something new. While creative thinking isn’t bad, anxiety often creeps in. You start worrying: What if the new route makes you late? What if you miss your flight? Suddenly, all pleasant feelings vanish as you spiral into worst-case scenarios.
This is just one example among hundreds where planning ahead to be organized backfires—the emotions and feelings that attach themselves to these thoughts end up making you feel worse in the present moment.
Trying to set some analogy
How often do you find yourself in situations where your mind tries to predict the outcome of future events by drawing parallels with past experiences? It’s like thinking, “When this happened to me or my loved ones before, the outcome was like this—so it must happen again.”
While pleasant past outcomes can be reassuring, our minds tend to give more weight to unpleasant ones. This triggers anxiety about events that haven’t even begun.
While logical comparisons with past experiences can be useful, we should be cautious about relying solely on historical evidence to predict outcomes.
Final Thoughts
A thought is just a thought—this is something you must always remember. Stay aware of what you’re feeling as much as possible without getting entangled with those feelings. Andy Puddicombe offers a perfect analogy: our thoughts are like cars in traffic, and our mind is like a person watching from the side of the road.
Everything remains peaceful as long as you don’t interact with the traffic. But the moment you fixate on one feeling, you begin chasing it, and suddenly you find yourself in the middle of the road where every thought threatens to overwhelm you.
If you found this article helpful and resonated with these thoughts about money and status, please consider giving it a clap. Your support helps this content reach others who might be experiencing similar challenges.
I’d also love to hear your perspective in the comments. What recurring thoughts do you find yourself battling with? How do you manage them? Sharing our experiences not only helps us feel less alone but also creates a supportive community where we can learn from each other.
Remember, acknowledging these thoughts is the first step toward managing them better. We’re all on this journey together.
