Mental Gymnastics
Hey Siri, define mental gymnastics…
Mental gymnastics is a term that refers to complex logical thought processes or inventive arguments used to justify something or make sense of something.
For example, someone might perform mental gymnastics to justify why their crush hasn’t responded to their text OR why they haven’t heard back from last week’s interview. The process typically involves a copious amount of overthinking, making up false scenarios, and normally ends with a grounding moment where you bring yourself down to earth, realizing how absurdly long it’s been occupying your mind, which can be hours, days or months.
Raise your hand if you have been there before. Queue collective raise of hands across America…
—
Not many people know this about me, but I am an Olympic Gold Medalist for the US Mental Gymnastics team. My therapist constantly tells me to stop thinking for a second and to feel but feeling can be hard for an olympic mental gymnast like myself. Contrary to popular belief, nothing is off limits for overthinking. It can be something as simple as a text I sent last Tuesday, or whether I should use mint or basil in my Watermelon Summer Salad recipe. I can promise you my brain is doing cartwheels.
I realized my talent (or flaw) of mental gymnastics a few years ago while on a beach walk with my best friend. You know those friends that you have absolutely no filter with, the feel good friends, that is Riley for me. When we finished this beach walk, where my spoken words were a stream of my consciousness with zero filter whatsoever, Riley (kindly) told me that she would jump into the Boston Harbor if she had as many thoughts as I did.
After spending 48 hours together, she told me that for every 469 thoughts I had (and said out loud), that she had approximately 7. She did laugh at approximately 460 of my thoughts but I digress. I thought, “Oh…interesting…so my brain is…dare you say…different…because I think too much?”
Thinking about or somewhat obsessing over the impact I have on others is my superpower. I will have hour-long conversations with the receptionist at the hair salon if she looks a little sad. I will ask the girl in the airport that is crying if she is okay because if I don’t, I won’t stop thinking about whether or not there was something I could have done to help her. This is arguably the only time I am “good” at feeling feelings, when I am imagining what it would be like to be in someone else’s shoes. Then, I feel ALL THE FEELS.
—
Call me crazy, call me too much, I don’t care. Ten times out of ten times, I would rather be too much than hurt someone’s feelings. While we cannot always control the feelings of those around us, we can control our bubble and hope some of our kindness creates a ripple effect strong enough to penetrate others’ bubbles as well.
—
On the Flip Side of Overthinking:
Yes, mental gymnastics can be exhausting — but it’s also the reason I notice when a friend’s tone is off, and draft Slack messages with the precision of a poet. My brain doesn’t just spiral; it connects. It picks up on the unspoken, the almost-invisible. And while that means I’ve lost sleep over a typo in an email, it also means I’ve talked a stranger out of a panic attack because I noticed.
A past me used to look at every single way I was different and internalize each and every “flaw”. That version of me died a few years ago. I don’t miss her one bit and may she rest in peace. I no longer subscribe to the belief that my overthinking is a weakness or something that I should work to quiet. I can recognize that this way of thinking or overthinking may not be for everyone.
Next time your brain starts its Olympic routine, don’t shame it. Thank it. Those backflips over a text message? That’s your mind practicing empathy. Those hypothetical scenarios? That’s your creativity flexing. Maybe the goal isn’t to think less but to think more intentionally — to channel the gymnastics into something that serves you. And if all else fails? Remember Riley’s (paraphrased) wisdom: some of us are built for the marathon of thought. Some would prefer to jump into the Boston Harbor, but for me, at this season of my life, I embrace it.
Society loves to label empathetic, overactive minds as “too much.” But what if we’re not too much — what if everyone else is just under-feeling? The world needs people who care about the crying girl in the airport, who triple-check their words to avoid harm, who replay conversations not out of insecurity but out of a relentless desire to do better. Dr. Fred Luskin of Stanford University found that the average human brain has 60,000 thoughts a day. Dr. Luskin’s 60,000 thoughts a day? Mine might clock in at 100,000 — but I’ve learned to stop apologizing for the extra mileage.
Shoutout to my true blues, Riley Hellstein and Kels Arnold. Alexa, play “adore you” by Fred Again. Thank you for listening to every single one of my absurd thoughts and never judging me.
