You’re not alone. Several readers have recently told me they’re experiencing an underlying restlessness that drains their focus and energy, even when they’re not consciously stressed or anxious.

Can you relate to that feeling of being mentally tired? You just can’t pick yourself up to do something useful.

This isn’t a “you” problem; it’s a natural mental state that most of us experience at times. I’ve gone through periods where I also had that sense of restlessness.

But here’s the good news. You can do something about it. Here are seven practical strategies to quiet a restless mind.

1. Externalize Your Mind (Write It Down)

Your brain hates ambiguity. When your subconscious senses an unresolved issue, it keeps running in the background, stealing mental energy. According to research from the University of Rochester Medical Center, journaling your thoughts can significantly free up your cognitive resources.¹

Actionable tip: Write whatever pops into your head daily, even if it feels fragmented or meaningless.

Don’t edit. Just articulate your thoughts and feelings without judgment. Also avoid thinking about what it’s good for. It will make sense later.

2. Label Your Mental State (Name the Feeling)

Naming vague feelings reduces their psychological power. UCLA researchers, led by Matthew Lieberman, found that simply acknowledging your emotional state can reduce its intensity.²

Actionable tip: When restlessness arises, explicitly say to yourself, “I’m feeling mentally restless right now.” Don’t try to figure out why you’re restless or anxious or whatever. Just label it.

You will often find a sense of relief. It’s almost like giving yourself permission to take a step back. Because most of us just ignore our feelings. That’s how we end up burnt out or depressed. You have to nip the feelings that end up in disastrous mental states in the bud.

3. Schedule Regular Solitude (Quiet Your Mind)

Your brain requires downtime to sort out mental clutter. Neuroscientist Marcus Raichle points out that your brain’s Default Mode Network (the network activated during rest) naturally sorts and resolves issues running in the background.³

Actionable tip: Make sure you have “alone time” every single day. Lay on your bed, find an empty corner in the office, or ideally, go somewhere with a view.

This might seem a bit weird, but it’s really a good habit. I regularly go to my balcony and just look around. I look at the people, buildings, clouds, birds, whatever.

I honestly think this is why a lot of people smoke. It gives them a reason to go out and stare into the blue. But you don’t have to smoke to look into the horizon and contemplate a bit. Just don’t get lost in your thoughts.

4. Structured Reflection (Clarify Your Thoughts)

Aimless mind wandering keeps you stuck. Deliberate reflection, however, brings clarity. Research on intentional reflection shows it can reduce excessive activity in the Default Mode Network.⁴

Actionable tip: Spend 5-10 minutes daily reflecting deliberately. Look for patterns or repeated feelings, even if they’re unclear initially.

This is where your journal comes into play again. You can just look at your recent notes and rethink them, especially when it comes to your plans and goals. Just reflect and think whether it’s the right thing. Look at things from different angles.

5. Move Your Body (Exercise Regularly)

Exercise is your best reset button. Harvard Medical School emphasizes that regular physical activity boosts serotonin and dopamine, chemicals that reduce anxiety and calm your restless mind.⁵

Actionable tip: Commit to at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise daily. Walk, jog, cycle, or do yoga—just move.

When you sit around an office or in your house all day, you often feel useless. Like you didn’t use your day. That’s because sitting doesn’t release those happy chemicals.

No matter what you do, make sure to move every day. Get out the house and get moving.

6. Practice Mindfulness (Anchor Your Attention)

Mindfulness allows you to observe your mental state without getting caught up in it. A Johns Hopkins–led systematic review confirms that regular mindfulness meditation significantly reduces anxiety and enhances clarity.⁶

Actionable tip: Practice simple mindfulness meditation for 5-10 minutes daily. Sit comfortably, close your eyes, and focus on your breathing.

If you like guided meditation, try using an app. I like Waking Up by Sam Harris. Although I don’t meditate every day, I often return to it during challenging times.

7. Prioritize Mental Simplicity (Reduce Inputs)

Simplify everything in your life. This is a strategy that you can apply in every single area. Whether it’s your work, exercise, habits, desk, home, or closet, keep it simple.

Actionable tip:  Clean out your closet and donate the stuff you haven’t worn in months.

In my experience, simplicity is a mindset that you need to practice constantly. I’ve travelled quite a bit over the last three years. And every time, I took a big suitcase or I would fill up my car with everything I thought I needed.

As I’m writing this, I’ve been in Spain for nearly a month with my wife and all I brought with me was a small carry-on trolley. Granted, it’s summer so my clothes don’t take much space. But I just have a few t-shirts, shorts, one pair of shoes, sandals, underwear, and my hair clipper to do my beard and hair.

I like the simplicity. I do my work on a laptop and I realized I don’t need much on a daily basis. That’s also true for many other things in life.

Conclusion: Keep Taming The Mind

Mental restlessness is common, but it’s something you can manage with deliberate practice.

You don’t have to live with constant background noise draining your focus. But you have to make an effort to calm down your mind.

It’s something we need to do every day. We can’t expect to meditate for a few months and then keep the benefits forever. The mind is wild and prefers to get out of control.

Your job is to keep it in check.

The post Do You Have a Restless Mind? Try These 7 Things appeared first on Darius Foroux.

But what does “awe” actually mean?

Awe is that feeling we get when we encounter something larger than ourselves. Like watching a beautiful sunset.

You know, the stuff that we’re often too distracted to experience.

Does that mean we should all travel to see these beautiful sights?

Not really. I don’t think that’s sustainable. Also, chasing after pleasant experiences is not a good solution to making ourselves feel more alive.

Instead, we can do these 3 things to feel more alive this year.

1. Go on a road trip

I can’t recommend this enough. Pack up your stuff and drive to a different country or state.

I’ve been doing this now every year since 2022, and I love it. First, I went with my dad. The last several times with my partner.

We’ve done thousands of miles. Every time, we sleep in a different city. Now, you can also do this if you don’t have a car or much time.

You can just travel for a few days and then come back.

The true experience is in the trip itself. You’re constantly exposed to NEW things.

And that’s true gold in today’s routine-based life.

Everyone is crazy about their habits and routines these days. And I get it. Consistency is important.

But so is novelty.

Just do something that requires you to use all your senses. And the best thing in my experience is going on a road trip.

2. Find the three, simple things that soothe you

We feel more alive when we’re in a calmed, relaxed state. It’s definitely harder to be more present and aware of the world if you’re too busy and stressed out at work!

Now, having a vacation is nice. But we can’t do that every single time. So the best alternative is to find three simple things that soothes or relaxes you.

It could be anything small like brewing a cup of tea, listening to your favorite song, or meditating.

Marcus Aurelius said it best:

“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”

Allow yourself these moments of serenity, and they will act as your sanctuary amidst the chaos.

3. Cut down on content consumption

Everything you suspect about consuming content is true: It makes you passive, lazy, and addicted.

I’ve been cutting down on content consumption a lot recently. I’ve used YouTube Premium for many years now. But I canceled it.

I consumed A LOT of content on YT. From podcasts to informational videos. I’m done with always opening the YT app.

I’m not really a social media type of guy, so I don’t use it anyway. But if you do, I recommend getting rid of it for a while.

The only content I consume now is audio. I’m back to listening to podcasts, which I didn’t do for years. And reading of course. I still read books and articles. That’s my default.

But getting rid of visual content is a must. We already watch enough content.

Use your time to make progress on your goals. And to DO MORE.

A new year means new chances

What month is it today? It doesn’t matter. Feeling more alive “this year” is always up to you. Whether the year is just starting or ending, it’s up to you whether you’ll start and continue to change something.

So if you want to build new habits, and it’s still January, then great!

Go for it. But even if it’s the middle of the month, or the last month of the year, you can always start to improve your life and happiness. As Seneca said:

“As long as you live, keep learning how to live.”

Every day is a new opportunity to feel more alive. Don’t wait for a new year to revitalize your life; the power for change is always in the present.

The post 3 Ways to Feel More Alive This Year appeared first on Darius Foroux.

Maybe you’re thinking of quitting, giving up, or even escaping your life and traveling the world?

Well, welcome to modern-day life, filled with expectations and pressure to be successful.

When life gets hard and we don’t get what we want, we tend to get frustrated. Eventually, that frustration leads to anger, which in turn results in an overall feeling of helplessness.

That’s when the gloomy thoughts take over.

“I can’t do it. I’m going to quit.”

Now you start questioning yourself. You forget about all the things you’ve accomplished in your life and you only think about how hard life is in the moment.

You lose all perspective. It’s just negative thoughts. Everything sucks.

I’ve been on this path many times in life. You and I both know that it’s a pure waste of energy.

Whether you feel sorry for yourself or not, life goes on. It’s your responsibility to snap out of your gloomy mindset.

10 things you can do right now to feel better

I want to give you a set of techniques you can immediately use if you feel gloomy. Maybe that’s right now. Or maybe you can use it in the future when you get in that type of mindset.

Here are ten practical steps you can immediately put into action.

1. Let go: Surrender, but not in the way you might think. Let go of unrealistic expectations and overly ambitious goals that are causing you stress. There’s virtue in knowing what truly matters. Remember, the sun doesn’t shine brighter because we force it; it simply shines every day without effort.
2. Embrace simplicity: Escaping isn’t the solution. Instead, learn to appreciate the mundane aspects of your life. Find joy in simplicity. A cup of hot coffee on a cold morning, a warm smile from a stranger, the sound of rain on the roof; these simple pleasures are the real treasures of life.
3. Listen to your favorite music: Music has the power to uplift your spirits. Listen to songs that make you happy.
4. Revisit your favorite childhood movie: For me, it’s “Back to the Future II”. I watched that movie so often when I was young. Watching it now reminds me of that time. Doesn’t matter which movie it is for you. Just let it remind you of simpler times.
5. Buy a bunch of good books: Get excited about immersing yourself in new worlds and ideas. Reading can be a great escape. From fantasy epics to insightful biographies, books offer us countless lives and realities.
6. Read “A Manual for Living” by Epictetus: This brief yet profound book will help you refocus on what’s truly important in life. Epictetus teaches us that it’s not events that disturb us, but our interpretation of them.
7. Connect with friends: Engaging in meaningful conversations with good friends can be energizing and uplifting. Reach out to an old friend, share a laugh, reminisce about old times, or even vent if you need to.
8. Go for a long walk: Walking is not just physically beneficial, but it’s also a great way to clear your mind and relax. As you walk, try to consciously notice the world around you – the falling leaves, the chirping birds, the cool breeze. Appreciate the beauty of nature.
9. Indulge in self-care: Take a warm bath or visit a sauna. Relaxation helps you to focus on the warmth and good feelings.
10. Slow down: When gloominess strikes, our thoughts tend to race. Make a conscious effort to slow down. Take deep breaths, meditate, or practice mindfulness. Remember, it’s okay to pause.

As you can see from the above tips, it’s all about slowing down your life and mind.

When you’re glooming, you go fast. You want to slow down.

Reject the gloomy thoughts

When gloominess sets in, remember that you have the power to break free from it. You can return to your normal self.

Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist who endured unimaginable suffering in concentration camps, said: 

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

This is a very powerful idea. YOU have the power to choose your attitude, NO MATTER WHAT.

Choose positivity, life, and good things—even if life is hard. Never walk away from hardship.

Go through it with an optimistic mindset.

The post How to Get Out of a Gloomy Mindset appeared first on Darius Foroux.

This is the problem of deep thinkers: people who are conscientious, thoughtful, and considerate. But you’re not being thoughtful at all.

You’re actually destroying your own life.

You’re always thinking about the future, the past, or things that don’t even matter.

• What does so-and-so think of me?
• Why did he say that to me? What does he mean?
• Did you see what she did?
• Why does my boss not look at me in meetings?
• What’s wrong with me? I want to lie in bed all day.
• Everyone in this restaurant is looking at me.
• I’m not good enough.

You create entire movies in your mind that are so far from reality that YOU are disconnected from reality.

Your whole life is passing by in front of you.

And you’re so busy thinking about all kinds of things that you’re not aware of it.

I’m talking from experience as a perpetual overthinker. But there’s a way to manage that voice inside your head.

The overthinking monster: No one’s safe

I consider myself an advanced student of philosophy and meditation. I’ve been reading philosophy since I was 17, and I’ve been seriously practicing Stoicism and Mindfulness for almost a decade now.

And I’ve written about these topics a lot since then—dozens of articles and even entire books (Win Your Inner Battles, Think Straight, and Focus on What Matters).

Despite all this knowledge of philosophy and knowing what I “should” do, I still get caught in bouts of excessive thinking.

During these moments, I no longer observe my thoughts and live in the present moment; my thoughts consume me.

In the past, I was permanently stuck in that state of mind. It’s not uncommon. Most people live their lives as slaves to their thoughts.

But these days, there are more people interested in philosophy, meditation, Stoicism, and Mindfulness. These practices will help you to “wake up.”

When you start observing your thoughts, you can finally break free from the trap of overthinking. But no matter how mindful you are, you can always relapse.

And it can happen at any time. But you’re particularly prone to overthinking if there are a lot of things going on in your life that you don’t control. So you start thinking about “what ifs.”

Once you start doing that, you’re lost.

That happens to me too. But the power of knowledge is that you’re able to become aware of your own destructive behavior.

Getting grounded: The key to stop overthinking

You know, the biggest benefit of all this personal growth stuff we do is that it actually works.

For example, Stoicism teaches you how to deal with the difficulties of life. Buddhism and Mindfulness teach you the same. When you’re learning about these things, you might not need them.

But as we all know, life is hard, and it’s only a matter of time before we have to deal with difficult things.

Losing a loved one. Getting fired. Breaking up. Dealing with illness. You name it. We will all face those things at some point.

And when we face challenges, we have tools in our arsenal that help us get grounded.

That’s all you need to do when you’re experiencing inner turmoil.

The key to overcoming overthinking is not only about awareness. Yes, being aware of your thoughts is important. This is the starting point of waking up.

You must become the observer of your thoughts.

But it’s also about understanding your nature.

The craving mind: Why we’re always restless

First, we must accept the nature of our mind, which is restless. You simply can’t expect that you will ever reach a permanent state of bliss.

Many people think that experienced meditators get to this magical mental state of mind at some point. In that magical state, there’s no worry or overthinking. That’s a misconception.

As long as you live, you will have to deal with your restless mind. Your mind’s goal is to stir up some trouble up there. Your goal is to manage the trouble.

You see? There’s your “mind,” and there’s “you,” which are two different things. Some people call the “you” the soul or being.

The point is that you must acknowledge that you are NOT your thoughts. Your thoughts simply appear in your consciousness. You are the one who’s observing the thoughts.

This is the key to waking up and making sure you stop overthinking.

All this that I’m describing is a process. It’s the same thing with your weight.

No single human being has the same body weight every single day. Our weight fluctuates based on what we eat, drink, do, and how we sleep.

The same thing applies to your state of mind: It’s in constant movement.

Your mind constantly craves experiences and pleasure. Your mind is the cause of why you try to chase what you desire and try to avoid what you fear.

Accept and wake Up!

If you want to have inner peace, you need to be a light and fluid person who doesn’t hold on to thoughts. Your soul needs to be clear and new at every moment.

Don’t hold on to any judgments about yourself or the world. Forget about all the verbal concepts in your mind.

• “I had a tough childhood.”
• “I was bullied in school.”
• “Every single thing I tried in my career didn’t work out.”
• “I’m weak because I can’t stick to my habits.”

Stop it. Stop all of it!

Every single moment, you are a new person. You have a new chance to experience life.

What we do is endure. That’s not living.

When you tune out your thoughts and live in the present, you can only do one thing: experience the thing that’s in front of you.

Enjoy.

The post Thinking Your Way Out of Problems Doesn’t Work appeared first on Darius Foroux.

It’s interesting to see how I’ve used AI over the past two years. First, I liked it, but didn’t use it, then, it became better, and I started using it more.

Anyway, here’s my original article:

When Open AI introduced Chapt GPT on November 22, they blew up the economy… In a good way. Nowadays, AI writing has become a norm.

I can’t believe it’s almost two years with AI now.

Back in Q4 of 2022, the world was in the grip of inflation. People warned of hyperinflation.

We were heading towards the Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic of 100 years ago.¹

Then… AI came to the rescue.

Honestly, AI has single-handedly boosted the economy. Inflation was already peaking at that time, and gradually came down during 2023.

It was really the perfect catalyst for the economy and stock market.

But also for us as individuals.

AI to the rescue

Who can say no to the pitch of AI? It went a bit like this:

“Hi, I’m an AI chatbot. I’m here to help with you all your cognitive tasks. I can do your writing, researching, and even thinking for you!

Need ideas? Got you!

Need to write an annoying email? Got you!”

Look, we’re all suckers for time and money-saving schemes.

And AI is the boss of all bosses when it comes to saving time and money.

So, like millions of other people across the globe, I was enticed.

I started using AI when it came out.

My experience with AI is exactly the same as with flying.

When I went on a plane for the first time and arrived in another country within a few hours, I thought, “WOW, this is amazing.” It was a new experience.

Think of the time you can save traveling by plane.

But as the newness fades, you end up with the practicality of flying:

• I might travel once or twice a year by plane
• I hate airports and lines
• I prefer to take my car even if it means I have to travel for longer because driving is more fun, especially when you go on a vacation

AI can save you time

Planes and AI. Both save you time. But the amount of times I use both is very limited these days.

AI only gives you the illusion of progress. You think you’re being this clever futurist who’s saving all this time and getting so much stuff done.

That’s not true.

If you consistently use AI for your cognitive tasks, you might feel better now, but you’re getting lazier in the long term.

I know that for a fact. I had a subscription to Jasper AI, which is used for content creation.

After I started experimenting with AI, I thought, “Well, maybe AI can give me my article ideas.”

So that’s what I did for a few months in 2023. And then I noticed something that I absolutely hate.

I became lazy. I started reading less. After all, why read books if AI can give you the summary or ideas?

WRONG, WRONG, wrong.

Another thing: As I created AI-generated articles, my writing assistant/researcher and I spent even more time in the editing process.

• We had to double-check every fact and quote because AI tends to “hallucinate” and make things up.
• We had to edit large sections of an article because it offered no real insight. That’s just the nature of Large Language Models (LLMs) which operate generative AI. They don’t have “insights” of their own. They can only predict the next best string of words based on the data they were trained on. Useful articles that give you results and convince people to act need depth and helpful insights through personal experience and research.
• There’s also the writing itself. Jasper AI is pretty good at copying your writing voice, especially if you train its LLM on your website (like I did). But when you read enough AI-generated stuff, you eventually recognize AI writing immediately. So we had to edit the writing to make it sound more like a real human.

Then, I gave up using AI in my day-to-day. I also canceled my Jasper subscription because I hadn’t used it all year.

Update January 2025: I‘m back to using AI because it’s SO MUCH better compared to when I wrote this piece first.

AI can make you dumber while making you feel smart

People need to do more research on this, but I suspect that AI will make the average person dumber over time. In fact, there have been smaller studies that show how AI is impacting people’s creativity.

A 2021 behavioral experiment found that over-reliance on AI can lead to humans becoming dumber by losing their unique knowledge.² The study said:

“Collective intelligence emerges in humans and society when diverse minds that have access to different data sources come together to find solutions to problems, also known as the wisdom of crowds… Over reliance on AI can lead to a decrease in the diversity of thinking, leading to suboptimal collective performance.”

AI tends to be monotonous because it doesn’t offer anything new (it’s only good at predicting words and re-purposing existing content). In fact, one concern that the study brought up is how over-reliance on AI is similar to being inside an echo chamber.

Social media platforms, for example, use algorithms that detect which content you engage with to show you more of that type of content.

“Those who rely too much on news from social media platforms, which in turn rely too much on AI tools, can slowly become borgs, subject to the echo chambers of AI-enabled news feeds where diversity of thought is gradually lost,” the study continued. “As different groups separate in their collective thinking, they cannot appreciate different perspectives, and at one extreme, they live in alternative realities.”

People begin to mimic AI and rely less on their own thinking, assuming everyone agrees with them and acting as if they’re smart.

In a recent interview, a Portland State University professor observed that there was a gradual decline in the quality of students’ written assessments.³

After all, when tools do all the work, students don’t learn the important skills they need in life.

“For younger individuals, if they do not exercise the brain by performing complex tasks, important aspects and connections within the brain may not be developed at all,” the professor said.

Progress requires the writing process

There’s this satire film called Idiocracy that I watched many years ago. The film is set in 2505, and everything is so automated that people have become incredibly dumb.

They don’t need to think critically or solve problems. And because people haven’t used their minds, their thinking ability has eroded over time.

This makes me think about the path of AI right now.

We need the process of writing to progress because writing is a form of thinking. It is the writing process that improves you and your life. This applies regardless of your profession.

As the writing professor, William Zinsser puts it:

“People are prevented from doing useful work because they never learned to express themselves. Contrary to general belief, writing isn’t something that only “writers” do; writing is a basic skill for getting through life.”

Back in 2015, before I started blogging, I was stuck and lost in my career. I started journaling to better understand my goals and personal purpose. Then I committed to publishing articles on my blog consistently. This process helped me develop the habit of executing my goals.

Imagine if AI had existed then. I would’ve missed out on all the benefits of writing daily.

The real benefit of writing is in the process. And constantly relying on AI kills our critical thinking skills.

Use your writing and thinking as training for life. Don’t outsource that to AI.

The post AI Writing and the Illusion of Progress appeared first on Darius Foroux.