A common suggestion in spirituality and personal development teachings is to observe one’s thoughts objectively. This is relatively easy to do when you’re curled up on the couch, reading the suggestion from a self-help book. The real challenge is to maintain this objective awareness when life drops a couple of lemons in a knee-high sock and begins beating you with it.

But as I’ve been practicing this awareness more and more, I’ve noticed that it usually kickstarts further logical analysis.

I am thinking x. Why am I thinking x? Does x follow logically from my conscious beliefs? If not, what past experiences or subconscious beliefs could have triggered x?

The thing is, this kind of mental focus seems to draw power away from the more primitive processes like…feeling love?

Is a kiss still a kiss when you’ve got this madness running through your head:

I’m closing my eyes and putting my mouth on this other mouth…and now I’m thinking about how their lips feel…and now I’m thinking about how I’m thinking about how their lips feel…

At a certain point, you realize you’re becoming less human and more robotic. I guess the question is, where do you draw the line? When is it better to shut down your logical brain and just feel?