2025/03/29

Joseph Nguyen’s "Don’t Believe Everything You Think"

(2) Jobs in psychology | Facebook

Jobs in psychology 
Join

Your mind is not a friend it’s a tyrant. It spins stories of inadequacy, catastrophizes the future, and replays past failures like a broken record. This mental noise isn’t just distracting; it’s soul-crushing. Joseph Nguyen’s "Don’t Believe Everything You Think" isn’t another platitude-filled pep talk. It’s a scalpel, cutting through the illusion that your thoughts define reality. In a world drowning in overthinking, anxiety, and self-doubt, this book is a rebellion against the prison of the mind. If you’re exhausted by the war inside your head, these pages don’t just offer relief they hand you the keys to freedom.
7 Lessons from "Don’t Believe Everything You Think":
1. Your Thoughts Are Not Facts They’re Fiction. Nguyen’s core thesis: Thoughts are stories, not truths. The mind generates narratives (“I’m not enough,” “This will fail”) masquerading as reality. Exhaustion and anxiety thrive when you conflate thoughts with facts. The antidote? Observe your mind like a movie screen. Ask: “Is this thought serving me, or enslaving me?” Disidentify. Let the storm pass without building a shelter in it.
2. Suffering Begins When You Cling to the “Why”. The mind obsesses over solving problems, dissecting past traumas, or seeking reasons for pain. Nguyen argues this fixation perpetuates suffering. “Not everything needs to be understood to be released,” he writes. Exhaustion dissolves when you stop interrogating every wound and instead let it exist without judgment. Healing isn’t in the analysis it’s in the surrender.
3. You Are the Sky Your Thoughts Are Just Weather. A central metaphor: You are not your thoughts; you’re the awareness beneath them. Emotions, doubts, and fears are passing clouds, not the sky itself. Nguyen urges readers to anchor in this awareness. When exhaustion or self-criticism arises, remind yourself: “This too shall pass." The less you fight the storm, the quicker it dissipates.
4. Presence Is the Ultimate Antidote to Overthinking. The mind’s chaos thrives in the past or future. Nguyen insists that presence grounding in the now is the only space where peace exists. Exhaustion is often a byproduct of mental time travel. Breathe. Feel your feet on the ground. Taste your coffee. “The present moment,” he writes, “is where life actually happens. The rest is noise.”
5. Self-Compassion Isn’t Soft—It’s Revolutionary. The mind’s default mode is self-attack: "You should’ve done better. You’re failing.” Nguyen reframes self-compassion as radical defiance. Treat yourself with the kindness you’d offer a struggling friend. Say aloud: “It’s okay. I’m human.” Exhaustion softens when you stop weaponizing your thoughts against yourself.
6. You Don’t Need to “Fix” Yourself to Be Worthy. The self-help industry profits by convincing you you’re broken. Nguyen dismantles this lie: “You are already whole.” Striving to “improve” implies lack. True peace comes not from fixing but from accepting. Exhaustion fades when you stop chasing an idealized version of yourself and rest in the truth of who you are here, now.
7. Freedom Lives in Questioning, Not Controlling. You’ll never control every thought, but you can question their power. Nguyen teaches: When a toxic thought arises (*
“I’m unlovable”), ask: “Is this true? What evidence do I have?” Exhaustion thrives in mental autopilot; freedom blooms in interrogation. The more you doubt your doubts, the less they own you.
You cän also get the audio böök for FREE. Use the same link to register for the audio book on Audible and st@rt enjoying it.









All reactions:2K2K


192 comments

519 shares

Like




Comment

Share
Katelijne Sedeyn
Do not believe you're next thought..
Thoughts are like clouds passing by..you don't have to follow every cloud...
The mind is a beautiful instrument to be .
Not the otherway around...
E Tolle
  • 1d
  • Like
  • Reply
  • Share
16
View all 3 replies
Paul Barlow
It's even more dangerous when these illusions are in the heads of Political leaders. Our whole society has been built on what goes on in people's heads. The most catastrophic being Two World Wars. The irrational fear of the future and regret of the past stops us living in the present. Society is structured to give us things to constantly worry about. FEAR the four letter word that controls the world.
The irrational fear of climate change and most recently Covid based on POSSIBLE SCENARIOS in a computer simulation not actual ones is two examples driving policies that made/are making life too expensive and will potentially cause economies to suffer as a result. Maybe even collapse based on faulty thinking and computer based simulations like AI.
Many rushed to take a vaccine because the Government feared them around catching Covid and millions ended up vaccine damaged or even died as a result of the vaccine all based on irrational fear of a virus that for most was mild and average age of death from it was 83.
Even the PCR test produced millions of false positives/negatives skewing the figures and question whether actually did die from Covid and not some similar illness instead. Not my figures but official statistics. The media and Government whipped up fear that was unjustified. The solution was more harmful than the original problem.
  • 15h
  • Like
  • Reply
  • Share
  • Edited
11
View all 3 replies
Matt Sheldon
This book changed me ❤️
  • 1d
  • Like
  • Reply
  • Share
8
View all 4 replies
Sharon Viviers Correia
"I am 82 years old, I have 4 children, 11 grandchildren, 2 great-grandchildren and a room of 12 square meters.
I no longer have a home or expensive things, but I have someone who will clean my room, prepare food and change my bedding, measure my blood pressure and weigh me.
I no longer have the laughter of my grandchildren, I don't see them growing, hugging and arguing. Some come to me every 15 days, some every three or four months, and some never.
I don't bake cakes, I don't dig up the garden. I still have hobbies and I like to read, but my eyes quickly hurt.
I don’t know how much longer, but I have to get used to this loneliness.
Here at home, I lead group work and help those who are worse than me as much as I can.
Until recently, I read aloud to an immobile woman in the room next to me, we used to sing together, but she died the other day. They say life is getting longer. Why?
When I’m alone, I can look at photos of my family and memories I brought from home. And that's all.
I hope that the next generations will understand that families are born to have a future (with children) and that they do not forget about the family even in old age."
- Author Unknown 💕
  • 4h
  • Like
  • Reply
  • Share
9
View 1 reply
Noel Maher
Echhart Tolle has been saying this for 40 years plus ….buy the book ..The power of now by Echart Tolle ..learn this and much much more ……and by the way ….your thought processes will considerably change..for the better…
  • 15h
  • Like
  • Reply
  • Share
  • Edited
5
Mar Co
"The mind is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master"
  • 9h
  • Like
  • Reply
  • Share
3
Adam Norman
Don't trust everything you read on socials, with great looking helpful mantras... Trust your gut!
  • 14h
  • Like
  • Reply
  • Share
4
Nigel Jessen
This book is full of someone's thoughts ...
Some of which might be useful , and some of which might serve to hinder the self-reflection and strategizing that we need to "grow" in a society that has certain expectations of us.
  • 4h
  • Like
  • Reply
  • Share
Antoinette Dunn
The bible is filled with fiction and misinterpretations.
And toxicity!
  • 15h
  • Like
  • Reply
  • Share
2
View 1 reply
Anonymous participant 733
Just bought this book from Kmart yesterday
  • 18h
  • Like
  • Reply
  • Share
Michael Mccabe
Krishnamurti
  • 13h
  • Like
  • Reply
  • Share
  • Edited
2
View 1 reply
Josephine Cheung
this is Buddhism without religion
  • 15h
  • Like
  • Reply
  • Share
View all 2 replies
David Ochoa
Very good read. I enjoyed this book a lot.
  • 7h
  • Like
  • Reply
  • Share
Jeannie B Hunter
We are not over thinking of stupid but living in a corrupt world.
  • 20h
  • Like
  • Reply
  • Share
Eunice Veloso
Thanks for teh summary!🙏 I particularly enjoyed the reminder: "The mind’s chaos thrives in the past or future. Nguyen insists that presence grounding in the now is the only space where peace exists." Many of us already know this: sometimes we forget....
  • 23h
  • Like
  • Reply
  • Share
3
Posted by at