Does Your Brain Feels Like a Browser with 47 Tabs Open?

Here's how to start closing some of them...

Last week I was having a conversation with someone on Substack, and they told me that they “suffer from too many tabs open” in their head. Now to be fair, this isn’t the reason they said they subscribed to my newsletter, but it still got me thinking that it might be a good topic to write about.

So here we go!

The Invisible Browser

If you’ve ever laid in bed replaying a conversation from three days ago, while at the same time thinking about an important meeting you have to prepare for, while at the same time trying to decide what to make for dinner the next day, while at the same time singing a song that’s stuck in your head, while at the same time… you get the idea.

And you definitely know the feeling of having too many tabs open.

One tab is looping that awkward thing you said.

Another is preloading tomorrow’s to-do list.

A third is running background updates called “Am I forgetting something?”

Then morning comes, and you don’t remember half the things you were thinking about, but somehow you have 2X as many things on your mind.

But overthinking isn’t just “thinking too much.”

It’s a quiet, involuntary addiction to mental noise.

We want to turn the radio off, but we’re either unable to, or nervous about what might happen if we do.

And in the end, we’re just exhausting ourselves with mental motion that goes nowhere.

The Myth of More Control

I’ve written about this before… The notion of a calm mind is in large part a myth (there’s nuance there, but I’ll save that for another day), and the more we try to control our thoughts, the louder they get.

The mind doesn’t calm down because we tell it to.

But that doesn’t mean we need to keep feeding it more stuff.

We don’t need to click on every mental notification that pops up.

The more you chase peace, the less you’ll find. The real path to peace is looking at what’s left when you stop giving unnecessary motion to every thought that pops into your head.

Think about how easy it is to close a tab on your computer… One click.

Now in your defense, after you close a tab in your internet browser it can’t re-open all on its own, the way a thought can in your mental browser.

But with practice over time, mental tabs do stay closed for longer periods.

You just have to say to yourself, “I don’t need this open right now.”

That memory that keeps resurfacing?

That imaginary argument you’re still winning in your head?

The anxiety you have about the status update meeting you have?

The addiction you’re fighting to resist?

You can close those tabs.

Not because you’ve solved them, but because you’ve realized they don’t need to be running right now.

Your Mind Isn’t the Enemy

Sometimes we treat our minds like unruly kids that need constant supervision.

But your mind isn’t against you by nature. It’s just been overworked. And it needs to be brought back to its natural state of rest.

That requires training and effort on your part.

It requires you to stop demanding your mind protect you from every possible outcome.

It requires you to stop believing (falsely) that if you just think hard enough, you can control the course of future events.

And when you do that, you’ll come to appreciate the present moment more.

And that’s the real beauty.

The Art of Closing Mental Tabs

If you want to declutter your head, don’t start with a new habit tracker or meditation app.

You don’t need those things.

Just start by noticing which mental browser tabs you habitually open.

Try this:

1. Pause when your mind spins

2. Label it

3. Let it run its natural course (without you giving it added motion)

I can almost guarantee that you’ll be shocked by how quickly thoughts actually go away when you don’t feed them. When you don’t give them extra energy.

Will you open a new tab the very next second?

Probably.

But that’s not a failure. That’s just practice. And it’s something you’ll get better at over time.

The gap between thoughts will widen as you practice more. And when you stop feeding every thought, you rediscover capacity. You realize peace was never missing. It was just buried under noise.

You start to notice those small silences between thoughts.

You respond instead of react.

The outer world doesn’t change… but your relationship to it does.

You stop living like an overloaded browser… and start living like a human being again.

A Small Reminder

The next time you feel mentally scattered, try this:

Take one deep breath and ask yourself, “What’s one tab I can close right now?”

Maybe it’s the imaginary future?
Maybe it’s yesterday’s mistake?
Maybe it’s that conversation replaying for the tenth time?

Whatever it is… Click the X.

And move on to the next moment of your life.