“I have no other thinking available”

That’s a quote from ‘The Midnight Library‘ by Matt Haig. I’ve just finished listening to it on Audible where it was narrated (brilliantly) by Carey Mulligan.

The premise of the book is that there’s a library between life and death, and you can take out books that allow you to sample lives you might have had but didn’t because of choices you made.

The librarian (Mrs Elm) is someone our protagonist (Nora) knows from her schooldays. They had many conversations in the past and they do so again as the book unfolds.

In one exchange, Mrs Elm says, “You’re overthinking, Nora” and Nora replies, “I don’t have any other thinking available”.

That really struck a chord with me. Highly sensitive people are often told that they over-analyse or over-think. I certainly was. And many of the highly sensitive clients I worked with have described being told similar things.

Many years ago, I voiced how I felt about being told yet again I had over-analysed something. A very wise woman’s response was, “I don’t think you over-analyse, Sally. I think you analyse enough to understand”.

That was it, exactly, in a nutshell! I have never again worried about how much I analyse or think about something. And, in any case, like Nora, I have no other thinking available.