Is Thinking Overrated? | Josh Jensen
Notes de l’épisode
What if you’re so busy trying to fix your life that you forget to live it?
We spend a lot of energy trying to understand ourselves, make better decisions, avoid pain, and gain some control over where our lives are going. But painter and therapist Josh Jensen wonders if we’ve begun to mistake thinking for doing—and knowledge for wisdom.
Josh and I talk about overthinking, our illusion of control, and the parts of life that can only be known by actually experiencing them. We explore the different selves inside each of us—the artist, the provider, the ambitious self, the playful self—and what it might mean to let them belong to one whole person. Eventually, we find our way to suffering, beauty, love, and the strange possibility that what we want most may not be control at all, but to lose ourselves in something greater that we can trust.
IN THIS EPISODE
- Why thinking is only one way of knowing
- How overthinking can become a substitute for actually living
- The illusion of control and why knowledge can make us feel safer than we really are
- What happens when creativity collides with the need to make a living
- Learning to accept the different, sometimes conflicting parts of ourselves
- Why feelings and embodied experience can reach deeper than words
- Moving from naïveté through cynicism toward a “second naïveté”
- How suffering and conflict can become opportunities for transformation
- The surprising connection between beauty, trust, love, and losing control
ABOUT JOSH JENSEN
Josh Jensen is an abstract painter and marriage and family therapist whose two vocations continually inform one another. His paintings explore the tension between spontaneity and intention, chaos and order, beauty and meaning. Alongside his studio practice, Josh works as a therapist, helping people navigate relationships, grief, anxiety, spirituality, creativity, and the complexity of being human.
RESOURCES
Josh Jensen Art — Explore Josh’s paintings and current work.
https://jsjensenart.com
Introduction to Abstract Painting — Josh’s Domestika course exploring abstraction, composition, color, and the creative process.
https://www.domestika.org/en/courses/5206-introduction-to-abstract-painting
Josh Jensen at Ballantyne Well-Being — Learn more about Josh’s work as a marriage and family therapist.
https://bewellcharlotte.com/staff/josh-jensen
Text Me - Join the SMS list for occasional thoughts, recommendations, and new work.
https://my.community.com/johnmarkmcmillan
Or text +1 (704) 286-1171
Join me on Patreon - Bonus conversations, extended episodes, and more from Flirting with Enchantment.
Chapitres (16)