02/02/2026
Here’s a pattern I notice consistently at the start of each semester:
People start off doing many things right.
They make plans, think ahead, and generally notice old habits before they turn into sabotage.
And then suddenly — out of nowhere — they feel overwhelmed.
It feels like holding too many thoughts at once.
saw this recently with a young man who, like many students at the start of a term, was striving to pay attention early, build better habits, and avoid the end-of-semester scramble that comes from ignoring small problems until they bite.
He was doing everything right.
And as he talked, I could feel it happening — that moment where clarity tipped into overload.
When the mind is full, not broken.
This is a classic span of apprehension moment — when nothing is actually wrong, but there’s simply more trying to happen than the mind can comfortably hold at once. Too many threads compete for limited mental space. In the midst of that moment, I suddenly recalled an old image from Harry Potter.
In the books, when Dumbledore’s mind becomes crowded, he doesn’t push harder.
He doesn’t try to “focus better.”
He pulls a thought out of his head and places it into the Pensieve — a kind of shared bowl where memories can be set aside — so it’s not lost, but it’s also not clogging the moment.
With that picture in mind, I suggested: What if you don’t need to solve all of this right now? What if you just need somewhere safe to put some of it? He immediately relaxed.
Continue reading this, and other engaging articles, written by Dr. Thomas on his Substack page: https://drjonthomas.substack.com/p/the-pensieve-problem
