Am I Overthinking or Did I Just Unlocked the Secrets of the Universe?

It’s scary how my brain sometimes loves to throw me into a full existential spiral especially before I go to sleep. I don’t know if this will make sense to anyone, but it made sense to me at the time, so here we go.

The other night, I found myself thinking about this theory I learned months ago. It’s a concept that says that if you want something badly, it might be because your future self already has it. Or if you feel drawn to a certain place, maybe it’s because you’ve been there or that it will have a big impact to you in the future.

A Japanese phrase captures something similar—Koi no Yokan. It describes the feeling you get when you meet someone and just know they’re going to be important in your life. Not in a love at first sight kind of way, but more like a this is going somewhere kind of way. Instead of an instant spark, it’s the quiet certainty that love will grow over time, which I think is really beautiful.

That made me wonder, what if our fate is already predetermined? Do we have no control over it? Or maybe we are just choosing from different versions of reality? It’s comforting to think that in some version of life, we already have everything we’ve ever wanted. Right? That the things we desire aren’t random.

If that’s true then that may also mean that time is not linear, that things has already happened, or maybe every moment is happening at the same time and we’re just experiencing it in a way that makes sense to us.

Despite that, I’d like to think that it’s still up to us to carve our own path. It’s still up to us to align our present timeline to that timeline where we have everything we’ve ever dreamed of. Our desires are just glimpses or messages from our future self guiding us to what’s possible.

Speaking of possibilities, let’s talk about Schrodinger’s cat. It’s an experiment where a cat is put in a box with a 50/50 chance of being dead or alive. The cat exists in two realities at once, dead and alive until you open the box. Only then does one possibility become real. That’s kind of how life works, right? There are countless possibilities and realities existing at the same time, but it can only become real the moment we make a choice or decide to align ourselves to it.

I really believe that if you act like you’re already the person you want to become, you start aligning with that version of yourself and that leads me to another concept I love: the Pygmalion Effect also known as the self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s basically the idea that whatever we believe becomes true because we subconsciously make it true with our actions or the energy we give out. For example, if you think that someone dislikes you, you might unconsciously act in a way around them that makes them eventually dislike you. Not because they ever did in the first place, but because you made it happen. It’s lowkey terrifying how much our thoughts can shape our reality.

If our thoughts hold that much power, we might as well just think about something good right? That reminded me of Carl Jung’s synchronicity. It is the idea that reality responds to our energy or inner world. Maybe there’s no such thing as coincidence. Maybe reality responds to us by reflecting back whatever energy we put into it even how small it is.

It’s kind of like the butterfly effect. The idea that even the tiniest action can set off a chain reaction that changes everything. Have you heard about a butterfly flapping its wings and somehow causing a hurricane? It sounds dramatic, but honestly, it makes sense. Life works the same way. Choices, even things that feel insignificant in the moment can add to something that may completely reshape our lives. That made me wonder how many small decisions changed the course of my life without me even realizing it. Even the tiniest decisions like taking risk, following a gut feeling or choosing kindness can create ripple effects far beyond what we can see in the moment.

The butterfly effect naturally lead my mind to another fascinating concept that has a ripple effect. It is called paying forward. I first learned about it from the book I recently read entitled A Culture of Happiness. It talks about generosity and how it creates happiness not just for others but for you too. Something as simple as paying for a stranger’s meal could start a chain reaction of kindness that eventually comes full circle. Unfortunately, negativity works the same way. Just as kindness multiplies, so does harm. The energy we put out into the world always finds its way back to us.

And that, of course, brings me to karma. What you put out into the world eventually comes back to you, even if it’s not immediate. A genuine act of kindness creates positive energy, while actions rooted in negativity bring consequences. And honestly, that’s why I don’t believe in revenge. People who act out of malice usually end up self-destructing on their own. Instead of wasting energy trying to “get even,” learn to transform the negativity into something positive or something meaningful. Use it as fuel to create, to grow and to build something good.

Maybe that’s the whole point of all of this—the universe isn’t just happening to us; it’s responding to us. Your thoughts shape your actions and your actions shape your reality. Every little thing you do matters and it all feeds back into the grand design of life and even the universe. And that is kind of insane! And here I am at 2 am on my bed, overthinking my entire existence instead of just going to sleep.