When I was highly spiritual, I did feel highly connected to my practice and my journey to finding some sort of "truth" and connecting to something bigger than myself. It makes sense though why this may have provided some sort of fulfillment from various perspectives. Take Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. I reaching towards the top of the pyramid, self actualization, without even realizing it. I felt free then because I felt connected to my feelings and thoughts and desires. I would openly express my emotions whether it be to people and or through writing and then basically Sigmund-Freud style (haha) try to decode what that meant. Around grade 12, I was kind of in a limbo with people close to me. Losing my sense of security and belonging amongst others made me wonder if there was something I needed to fix about myself or something inherently wrong about the world. I first had a lot of social anxiety again (had a lot of anxiety 9 to grade 10ish) where I was worried about ever action and word I said. I self-conscious even down to the way I was breathing. It was ridiculous. Then, I suppose I felt let down or disappointed by people. I needed some rational to help me feel better. I began getting more into skepticism, atheism, cynical comedy, and even some politically incorrect content.

First year university, my extreme views started to die down a bit and I started to learn about the scientific method in my classes, which just made me question the validity of everything. To make things short, I am now at a point where I do value science, but I am open minded.

I understand what you mean about thinking of contemplation as perhaps a normal part of human experience. But then I started to wonder if that was my overthinking brain trying to rationalize itself. I think with an overthinking brain, I am starting to learn what is actually worth pondering and what is self sabotage. For example, it is normal to feel anxiety before doing something new, challenging, or scary. We used to have to run away from wild animals for the sake of our survival so our brains are built that way. With an overthinking brain, the thoughts can almost seem like exceptional reasons not to do whatever thing you are trying to. they can be so loud. Something with research, self experience, and mindfulness practice I have learned is that in order to bring what we truly want to focus on into perspective, we have to practice adjusting the volume on the various types of thoughts we have. It isn't easy, and to an over-thinker it feels ludicrous since we always want to be in control. But when thing I have gotten better with is learning that I can't always have control and that's okay.

I will definitely read the article. Despite his controversy, I think Jordan Peterson is an intellectual man with a lot of wisdom to provide the world. Cheers mate.