How to Stop Overthinking: A Stoic Practice That Actually Works
We’ve all been there. Lying in bed at night, thoughts racing. What if I said the wrong thing? What if this decision ruins everything? How will I cope with tomorrow?
Overthinking doesn’t just keep you awake. It steals your present moment and replaces it with imagined disasters that may never arrive. It drains your energy before anything has even happened. And the harder you try to stop, the louder it gets.
Want to go deeper into the Stoic philosophy behind overthinking? Read our guide on Stoicism for overthinking.
The Stoics knew about this and mentioned it thousands of years ago. And more importantly, they had a practice to deal with it.
What Overthinking Actually Is
Psychologists use the term rumination to describe what most of us call overthinking. The American Psychological Association defines rumination as:
“obsessional thinking involving excessive, repetitive thoughts or themes that interfere with other forms of mental activity.”
American Psychology Association
In plain terms, it is the mind stuck in a loop, replaying what went wrong, rehearsing what might go wrong, and finding it nearly impossible to stop. The repetitive, negative aspect of rumination can contribute to the development of depression or anxiety and can worsen existing conditions. It is not a character flaw or a sign of weakness. It is a pattern the brain falls into, and like any pattern, it can be interrupted.
Why We Overthink
The human brain is wired for threat detection. It scans for danger, replays past mistakes, and simulates future problems, not to make you miserable, but to keep you alive. For most of human history, that instinct was useful.
The problem is that the brain doesn’t distinguish well between a real threat and an imagined one. A difficult conversation you’re dreading tomorrow activates the same stress response as an actual emergency today. You end up living the problem three times: in anticipation, in reality, and in the replay.
The result is what the Stoics called suffering in imagination. And according to Seneca, it is the most common form of suffering there is.
What Seneca Understood About Overthinking
Nearly two thousand years ago, Seneca wrote something that sounds like a modern diagnosis of anxiety:
“There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 13.4
He is not saying that nothing bad ever happens. He is saying that most of our suffering begins in our thoughts, not in the world. What frightens us is rarely what actually crushes us.
The Stoics were not interested in toxic positivity or pretending life is easy. They were deeply honest about the difficulty of life. But they drew a clear line between what is real and what is constructed by a restless mind. Learning to see that line is the beginning of thinking more clearly.
The Mind Is a Storyteller
What affects us most is rarely the event itself. It is the story we build around what might go wrong.
These imagined futures, often exaggerated and uncontrollable, hijack our present. They cloud our thinking, delay action, and exhaust us before the real challenge even arrives. And once the spiral starts, it feeds itself. One worry leads to another until you’re solving problems that don’t exist yet.
The Stoics called this practice of attention prosoche, the discipline of noticing where your mind goes. Not controlling the world, but controlling your focus. Learning to catch yourself when you have left the present and wandered into imagination.
Noticing this is the first step to stopping overthinking.
A Stoic Practice to Stop Overthinking
When you find yourself spiralling, try what the Stoics would do. Pause. And ask one simple question:
Is this a real problem right now, or am I imagining it?
If there is something you can do about it, do it. If not, return to what the present moment requires: eating, sleeping, breathing, walking. That act of grounding yourself in the now is not avoidance. This is an active practice of focusing on where your attention is needed. It is trusting that when a real challenge arrives, you will meet it with the strength you have. Until then, there is no need to live it twice.
Here are three Stoic actions you can use immediately.
- Separate thought from fact
Ask yourself: Is this actually happening, or am I projecting? Write the fear down and then ask, what is the actual evidence that this will happen? Seeing it on paper dissolves much of its power. Most fears, when examined honestly, shrink considerably.
- Return to the present task
When it is time to eat, eat. When it is time to sleep, sleep. Remind yourself that presence is your anchor. Worry cannot survive in a focused mind. The Stoics practised this constantly, not as a trick, but as a discipline of returning to what is real and immediate.
- Reflect on your track record
How many things have you feared that never came true? How many hardships did you survive that you thought would break you? Your history of resilience is evidence. Let it speak louder than your imagined future. Seneca would say you have already survived everything that has tried to stop you.
How I Use This Practice
When I find myself overthinking, I come back to Seneca’s words. Not as a quote I admire, but as a question I ask myself in real time. Is this imagination or reality? Is this mine to solve right now?
Stoicism changed how I relate to my own mind. Not by silencing it, but by learning to examine what it produces before accepting it as truth. That gap between the thought and the reaction, even a small one, is where peace lives.
When Overthinking Returns
It will return; this is a fact we must accept with compassion. This also doesn’t mean that we have failed, but it is because we are human.
The Stoic approach to overthinking is not a cure. It is a practice. Marcus Aurelius wrote his Meditations as daily reminders to himself, not because he had mastered his mind, but because he was still working on it. The same applies to you and to all of us.
Each time you catch yourself in the spiral and ask that one question, is this real or imagined, you are doing exactly what the Stoics did. You are practising. And with practice, the spiral loses its grip a little more each time.
Overthinking is one symptom of something larger. If you want the wider Stoic framework for men’s mental health, that’s the place to go next.
Want to go deeper?
Explore the life and philosophy of Seneca or book a free consultation with Benny as your Stoic Coach. You can also listen to The Via Stoica Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.
We also did an episode on this specific Seneca quote, watch it here: https://youtu.be/DW57FEFcit8?si=GXYk08ckL8SwgUwG
Author Bio
Benny Voncken is the founder of Via Stoica, where he helps people apply Stoic philosophy to modern life. He is a Stoic coach, writer, and podcast host of The Via Stoica Podcast. With almost a decade of teaching experience and daily Stoic practice, Benny creates resources, workshops, and reflections that make ancient wisdom practical today.
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