“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
It’s another quote, but it’s not Marcus Aurelius.
Shock, I know…
Still, we’re staying with the stoics.
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
Pretty straight forward and self explanatory, wouldn’t you say?
Overthinking and being anxious upcoming things is completely normal, everyone does it but a lot of the time those things are more in our head than in reality, they very rarely materialise.
Think about it for a second, that time when you were starting a new job, a new school, trying a new sport, etc. A million things run through your head, a million ‘what ifs’ and then you get there and things aren’t all that bad and you think to yourself “Huh, what was all the worrying about?”
To worry and think through what could potentially happen is completely natural. It’s your brains way of preparing yourself for all possibilities. In a way, I believe it links to the ‘Fight or Flight’ response our bodies have.
However, our brains can kick into overdrive at times and that’s when we start overthinking. Training yourself to quieten those thoughts will make those situations feel a lot easier.
The quote from Seneca “We suffer more in our imagination more often than in reality.” is a perfect fit for those situations. Our brains are the most incredible things in the world and are more powerful than you could ever imagine but they can, at times make things harder than they need to be.
So, the next time that brain of yours feels like it’s running at a million miles an hour remember what Seneca said. “We suffer more in our imagination more often than in reality.”
See you next week.
