Do you worry too much? Stoicism can help

One of the fathers of the Stoicism philosophy, the Roman Statesman Seneca, suggested a Stoic technique called Premeditation.

The exercise involves imagining the worst-case scenario of your situation, like your partner leaving you, you catching a virus and dying, or your getting fired, or your house getting burned down. The next step is to rehearse how we will react to these misfortunes.

Casting oneself in dark, miserable, even desperate conditions and then seeing how we can endure them, creates an emotional protection shield around us.

The Stoic practice of catastrophizing, that is manoeuvring the potential dangers and troubles we will experience during the day or the mean and rude people we will encounter, loads our brain with a kind of anti-anxiety potion, that helps us face the day with ease.

We prepare our worrying mind to face the day's problems and are mentally prepared to handle the unexpected.