S1E22 - How to stop overthinking

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In this episode, I explore what overthinking actually is from a Stoic perspective—and why most advice about it misses the point.

We often think we're "thinking things through" when we're lying awake replaying conversations, imagining worst-case scenarios, or rehearsing events that haven't happened. But I argue that this isn't really thinking at all. It's rumination: a failure of assent disguised as diligence.

Drawing on Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and Seneca, I explain how the Stoics distinguished between a bare impression (phantasia) and the stories we im...