Dealing with Overthinking
Okay so. It’s after 3 AM and I can’t sleep. Again. My brain keeps looping on this dumb thing I said at work. To Jamie. Or wait—was it to Kevin? Doesn’t even matter. The point is it happened days ago and my head won’t let it rest.
You know that feeling? When one moment just keeps replaying?
I used to think something was broken in me. Like I was uniquely bad at this whole “being in the present” thing everyone talks about. Turns out… nope. Pretty common actually. Just nobody talks about it because who wants to admit they’re lying awake analyzing a three-second pause in a conversation from last Tuesday?
Someone told me once to “just stop thinking about it.” I almost laughed in their face. Like yeah thanks very helpful. That’s like telling someone with hiccups to just stop hiccuping. Not how it works.
Anyway. I went down this rabbit hole researching it—because of course I did, that’s what overthinkers do—and found something kind of cool. This isn’t new. At all. People have been dealing with racing minds for literally thousands of years. Before phones. Before electricity. Before any of the stuff we blame it on.
Roman emperors had this problem. Buddhist monks. Philosophers from ancient China. All of them wrestled with the same hamster wheel brain we have.
Makes me feel slightly less broken honestly.
So yeah. “Overthinking” is a modern word but the actual experience is ancient. People were lying awake with racing thoughts way before Instagram existed. Before coffee was a thing. Before stress became this buzzword.
Some of them figured stuff out worth knowing about. Not like magic solutions. More like… perspective shifts that actually help.
You’re not the first to carry this
Voices Across Time
Four people from completely different worlds and times. One was crazy rich then lost everything. One literally ran the Roman Empire. One was a prince who walked away from his palace. And one—well we’re not even sure if he was real or a myth. But they all dealt with the same thing: brains that wouldn’t shut up. Thoughts generating more thoughts generating more thoughts.
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
Seneca — 4 BCE – 65 CE
Letters from a Stoic
This guy Seneca—he had everything. Advisor to the emperor. Stupid rich. Then he got exiled. Lost it all. Then got it back. Then was forced to kill himself because politics. Wild ride. But through all of it he noticed something I think about a lot now: the stuff in his head was usually way worse than what was actually happening in real life. That three-second pause Jamie made? Already over. Done. The suffering I’m doing right now? That’s all me. All made up. He’d probably tell me to stop being such a good storyteller.
“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it with the same weapons of reason which arm you today.”
Marcus Aurelius — Meditations
Marcus Aurelius was running the Roman Empire. Like—actual armies and plagues and political assassinations. Real problems. But his private journal—stuff he wrote just to himself—keeps coming back to this one idea. Don’t let tomorrow ruin today. And I’m like… my guy, you had barbarians at the border, you probably had more reason to stress than I do about a work email. But he still wrote that. Still needed to remind himself. Somehow that makes me feel better?
Buddha was born a prince. Had everything. Decided it wasn’t enough and spent years sitting under a tree trying to figure out why minds cause so much trouble. His answer wasn’t what I expected. It’s not that we have thoughts. It’s that we treat every thought like it’s a super important urgent message. His meditation thing wasn’t about stopping thoughts—that’s impossible, trust me I’ve tried. It was about not grabbing onto every one that floats by.
“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts.”
Buddha — 5th century BCE
Dhammapada
“If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.”
Lao Tzu — Tao Te Ching
Lao Tzu—okay honestly we don’t know if he was even real. But the Tao Te Ching is real and it’s been helping people for like 2500 years so whatever. His basic point: there’s only now. The past is just a thought happening now. The future is also just a thought happening now. When I’m lying awake running disaster scenarios I’m literally time-traveling to places that don’t exist. His suggestion isn’t to fight the thoughts. Just… keep coming back. To whatever is actually here.
What connects them all
What They All Understood
So yeah. A rich Roman. An emperor. A prince. A maybe-mythical sage. Different centuries different continents different everything. Never knew each other existed.
But they all figured out the same thing.
You can’t think your way out of overthinking. More analysis creates more to analyze. The hamster wheel doesn’t slow down by running faster.
What helps according to these guys: noticing when thinking stops being useful. Realizing that most 3 AM worries are basically time-travel to futures that don’t exist. And that the present moment—whatever it actually contains—is usually more okay than what’s playing in your head.
Not about figuring everything out. More about… stopping the chase for a second. Being wherever you are instead of everywhere else in your mind.
Before you go
A Moment for You
Look your brain is going to keep generating thoughts. That’s literally what it does. Some of them will loop. Some will drag you through imaginary catastrophes at 3 AM. That’s just how brains work apparently.
But maybe tonight when it starts—try this. Don’t engage. Don’t argue. Just… notice. Oh look there’s that thought again. Like watching cars drive by. Won’t fix everything. Might help a little. Sometimes little is all you need.
If you want something more specific to your situation—InnerCalm+ does that. Not generic stuff. Actual guidance for wherever you are right now.
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