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A Stoic practice

How to stop overthinking: a Stoic practice

To stop overthinking, notice when a thought has stopped producing anything new, write down the facts separately from your judgement about them, decide the one thing that is yours to do, and then put the thought down on purpose. Marcus Aurelius described this as letting your judgement about a thing rest, so that it stays quiet.

Overthinking feels like problem-solving, which is why it is hard to stop. But real thinking moves: it reaches a decision, a question for someone else, or a plan. Overthinking circles. You replay a conversation, rehearse a reply you will never send, or turn a decision over until every option looks wrong.

The Stoics would say the loop is fed by a judgement you have not examined: that you must be certain before you act, that you must know what they meant, that you should have done better. Marcus wrote his Meditations partly to catch these judgements on paper, and many of his notes are the same few reminders, repeated, because he needed them repeatedly. That is the honest picture of the practice. You will not think your way out once and for all, but you can get faster at noticing.

A 5-minute Stoic practice for overthinking

This works best on paper, where the loop cannot keep rewriting itself.

  1. 1Catch the loop.

    Ask: is this thought giving me anything new? If you have reached the same point three times, it is a loop, not a line of reasoning. Naming it (I am replaying again) is already a step out.

  2. 2Separate the fact from the verdict.

    Write two lines. What happened: she has not replied to my message. What I added: she is annoyed with me and I ruined it. Only the first line is certain.

  3. 3Find what is yours.

    Ask whether anything in the situation is actually up to you right now. If yes, name it in one sentence. If no, say so plainly. Either answer ends the search.

  4. 4Decide, or schedule the deciding.

    Either take the one small action now, or write down when you will think about it next: tomorrow at nine, after I speak to him. The mind lets go more easily once the question has a time and a place.

  5. 5Return to what is in front of you.

    Turn your attention to the next physical task: wash a cup, walk to the window, read one page. Marcus called this living the present. It is not avoidance. It is where your life is actually taking place.

What the Stoics wrote

If the things that disturb you do not come to you, still in a way you go to them. Let your judgment about them rest, and they will remain quiet. You will not be seen pursuing or avoiding them.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations XI.11

The things that disturb you are mostly not chasing you. You keep going back to them. Marcus's advice is not to fight the thought but to stop feeding it fresh judgement, so it can go quiet on its own.

More on judgment and the mind →
Separate from your understanding whatever others do or say, whatever you have done or said, and whatever future things trouble you. Make the intellectual power free from fate, living pure and unattached, striving to live only the present.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations XII.3

A three-part list worth keeping: what others do or say, what you have done or said, and what the future might bring. Those are the three places overthinking likes to live, and none of them is the present.

Your habitual thoughts shape the character of your mind, for the soul is dyed by its thoughts. Dye it then with a steady series: where a person can live, there he can also live well.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations V.16

What you think about repeatedly becomes the colour of your mind. That cuts both ways: replaying worries shapes you, and so does a small daily habit of returning to what is yours.

Do this daily

Overthinking is a habit of attention, so the answer is also a habit. A short daily moment of sorting fact from judgement makes the move familiar, and the loops get shorter when they come.

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Questions people ask

Why do I overthink everything?

Often because uncertainty feels unsafe and thinking feels like a way to remove it. From a Stoic point of view, the loop is held in place by a judgement such as "I must be sure first" or "I should have known". Naming that judgement makes it easier to set down.

Is overthinking the same as anxiety?

They overlap. Overthinking describes the pattern, the same thoughts repeating. Anxiety describes the sense of threat that often drives it. The practice on this page works on the pattern. If the feeling of threat is the main thing, the anxiety practice may fit better.

What did Marcus Aurelius say about overthinking?

He kept reminding himself to stop carrying the past and the future into the present, and to let his judgements about disturbing things rest so they would stay quiet (Meditations XI.11, XII.3). His notebook is, in a sense, a record of someone practising exactly this.

How long does it take to stop overthinking?

There is no fixed timeline, and nobody stops completely. What usually changes with practice is how quickly you notice the loop and how long it lasts.

Can I use this alongside therapy or an AI chat?

Yes, as a companion. These practices are a daily habit of self-reflection drawn from an old philosophy. They are not therapy and not a substitute for professional care. If you are working with a therapist, you can bring what you write here to your sessions. If you talk things through with an AI chat, a practice like this gives you something concrete to do afterwards, away from the screen.

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