Think about a time when you were a kid and you had to go to the doctor. Or a dentist. Whichever scared you more. You’re so scared that you cry even before anything has happened. You start shaking and crying all the way from the car to the doctor’s room. In your head, you feel the pain as if the doctors are cutting you up into pieces.

And then the part you fear takes 5 minutes. Maybe even less. It’s done. You don’t even realize because you haven’t stopped crying. In a way, that’s what Seneca was talking about. Even if it were to pain for five minutes, we expanded that suffering into an hour through our anticipation of it. Our imagined suffering was longer than the actual suffering.

Why do we do this?

It is because our brain runs free. We have to be aware of what’s on our mind. We have to be mindful of what we allow our brain to fixate on. We want to think about only the things that we can control, which are our actions, thoughts, and feelings.

We don’t want to think about events that cannot be changed, or others’ thoughts or actions. Because we can’t do anything about it.

I really like this quote: “What’s not in your hands should not be in your head.” If you can’t control it, don’t worry about it. But if you are worried. Ask yourself, what is it that you can do about it?

If you can do something about it, focus your energy towards action.

If you can’t do anything about it, then think about what it is that you’re uncomfortable about. Can it be changed? Can you do anything about it? If not, try to let go. Turn your mind to something out. There’s no point living in that suffering for longer than you have to.

Don’t make yourself suffer before the thing happens. Trust in your ability to go right through it. It will pass. Don’t make up horror stories about uncontrollable, future events. You’re intensifying the suffering.

Don’t be a child.