“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality” — Seneca.

Seneca has so beautifully in one simple sentence enumerated what most of us actually go through. In fact if we really understood this stoic philosophy, almost all of us would lead a happy and contented life. Seneca was the tutor and advisor to Emperor Nero and is credited for keeping Nero restrained during his first five years running the Roman Empire. Although it went to hell in a handbasket in later years, but old Seneca was long gone by then.

He was big into the idea that most of our suffering was self-inflicted. We ruminate on past experiences, revising them and trying to correct what cannot ever be changed. And when we’re not doing that, we’re anxiously looking into the future and imagining all kinds of hypotheticals.

Seneca taught people to learn that these types of mental gymnastics were pointless and just lead to further suffering.

If you understand and apply this quote by Seneca into your lives, I am sure that all of us would lead a better and happier life.