The Stoics' Practice of Mental Rehearsal

The Stoics taught a practice that they called the premeditation of evils. What you do is anything that seems overwhelming, you immediately start breaking it down into smaller and smaller pieces. The Seneca said that anybody who is ambushed by difficulty is more easily overcome by it. When you mentally rehearse something, as well as doing physical preparations, when you mentally rehearsal something, you feel like you've been there before.