How to Worry Less

It's way too common for your brain to run wild with assumptions and speculations about what may happen in the future. Often, these manifest in the form of worries, and these worries ruin your day.

Here's the issue with that:

THESE THINGS HAVEN'T HAPPENED YET!

Yes, they may happen.

Yes, they may have happened.

Yes, they may happen this time, too.

But, as of now, nothing has happened yet.

If you behave as if your worst nightmare has already come true, guess what. Your brain will behave that way, too!

Your brain will associate "thinking about the future" with "bad things will happen." Eventually, this will devolve into "future" = "bad."

Can you imagine how fucked up your mental health will be if you train your brain to associate the future with negative thoughts?

Spoilers: Very. 

Instead of letting these hypotheticals affect your actual day-to-day emotions, remind yourself of the facts.

Do you have proof that what you're worried about will happen? If not, tell your brain to shut up.

Is something else likely to happen instead? Something better? If so, tell your brain to shut up.

If you're able to shut out these self-made doubts and worries, you'll be able to remove negative assumptions from your life and become more optimistic. At the very least, you can reduce cynicism. 

What would happen to me sometimes is that I would have a meeting with someone, and I would expect it to go poorly. This made all the hours leading up to the meeting absolutely miserable.

When I would force myself to think “But nothing has happened yet, so chill until it does,” I would go off on fewer negative mental tangents.

As a result, I would have fewer negative expectations, and the negative stuff I would usually think about often wouldn’t even happen.

So, what should you do?

• Mindfulness meditation would help. I have a video on how to get started, but beware the blue filter (it was a phase).

• If you’re thinking about an event or situation yet to come, constantly remind yourself of the facts.

• If something hasn’t actually happened, don’t assume that it will or behave as though it already has.

Eventually, you’ll stop assuming that negativity will occur at every turn.

You got this, fams.