“Don’t worry so much…”

Has anyone ever told you that? But how can you not worry about the future, when it is one of the most natural and important functions of the brain?

If prehistoric men hadn’t worried, we wouldn’t be here now. The ice age would have come, and he would have frozen Of course he had to worry. That fear of what could happen in the future helped him prepare for the Ice Age. So, it’s perfectly normal to worry about the future. However, we need to keep it within certain limits so that this fear helps us and not harms us. In prehistoric times, our lives were at stake, saber-toothed tigers were waiting around the corner and could attack at any time. So, our brain is set up to worry a lot. Nowadays, the threat to life is not so big, but our brain has not adapted to it, and therefore sometimes it seems to us that it is exaggerating. Do you remember how in traffic the older cars used to overheat and boil and had to stop, this can also happen to our brain if we overdo it.

How to overcome the worrying about the future?

1. Write a catastrophic scenario

Take a pen and paper and write down what is the worst that can happen? What is your nightmare? For example, gas will become so expensive that we won’t be able to heat our house in winter and will have to live with my mother-in-law. The mortgage interest will rise so much that we will not be able to pay it and we will have to sell our house. Now that you’ve written a catastrophic scenario, think rationally about how likely it is to happen? And write this number down as a percentage. Maybe 20%. Quite often you will see that the probability of the worst thing you fear happening is very low. This will help you bring your fear to an appropriate level.

2. What do you need to do to prevent what you fear from happening?

Now let’s turn this energy of fear into something constructive. So, what do I need? Make more money and cut costs so I can pay my gas bills and mortgage. How much money do I need per month more? What can I save on? How can I earn extra money? I will stop going to the gym and start working out at home. I can rent a room on Airbnb. Take care of pets through Dog Hero. Write an e-book about something in which I have a lot of knowledge and experience. Write down all the options you have.

3. Choose the most effective ones and start working on them

When you’ve written down all the options, take a look at them. Which of them will be the easiest for you, take the least time and bring the most profit. Pick 3 and start working on them. What do I have to do today? What do I have to do tomorrow? This week. Plan detailed action steps. And start taking them now. In this way, you will direct your attention to what will help you and you will not deal with your fears as much. Plus, as you begin to change your future, the likelihood the catastrophic scenario happening will become lower, and therefore your fear will decrease.

Sometimes the brain just does what it wants, and we need to understand why it behaves the way it does and what to do about it. Trust me, you have enough strength and ability to do it.

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