Who does not have anxiety about the future?
What if I get sick?
What if my husband or child or parent gets sick?
What if someone in my family meets with an accident?
What if I lose my job? What if I don’t get that promotion?
Most of these doomsday negative thoughts don’t happen in reality. It’s our mind doing its evolutionary thing of looking for danger around every corner. We just need to be cognizant of this and tame it.
Understanding the human mind and brain goes a long way in developing ourselves and coping with our fears and anxieties. Our brain evolved to keep us safe and has evolutionarily been wired to sense danger in unfamiliar situations and in real situations (such as coming face to face with a tiger or a snake). Our mind therefore is tuned to negative thoughts both past and future. Worry is the name of the game. Taming this worry and not letting it interfere with our day to day lives is a skill we need more than ever. Some worry or anxiety is fruitful, beyond that it can become stressful and then harmful to our bodies and minds.
Research tells us that we spend 50 percent of our thoughts in the past ruminating over what may or may not have been, self critical thoughts and self-disparaging thoughts. The other 40 percent of our time is spent in thinking about our future, what could go wrong, worry about ourselves, our jobs, our family, health and so on. Is that productive?
Once we know that the nature of our brain is to dwell on negative thoughts both past and future, we can train our brain by being mindful of this and stay in the present. Why not get started?
Why stay in this foggy space of our mind where we cannot think clearly due to the worry about past and future and cloud our experiences? This foggy state takes away from clarity of thinking that can help us plan for a better future and enjoy the present moment.
Tons of studies have shown that our mind is at its best when we are in the present moment, we are calm , collected and at our sharpest. We are in a state of balance.
So get started and work on taming those unwanted past and present worries, and see how your life blossoms.