Letting go of anxiety about the future is one of those life skills that can feel elusive, almost like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands.
The world’s fast pace, the pressures of modern life, and the uncertainty of what’s around the corner can create an overwhelming need to control, to predict, and to protect ourselves from the unknown.
But it’s this very urge to control everything that often traps us in a cycle of anxiety and leaves us paralyzed by fear.
There’s nothing more frustrating than feeling stuck…
You have goals, desires, and wants, and you want them on your schedule. That’s pretty normal for humans, but the problem is that sometimes, you have to let go and trust life’s timing.
Not everything is going to come along when you want it to. Sometimes, you’ll have to wait. Part of that issue is we’re anxious about the unknown and the future is largely unknown.
Even if you have a vacation scheduled for next year or your wedding venue booked in two years… those still aren’t guaranteed because nothing is.
Yet, we spend so much time worrying about the future when the only way to influence the future is to focus our effort and energy on the present moment.
Understanding Why We Fear The Future
Anxiety about the future isn’t arbitrary. It has roots in some fundamental human tendencies that served a purpose in our evolutionary past.
Survival Instinct
Thousands of years ago, living with a constant awareness of potential dangers—like predators or food shortages—was essential. This alertness kept us alive. Today, the threats are different, often less physical and more psychological, but our brain hasn’t fully evolved to distinguish between them.
Desire for Control
Many of us seek control as a way to establish a sense of safety. The unpredictability of life can be terrifying, and it feels like by controlling as many elements as possible, we can shield ourselves from pain, loss, or disappointment.
Perfectionism and Self-Expectations
We live in a culture that values perfection, productivity, and success. With high expectations on ourselves, we’re left with little tolerance for unpredictability or failure. This fear of not meeting expectations fuels our anxiety about the future.
Past Trauma and Regret
Painful memories from our past can project fears onto our future. If you’ve had a negative experience, there’s often a subconscious desire to prevent that from happening again, even though the likelihood of a repeat is usually low.
Information Overload
We are constantly bombarded with information, from news outlets reporting crises to social media presenting us with a filtered reality that may not align with our own lives.
This overload of information can make the future feel even more uncertain and unstable.
So, how do we trust life’s timing and let go of our anxiety about the future?
Here are four techniques:
1. Correct Your Self-Talk
The language you use with yourself can worsen or improve your anxiety. Some level of worry is natural, but when you let them take over and control your self-talk, you’re creating additional problems for yourself.
So, when you notice your self-talk veering into worry, stop yourself and ask whether that worry is realistic or not. If it’s not, use your energy for present moment living. If it is a realistic worry, sit down and create a plan so you can set your anxiety aside.
2. Talk It Out
It isn’t always easy to voice your fears, especially if you’re worried about how people will react. But speaking worries aloud can actually relieve some of the fear associated with them.
So, sit down with someone you trust and have an honest conversation about your concerns.
Sharing your anxiety with the people you love can also lead to additional support you didn’t realize you needed.
3. Ground Yourself
Grounding exercises are particularly useful when dealing with anxious thoughts, grounding yourself can interrupt those thoughts and help you reconnect to the present moment.
You just need to find the grounding exercise that works for you, whether it’s wearing a rubber band on your wrist and snapping it or using a grounding object that you stroke to soothe your anxiety when it arises.
4. Use Guided Imagery
Guided imagery focuses on seeing yourself encounter challenges and deal with them effectively, it’s essentially taking control of what you can.
It’s a great way to get worry out of your head when you can’t shake it.
So, what’s your biggest or most difficult worry? When you know what that is, you can sit down and write a script of skills, support, and other resources at your disposal.
It provides an answer for your worries to soothe the anxiety they’re creating.
A little bit of worry is okay, but when it’s persistent it becomes compulsive, and it turns into a level of anxiety that steals your joy and can interrupt your productivity and performance.
Learning to trust life’s timing and finding different ways to manage your anxiety about the future is key!
You might not be able to let go of that anxiety at first, but taking little steps towards making that worry productive is a good start to managing it more effectively.
Worry or anxiety is an evolutionary response and it’s one that should prompt action. If you let yourself get stuck in a cycle of anxiety, you’re incapable of taking helpful action.
So, put your energy and focus into accepting life’s timing, limit that anxiety, and give yourself a launchpad to a happy, successful life.
It’s all going to happen for you, as long as you’re putting in the effort, you just need to learn a touch of patience.
