How to Stop Worrying About the Future

What Is Anxiety About the Future?

Worrying about the future is a form of anxiety that many people experience. Worry is a primary symptom of anxiety, which can sometimes make it difficult to determine the difference between worry or anxiety. Worrying can become an anxiety disorder when it happens frequently over time and begins to cause problems for someone in important areas of their life, such as at work, at home or in relationships with others.

What Worrying About the Future Feels Like

Future-based anxiety is a type of anxiety characterized by excessive and persistent worry about future events or uncertainties. It can manifest in both physical and psychological symptoms. This type of anxiety can range from mild concerns to severe stress about future events or outcomes, impacting one’s mental health and daily life.

Why Do We Worry About the Future?

From an evolutionary perspective, worrying about the future is a survival mechanism created by our ability to think about things that exist beyond the present moment. Research has been conducted on humans and animals alike to thoroughly research the link between worrying about the future and physiological stress responses in the body.¹ Excessive worry and anxiety can become problematic. There are many anxiety triggers and reasons that can exist related to worrying about the future.

Some common reasons people worry about the future include:

• Personal experiences: If someone has a bad personal experience they may want to believe they can prevent something similar from happening again by worrying about the future.
• Life changes: Sometimes life transitions can trigger worries about the future, especially because facing the unknown can often be very unsettling for the human mind.
• Watching the news: Sometimes doom scrolling or becoming preoccupied with the news can cause existential anxiety and worry that is often future-focused.
• Changes in weather: Sometimes climate anxiety can trigger worry about the future as these changes can be a reminder of a great existential crisis that often causes people to feel helpless and out of control.
• Fear of losing control: Maintaining an illusion of control, rather than surrendering to the future unknown is often a cause of anxiety for many people.
• Shame: Some people are trying to prevent the experience of shame for not being able to foresee a certain pitfall before they encounter it. Undoing this conditioning can be a helpful component of therapy. Believing we should have all the answers is often a misleading and sisyphean task.
• Difficulty being present: Some people might think about the future in order to distract themselves from something in the present that feels painful or uncomfortable.

How to Stop Worrying About the Future

Below is a list of tips for how to stop worrying about the future. These are strategies you may be able to employ if worrying about the future is something you notice yourself struggling with. This can also be a general set of guidelines for mental health and well-being.

1. Practice Mindfulness

Generally speaking, mindfulness for anxiety can help ground individuals to the present moment and explain how that helps reduce overthinking or stress about future events. Learning mindfulness strategies can help people overcome difficulty with getting stuck thinking about the future through becoming more comfortable existing in the present.

2. Learn to Meditate

A component of mindful practices can be meditation for anxiety which can also help ground individuals in the present moment. There are many different ways to engage with meditation. It is helpful to find a practice that is easy to begin and sustain in order to increase the likelihood of this strategy being an effective one. The most important thing about meditation is finding a method that is the best fit for you. You can explore options by using meditation apps like Headspace.

3. Journaling

Journaling for anxiety can be a useful mechanism for becoming more connected with your thoughts and feelings. This can also help keep a record of triggers that may start future-based spiraling. Increasing self-awareness through journaling has many mental health benefits beyond becoming less future-focused.

4. Guided Imagery

Guided imagery meditation for anxiety is helpful for becoming more present-focused. Especially for people who tend to enjoy using imagery as a tool of the imagination, this can be a good fit and strategy. Exploring guided imagery exercises that call to you can be useful.

5. Progressive Muscle Relaxation

This is a tool that can be used to engage the body in an effort to be more present-focused. Progressive muscle relaxation is a body exercise that can help people also experience a greater sense of control and grounding in the body that is useful for general mental health and well-being. This is also a practice that can start small and be built on over time with comfort.

6. Work/Life Balance

Oftentimes people who are feeling overworked and overwhelmed find themselves worrying more about the future because it is difficult to disengage the brain from the chronic stress state that often comes with overworking. Learning how to put boundaries around time spent working is very important to mental health.

7. Rest

Remember, rest is resistance. People often forget that resting is just as important to our mental health as doing things that are fulfilling. Making rest or downtime a priority can have far reaching health benefits that also help people to disengage from the idea that their worth comes from their ability to be productive, which is another aspect of future-based worry that is important to de-program.

8. Meeting Basic Needs

Making sure your basic needs for food, safety and sleep are consistently met is a number one rule in creating a healthy baseline for your brain and body. Creating a routine around regular sleep, meals and having a peaceful place to return to at the end of the day is a huge component of making your life generally better. Afterall, it is difficult to stay in the present if you are constantly in a state of physical or mental discomfort.

9. Connect With Your Feelings

It is important to make intentional time to reflect on and connect with your feelings. Sometimes worrying about the future is an avoidance mechanism we use to escape uncomfortable emotions that exist in the present. If you notice yourself worrying about the future a lot, maybe ask yourself if there is something in the present you are avoiding. It is also helpful to set aside some time every day to engage in intentional emotional reflection.

10. Set Boundaries Around Your Time

People dealing with chronic anxiety often struggle with overextending themselves. Setting boundaries around your time with work, relationships and other areas of life is an important way to decrease anxiety that you might feel as a result of chronic overextension. Making a list of things you can take off your plate and taking inventory of your priorities is a helpful first start. Learning the power of saying no to taking on extra responsibility in your life can also help.

11. Soothe Your Nervous System

Chronically overstimulated nervous systems lead to chronic stress. Learning how to soothe and relax your nervous system so that this becomes your baseline state of being is important. Going for regular walks outside, taking a bath, reading, or doing activities that are generally soothing to you can help to rewire your nervous system for peace rather than stress.

12. Engage in Values Clarification

Thinking intentionally about your values and the underlying compass guiding you in life can help to learn what you can let go of. If you find yourself worrying about something that is likely unnecessary, ask yourself if this thing is a component of your underlying core values. This practice can help illuminate the actual significance of that thing in the grand scheme of your life. This perspective shift allows us to concern ourselves more with the things that really matter on a grand scale and less about the things that don’t.

How to Accept Uncertainty About the Future

It is very important to spend intentional time developing a balanced and healthy perspective on the future. It is helpful to set realistic goals, maintain a positive outlook, and accept uncertainty or fear of the unknown as a natural part of life. Our attempts to control the future and outcomes are often a large part of what leads to chronic anxiety.

Treatment Options for Anxiety About the Future

Sometimes seeking professional anxiety treatment can benefit those struggling with severe anxiety about the future. There are several types of therapies for anxiety that can help.

Treatment options for anxiety about the future include:

• Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): CBT for anxiety can help target problematic ways of thinking and behaviors that are related to worrying about the future.
• Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT): DBT for anxiety can help people learn strategies for regulating difficult emotions that arise related to worrying about the future.
• Exposure therapy: Sometimes exposure therapy for anxiety can help people expose themselves systematically to triggers they may be avoiding that are causing and maintaining anxiety.
• Compassion-focused therapy (CFT): Compassion focused therapy, or CFT, can help people struggling with shame and difficulty moving through anxiety develop a healthier relationship with themselves.
• Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT): Acceptance and commitment therapy for anxiety, or ACT, can help people increase acceptance around situations causing anxiety and help develop a plan for change around these tendencies.
• Internal family systems therapy (IFS): Internal family systems therapy, or IFS, can help people identify parts of themselves and family of origin patterns and dynamics that may be causing and maintaining anxiety about the future.

Where to Find Professional Help for Future Anxieties

If you want to seek treatment for anxiety, it is important to consider how to find a therapist who is a good fit for you. Look for someone you would feel safe and comfortable working with. An online therapist directory can be a helpful resource using a directed search to look for qualities that are desirable for you in a potential therapist.