How To Let Go Of Worry Over The Future

“Both optimism and anxiety require us to imagine something that hasn’t happened yet. If we have the ability to worry about the future, it also means we have the ability to imagine a better one.”

- Jess Ekstrom, Chasing the Bright Side

For the first time in my life, when the COVID pandemic hit in 2020, I found myself dealing with anxiety. Being an emergency physician means that I was trained to handle the unexpected. I thrive on novelty, and when I chose emergency medicine as a specialty I rather enjoyed the adrenaline rush that comes along with a true emergency. I prided myself on being calm and even-keeled in the eye of the storm.

But the COVID-19 pandemic left me feeling something different – anxious and worried. Before a vaccine nor medicines for the COVID had been developed, I sometimes found myself future casting and heading into a downward spiral of worry.

I wondered would I get sick from taking care of COVID patients at work, and if so would I end up hospitalized unable to see my family? Would my husband, kids, or elderly parents fall ill? I worried about my kids who were doing e-learning and if I was doing enough to help them with their education. I worried about the economy and how so many of my physician colleagues are without work or income.

The worry was natural and normal during a time of such huge uncertainty. Things I could have never imagined happening had occurred. 

But when I reflected on my worries, I realized I was worrying about a future that didn't exist yet. Thankfully I remained healthy and strong. Despite taking care of lots of COVID patients in the ER, I knew how to protect myself and at my hospital we did have enough personal protective equipment.

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My family had also been staying healthy with the precautions we took. My kids did well and learned a lot academically and we also took remote learning as an opportunity to teach them some life skills at home like how to cook some basics things and also clean up around the house a bit. 

A Choice to Make

So I had a choice to make. I could either focus on all my fears and anxieties or I could choose to focus on gratitude. And if I choose to spend some time in worry, I decided I would also give equal air time to what was going well.  

When I found myself getting overwhelmed by future casting a variety of scary futures that had not yet happened, I brought myself back to the present moment - to the NOW.

Author Jen Sincero Author Jen SIncero calls NOW an acronym for Never Over Whelmed. To get myself back into the present moment I asked myself -

Where am I seated? At home sitting on the couch

What is happening right in front of me? I’m writing this article, and I am safe and sound.

Next I would breath and tell myself how lucky I was to be strong and healthy right here and right now.  

Moving to the present moment and focusing on my immediate safety and health helped pull me out of the worry and anxiety.

The truth is that none of us know what the future holds so why spend so much time and energy worrying about it and assuming it’s going to be all doom and gloom. That is simply our imagination. If we can imagine a scary future why not also imagine and entertain the possibility of the rainbow after the storm?

Giving equal time to both possibilities allows me to stay more grounded, and I also know that whatever ends up happening I will figure it out as I always have in the past and as I’m sure you have too.