How to Feel Less Anxious About the Future
It’s a human trait to wonder about the future and all the unknowns accompanying it. Whether you’re plagued by concerns over your job or money, nervousness about raising kids or caring for aging parents, or fears of natural disasters, anxiety is less than ideal. It can interfere with enjoying the present. It often takes the form of paralyzing fear or a lack of faith in the future. You can’t control the future, yet you naturally need to be in charge of it.
Anxiety about the future is not a character flaw nor evidence of mental illness. It’s part of being human. It’s natural to worry about the future and to have anxiety. That doesn’t mean it’s beneficial, or you should let it run your life. Even though thinking about the future can be uncomfortable, trying to suppress those thoughts only leads to more anxiety and stress and probably doesn’t make you feel much better.
Here are some ways to manage your anxiety about the future and some coping strategies to become more relaxed and confident.
1. Make an Action Plan
If your job situation is causing you great anxiety, consider how you would cope with not having that job anymore. Make a plan for how you could live without it, earn money and find fulfilling work. Maybe you don’t want to think about it, but the situation could arise. If you haven’t prepared for it, your anxiety will worsen. It’s also wise to consider how to deal with a natural disaster. You need to think about what your family would do if there were a power outage or earthquake.
Start thinking about how you could cope with the most frightening possibilities. Make a plan for how you could deal with them, and believe you could cope. Consider the worst-case scenarios, and think about how you could handle them. Make a plan that leaves you confident enough to deal with whatever life throws you.
2. Learn How to Relax and Relieve Stress
Relaxation techniques help you reduce your anxiety, stress, and muscle tension. They prevent the mental and physical symptoms of anxiety, such as irritability, fatigue, tight jaw muscles, tense neck muscles, and insomnia. The best relaxation techniques work on all senses, relaxing not just your mind but also your body. They include taking a warm bath, getting a massage, meditating, praying, and even laughing. Others include stretching, tai chi, and progressive muscle relaxation, in which you focus on relaxing each muscle group in your body.
You can do relaxation exercises as a quick activity anytime and anywhere. They are instrumental when you are frustrated, angry, or anxious. There are relaxation tapes, books, audio programs, and guided imagery, and you can use them alongside a regular exercise program. Your body responds to stress by tightening up as if preparing for fighting or flight. This physical tension makes you feel more anxious and often more irritable. Relaxation helps you reduce the anxiety and tension of stress.
3. Consider Tarot Cards
The best tarot spreads for beginners should be simple, straightforward, and easy to interpret. The first step in creating your spread is deciding on the topic you want to examine, whether it’s a problem or a goal you want to achieve. When you have decided on your topic, think about what information you need to better understand your situation or what outcome you would like. These spreads can help you learn how to deal with your anxiety about the future.
4. Write Down Your Worries
Your subconscious mind can process information more efficiently and in a more organized way if you write it down. It can also allow you to make lists and develop a system to order your thoughts. Write down your worries in a journal.
You can also keep a worry diary. This involves writing down your worries as they occur throughout the day and then figuring out how to deal with them. Writing it down helps you sort out the critical things you need to pay attention to from the things that are just causing you unnecessary stress.
Conclusion
Anxiety and stress are feelings that everyone experiences on occasion. They don’t mean that something terrible is happening or will happen in the future. You can learn to deal with them healthily, to be at peace with yourself, and to remain calm when things feel out of control or there seems to be too much uncertainty in your life.
