The Mental Journey to the Future. The Present Anxiety Factory

The Future Origin of Present Discomfort

Although the feeling of stress is always experienced in the present, its true cause often lies in the way we project our minds into the future.

We ourselves begin to burden ourselves with a great deal of negative thoughts, discomfort, and tension because of how we imagine future situations will be.

This emotional journey toward what has not yet happened is what fuels the anxiety we feel today, turning anticipation into a source of imbalance.

Our mind anticipates events, bringing into the present the negative emotions of a future that, in most cases, is completely uncertain and undefined.

The Double Track of Anticipation: Excitement versus Fear

Our mind tends to see future events in two completely different ways, as we can anticipate them with great excitement or with deep, paralyzing fear.

When we think of something positive that is about to happen, like a long-awaited vacation, what we feel is a vibrant excitement that fills us with very positive energy.

However, when we have to deliver an important project tomorrow, what we feel is fear, anguish, and enormous worry about something that has not yet happened.

Stress, therefore, does not come from the event itself, but from the negative expectation that we have built in our minds regarding how that event will unfold.

The Construction of the Worst Possible Scenario

One of the main sources of stress is our tendency to invent and put in our heads the worst possible scenario that could happen in the future.

For example, before an important interview, we start to imagine that we will be asked difficult questions, that we will not be prepared, and that the interviewers will look at us with disapproval.

Even before trying to talk to a person we are interested in, we have already built in our minds the idea that they will reject us and that we will fail.

At that The very moment we imagine failure, we begin to get stressed, anxious, and filled with fears about things that haven't even happened yet.

It is this mental construction of the catastrophe that makes us feel bad in the present, paralyzing us and sabotaging our chances of success before we have even tried.

The Disability of Fear: Questioning Our Own Catastrophes

When we honestly analyze our lives, we must ask ourselves when was the last time the worst possible outcome we imagined actually happened, or even worse, in reality.

The truth is that this happens only a small percentage of the time because our mind usually plays tricks on us, allowing our imagination to wander into the absurd.

We allow our mind to imagine the worst, reaching extreme and exaggerated situations that only succeed in deeply stressing us out in the present moment.

This mental habit not only fills us with unnecessary anxiety, but also It prevents us from moving confidently and securely in the right direction to achieve our goals.