Anxiety as the Future Emotion
Anxiety is a complex emotion that often differs from other emotions in its temporal orientation. While emotions like boredom, anger, or loneliness are typically triggered by the present moment, anxiety tends to focus on what might go wrong in the future.
The Nature of Anxiety
At its core anxiety causes discomfort, compelling individuals to take action in order to alleviate their distress. Unlike other emotions which can often be soothed by addressing their immediate causes, anxiety tends to orient individuals towards potential future problems. It’s hard to calm our worries since we can’t solve today that which we fear might occur later. Thus it persists. It can feel like emotional tinnitus.
Understanding “What If” Thinking
Many people with anxiety disorders struggle with ‘what if’ thinking. This form of thinking involves contemplating potential scenarios that are not real or true. For instance, a teacher can ask students to imagine what if they had been born the opposite gender from their birth gender, how would their lives be different. ‘What if’ allows us to depart from reality so our imagination can take flight.
The Problem with ‘What If’ Thinking
We don’t deal well with uncertainty. Further, human nature often gravitates towards anticipating the worst possible outcomes when predicting the future. Our emotions react strongly to these imagined worst case scenarios as if they were real. This creates a snowball effect, where negative ‘what if’ thoughts build upon each other, creating an emotional cataclysm.
Creating ‘If-Then’ Scenarios
Despite its potential drawbacks, ‘what if’ thinking can be useful when combined with ‘if-then’ scenarios. By combining potential future problems with brainstormed solutions we can train ourselves to become effective problem-solvers. Just like questions desire answers, ‘if’ hypothetical problems merit ‘then’ solutions. “If that happens, then this is what I would do”.
Anxiety Made Useful
Anxiety can be transformed into a useful tool for strategic thinking. The steps to do so are: 1) entertain only one ‘what if’ scenario at a time; 2) for each ‘what if’ scenario create 3 ‘then’ possible solutions; 3) choose the best of the 3 options you’d take if the problem actually materializes. By practicing the creation of ‘if-then’ scenarios we are engaging in mental exercise, refining our ability to generate solutions even for hypothetical problems. Rather than allowing anxiety to spiral out of control with a cascade of ‘what if’s’, we can use it as a means to sharpen our problem-solving skills to face almost anything that may occur.
Conclusion: Anxiety as Strategic Exercise
Success includes effectively handling the unexpected. Our minds naturally worry about the future. Why not use this tendency to fine-tune our ability to create options even for hypothetical problems? Lamenting problems is dreadful. Creating solutions even for imaginary ones is empowering.
