How to Worry and Stress All the Time! Part 1

(A Masterclass in Focusing on what Doesn’t Truly Matter)

Warning: This article is intended for those fully committed to their stress and worries. If you prefer peace of mind, please use the writing techniques below.

Stress and worry are about future scenarios we imagine might happen, so we decide to suffer in the present, just in case. Since we already dedicate so much of our precious energy to this, this article is a guide on how to become more professional at this gloriously illogical hobby. If you’re going to stress, let’s at least do it with commitment.

Focusing on the present is a dangerous habit that leads to peace of mind. To avoid this, you should ideally stress about the next 10 years in one sitting. Treat the future like a script you’ve already written, and ignore the fact that life rarely follows your notes. Your extraordinary ability to tell the future is far more reliable than reality. If you needed proof, take the last global pandemic which you could have predicted if you wanted, but luckily you didn’t.

In fact, when you worry, you can tell the future so well that you don’t need a weather forecast; you could practically write it yourself! Worrying about every possible situation is the absolute best way to spend your energy. While you are at it, please do update us on the weather; it is always good to know when to carry an umbrella.

Ideally, you want to leave things “in the air.” The vaguer they are, the better. Just worry tirelessly about different vague future scenarios; this helps you feel overwhelmed and it might even get you a bonus lack of sleep.

Mentally preparing to accept worst-case scenarios might make you feel in control. But why would you want to do that? By just worrying interminably, you can pretend you have a different kind of control: as if the universe will change its mind just because you’re upset enough about it. Do exaggerate how dramatic that potential could be to your life. The entire globe pretty much stops and bows every time you envision those scenarios. As the whole planet is shocked at the gravity of the situation you could find yourself in, through no control of yours. Try to dive into mental cycles and host panel conferences in your head, as your words are clearly what make the world bow in awe of the potential of those scenarios.

By all means, if by accident you manage to accept the worst, do not try to improve on it. Leave the situation as it is and ponder endlessly on disastrous possibilities.

The Writing Antidote: Ruining a Perfectly Good Worry

If, shockingly, you do not want to participate in this glorious hobby anymore and actually want to put your mind at ease, writing is your best defence. When we keep worries in our heads, they stay vague, dramatic, and overwhelming. The moment you put them into writing, they lose their power.

Here are two writing techniques you can practice on to anchor your mind back to reality:

Technique 1: The "Right Now" Focus

To break the habit of stressing about the next 10 years all at once, force your brain into the immediate present.

• Write down the massive future scenario that is currently causing stress.

• Below it, ask yourself: What is it that I can focus on right now? What is it that I can specifically do today?

• Write down just one or two small actions for today, and commit entirely to those. Keep on doing that until your mind feels at ease and you can finally focus on something constructive.

  
  

Technique 2: Defining the Ghost (Worst-Case Scripting)

Worry thrives on vagueness. To eliminate the fog, you must face the fear directly through writing.

• Write down all your fears and worst-case scenarios in full, brutal detail. Do not look away; put every scary thought into words.

• Right next to those scenarios, write down exactly how you will overcome those situations if they were to happen.

• Outline your survival steps, who you would call even if it’s 999, and how you would move forward. In case you feel the whole world will stop existing, which is totally realistic and true since you are the epicentre, write down how you can build a Noah's Ark to get yourself out. As easy as it is to pass on responsibilities for others to solve, try to rely on yourself and imagine you are the hero whose growth responsibility belongs to them.

  
  

Even if these scenarios seem terrifying at first, the actual process of writing them down and creating an action plan activates your problem-solving mind and immediately puts your anxiety at ease. Feel like you want to tackle the worry head-on?

Head over to Grafto and start writing. I can’t promise that your life will be a fantasy problem-free, but at least you get to write about it and ease your mind.