Link – Preparing for the worst, doesn’t prepare you for the worst.

The problem with this is, that I spend so much time figuring out how to deal with the bad that could happen, that it becomes exhausting. It causes anxiety, stress, worry, and takes up so much time that it’s mentally and physically draining.  So if something bad does happen, I have less energy to work the problem because I’ve spent so much time beating myself up and over thinking it in the first place. What exactly does it accomplish other than causing me more anxiety when the anxiety is one of the major issues I’m trying get a handle on in my healing journey?

When you say it like that, it makes sense. For me though, it’s hard to grasp. It’s so much easier to just stay stuck, to embrace that comfortable, familiar, thought process that I’ve perfected for decades.

Consequently I have to work twice as hard to retrain my brain.

I’m not suggesting that we should just run rough shod through life and never prepare for the future, but if we take a more positive approach to dealing with the good or bad that might happen, we can be better equipped and confident to handle either situation.

I’ve said it many times, while you don’t ever want to run into things without any planning, survivors do tend to have a problem with wanting to be prepared for every possible bad outcome, and so wind up thinking about all the bad things that can happen, and wind up too exhausted to do what they were thinking about to start with.

How about, if we work on our skills and practice getting in some slightly uncomfortable situations, thereby giving ourselves the confidence to know that, if things do go badly, we can deal with it and keep moving forward.

Because, that’s what life is.

http://www.survivingmypast.net/anxiety/preparing-worst-prepare-worst/