> [!infobox] <s class="aside-in"><em>mentioned in 8 evergreens, 5 sources</em></s> #### [[Anxiety prevents us from living in the present]] [[Anxiety]] is the future focused [[mind]], and if you dwell in your anxiety for too long you are going to stop living in the present and start living in the future. There are four ways that anxiety takes us out of the current moment ^[[[notes - Responses to Anxiety]]] 1. Distraction - this is pure escapism and is quite effective, but the [[anxiety]] is waiting for you as soon as you runout of distraction. It will be hard, but you need to face your anxiety because [[Your anxiety is telling you everything that could go wrong, not what will go wrong]] 2. Avoidance - another way of escape, but one with much realer consequences. [[Anxiety stems from a lack of confidence for the future]] and if you continually avoid it will only worsen your [[confidence]] because [[Confidence is a feedback loop]] 3. Reassurance - while this is momentarily helpful, it eventually leads to dependence, especially because [[Anxiety tries to make us assume the worst]] 4. Just push through - this sometimes works because [[Most anxiety isn't irrational it's just overcompensation]], but other times this will just prevent you from attacking the root of the problem: [[Your anxiety knows your insecurities better than you do]] The common thread here is that we are not in control of our thoughts. [[Meditation is a practice to gain control over your thoughts]] which means it can help. We can often find it very easy to live in the future, but [[Living in the present moment is valuable]]. If you anxiety is feeling debilitating, just know that this is a problem as old as corn fields: [[The advent of farming lead to increased prevalence of anxiety]] ### <hr class="footnote"/> **Status**:: #EVER/SAPLING *edited January 18, 2022* **Topics**:: [[anxiety]], [[human experience]]