Mel Robbins, motivational expert: “Anxiety is literally nothing more than you thinking about something in the future”

With everything that’s going on in the world right now, it’s no wonder that many of us feel extremely nervous - anxious about what’s happening around us, worried about the future... Money worries, family, health, or just a general feeling of being out of control, there’s plenty to stress us out.

Threatening situations, fear of the unknown

But feeling a sense of dread or panic is a perfectly natural and common response in everyday life — and at times, it can even be helpful, giving us the push we need to confront the unknown or challenging situations.

It’s only when anxiety becomes more intense and starts interfering with our daily activities that it can turn into a real problem. The good news is that there are many techniques that can help us to manage and reduce anxiety before it starts to take over our lives.

New York Times bestselling author and award-winning podcast host Mel Robbins has a few life-coaching tips that can help you to restore calm in situations when fear sets in.

What to do when you start feeling anxious

Mel has some very simple advice - a simple, six-word phrase that we should tell ourselves when fear and doubt strike: “What if it all works out?” - the worse case scenario may never happen, in fact, it’s more likely that everything will turn out fine.

“Anxiety is literally nothing more than you thinking about something in the future,” Robbins explained in a tutorial posted on Instagram. “And thinking about it in a manner where it starts to sound an alarm in your body.

“First of all, if you catch yourself worrying. If you find yourself out in the future, ‘catastrophizing’, if you find yourself in that, ‘What if this? What if that? If you let your thoughts spin, it will spin you out of control and then you’re going to start to feel anxious," she adds.

So what should we do when we find ourselves overcome by worry for no real reason? Mel says we should take a deep breath, “Count backwards: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. And one of the best, most effective things you can insert as a different pattern is this 'What if it all works out? What if it all works out?’ What if I get on this plane and even though it’s bumpy, it still lands and it all works out. Because you can’t argue with that.

“If you can stabilize your thoughts, your body settles down and it doesn’t escalate. So you’re going to interrupt the worry (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) and then you inset something else. You can also say, ‘This moment will pass’. You can say, ‘I can handle this’. But you’ve got to interrupt those thoughts and inset something else,“ she concludes.

A very useful strategy to fight the fear and stop nervousness or negative thoughts creeping when when there’ no need to worry.

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