How to help my child stop worrying

Helping Kids When They Worry (for Parents)

Reviewed by: Holly M. Antal, PhD

Psychology (Behavioral Health) at Nemours Children's Health

en español Ayudar a los niños cuando se preocupan

As kids grow, they face many new things. Starting school. Meeting new friends. Learning to swim. Competing in sports. Learning to drive. Each new thing can feel like a big step forward.

When kids and teens face new things, they often feel a mix of emotions. Facing something new — even when it's a good thing — can be stressful. It's natural to feel excited about what's ahead — and to worry about whether they're ready to handle it.

Worry isn't all bad. It can be helpful as long as it doesn't last too long, become too intense, or happen too often.

Worry is a caution signal. It's a natural response to a big event, change, or challenge. Worry is a way of thinking and feeling ahead: "Am I ready for this? What's going to happen? Is it safe to go ahead? What do I need to do to get ready? How will I do it? What if I feel nervous?"

Thinking through the part they worry about — calmly and with support from parents — can help kids get ready for what's ahead. When kids feel prepared, they can focus on the part they're looking forward to.   

How Adults Can Help

Sometimes kids avoid things that feel new or challenging. But doing new things (that are safe and right for their age) helps kids grow. With each new challenge they can gain skills and confidence.

Parents can help kids and teens face new things without letting worry hold them back. Here’s how:

• Spend time with them. Do this every day, even if it's just a few minutes. Do things together that you both enjoy. Go for a walk, cook, eat, play — or just hang out. Find ways to smile and laugh together. This keeps the bond between you strong and positive. And it creates moments for kids to open up naturally.
• Ask what's on their minds. Help kids label what they think and feel. They might not always have a lot to say. And they might not always want to talk about what's on their minds. But let kids know you're open to listening and talking any time.
• Listen with patience. When kids and teens want to talk, listen with your full attention. Give them time to put their thoughts and feelings into words. Ask questions to hear more. Don't be too quick to give advice. Let them confide. Listen calmly to what they have to say.
• Validate. Let kids know you understand. Say it’s okay to feel how they feel. Tell them their feelings are normal. Try not to say, "There's nothing to worry about." This can make kids think they shouldn't feel the way they do. Instead, listen calmly and accept how they feel. That makes it easier for kids to share.
• Help kids think of how to handle things. Help them feel capable. Don't jump in to solve things for them. Instead, invite kids and teens to think of what they can do. Support their good ideas. Talk it through together. Remind them of times they tried something new and it went well. Offer to help as needed.
• Help them practice. When possible, help kids break a new thing into small steps. Let them practice one step at a time as they build toward their goal. Celebrate each success.
• Encourage. Praise your child's effort and progress. Tell them what they said or did that made you proud. Help them relax so that stress and worry don't build up.
• Help them expect good things. Ask your child or teen to share what's going well and what they look forward to. Ask about the good things that happen in their day. Tell them about the good things in your day, too. Let them know that it’s OK to talk about worries but it helps to put more focus on the good moments.
• Soothe and comfort. At times, kids and teens may feel overwhelmed by worry. In those moments, trying to talk it through isn't likely to help. It might help more to offer comfort and understanding. Remind them that you're there to help them through things that happen. Teach them to use calm breathing to relax their mind and body.

What if My Child Worries too Much?

Sometimes worries become worse with time. When kids worry too much, it’s hard to enjoy school, activities or friends. Worries can start to affect sleeping or eating. They can lead kids to feel anxious or afraid, and to avoid things they might enjoy. Worry like this could be a sign of an anxiety disorder.

If your child has worry, stress, or anxiety that seems too hard for them to handle, talk with your child's doctor or a mental health doctor. Childhood anxiety can get better with the right treatment and support.

Reviewed by: Holly M. Antal, PhD

Date reviewed: October 2021

How to Cope With an Anxious Child

When children are chronically anxious, even the most well-meaning parents, not wanting a child to suffer, can actually make the youngster’s anxiety worse. It happens when parents try to protect kids from their fears. Here are pointers for helping children escape the cycle of anxiety.

1. The goal isn’t to eliminate anxiety, but to help a child manage it.

None of us wants to see a child unhappy, but the best way to help kids overcome anxiety isn’t to try to remove stressors that trigger it. It’s to help them learn to tolerate their anxiety and function as well as they can, even when they’re anxious. And as a byproduct of that, the anxiety will decrease over time.

2. Don’t avoid things just because they make a child anxious.

Helping children avoid the things they are afraid of will make them feel better in the short term, but it reinforces the anxiety over the long run. Let’s say a child in an uncomfortable situation gets upset and starts to cry — not to be manipulative, but just because that’s how they feel. If their parents whisk them out of there, or remove the thing they’re afraid of, the child has learned that coping mechanism. And that cycle has the potential to repeat itself.

3. Express positive — but realistic — expectations.

You can’t promise a child that their fears are unrealistic—that they won’t fail a test, that they’ll have fun ice skating, or that another child won’t laugh at them during show & tell. But you can express confidence that they’re going to be okay, that they will be able to manage it. And you can let them know that as they face those fears, the anxiety level will drop over time. This gives them confidence that your expectations are realistic, and that you’re not going to ask them to do something they can’t handle.

4. Respect their feelings, but don’t empower them.

It’s important to understand that validation doesn’t always mean agreement. So if a child is terrified about going to the doctor because they’re due for a shot, you don’t want to belittle those fears, but you also don’t want to amplify them. You want to listen and be empathetic, help them understand what they’re anxious about, and encourage them to feel that they can face their fears. The message you want to send is, “I know you’re scared, and that’s okay, and I’m here, and I’m going to help you get through this.”

5. Don’t ask leading questions.

Encourage your child to talk about their feelings, but try not to ask leading questions— “Are you anxious about the big test? Are you worried about the science fair?” To avoid feeding the cycle of anxiety, just ask open-ended questions: “How are you feeling about the science fair?”

What you don’t want to do is be saying, with your tone of voice or body language: “Maybe this is something that you should be afraid of.” Let’s say a child has had a negative experience with a dog. Next time they’re around a dog, you might be anxious about how they will respond, and you might unintentionally send a message that they should, indeed, be worried.

7. Encourage the child to tolerate their anxiety.

Let your child know that you appreciate the work it takes to tolerate anxiety in order to do what they want or need to do. It’s really encouraging them to engage in life and to let the anxiety take its natural curve. We call it the “habituation curve.” That means that it will drop over time as he continues to have contact with the stressor. It might not drop to zero, it might not drop as quickly as you would like, but that’s how we get over our fears.

8. Try to keep the anticipatory period short.

When we’re afraid of something, the hardest time is really before we do it. So another rule of thumb for parents is to really try to eliminate or reduce the anticipatory period. If a child is nervous about going to a doctor’s appointment, you don’t want to launch into a discussion about it two hours before you go; that’s likely to get your child more keyed up. So just try to shorten that period to a minimum.

9. Think things through with the child.

Sometimes it helps to talk through what would happen if a child’s fear came true—how would they handle it? A child who’s anxious about separating from their parents might worry about what would happen if a parent didn’t come to pick them up. So we talk about that. If your mom doesn’t come at the end of soccer practice, what would you do? “Well I would tell the coach my mom’s not here.” And what do you think the coach would do? “Well he would call my mom. Or he would wait with me.” A child who’s afraid that a stranger might be sent to pick them up can have a code word from their parents that anyone they sent would know. For some kids, having a plan can reduce the uncertainty in a healthy, effective way.

10. Try to model healthy ways of handling anxiety.

There are multiple ways you can help kids handle anxiety by letting them see how you cope with anxiety yourself. Kids are perceptive, and they’re going to take it in if you keep complaining on the phone to a friend that you can’t handle the stress or the anxiety. I’m not saying to pretend that you don’t have stress and anxiety, but let kids hear or see you managing it calmly, tolerating it, feeling good about getting through it.

Video Resources for Kids

Teach your kids mental health skills with video resources from The California Healthy Minds, Thriving Kids Project.

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"I'm constantly afraid for my child, help!"

“I am constantly afraid for my child, help!” - mothers write on parent forums. The "symptoms" are about the same for everyone.

"I'm afraid of swings and slides while walking, I'm worried that I'll fall off the couch, I don't go far to catch it at any moment."

“I'm afraid of incurable diseases, that doctors will miss some important diagnosis. I constantly take my daughter for examinations, read articles on the net. My husband even took the TV out of the house and stopped paying for the Internet.” nine0003

“I'm terribly afraid of someone else's blood, I don't go to the clinic to take tests with my child, I don't take him to the dentist, and if this cannot be avoided, I keep a close eye on the instruments.”

This is just a small part of the "horrors" that excited mothers share with each other. The leitmotif in their confessions is: before the birth of the child, I was not so “crazy”.

And then, as an excuse: I'm just trying to protect my child. On the eve of June 1, we are talking with a family psychologist about what child protection really is, and what can be protected from and what cannot be protected from Vera Yakupova . Anxious, controlling and calm mothers tell their stories.

“For starters, I will hasten to reassure mothers: it is normal to want to protect your child! It is our basic need to protect the one we care about.

And now let's figure out what we can protect the child from, what we can't, and what to do with it all.

Today our reproductive life has changed: we do not give birth to many children, it happens later and more meaningfully. At the same time, the value of motherhood and a child increases. Accordingly, we pay more attention to this - what is right, what is better. nine0003

There is a common joke: today being a parent means taking care of education, building a good relationship with a child, developing empathy, driving in English, teaching sports, and so on and so forth. What did it mean to be a parent 100 years ago? Just feed the baby sometimes. I think this perfectly illustrates everything that is happening now.

Our society is becoming child-centric. And if without excesses, then this, in my opinion, is an indicator of the value of human life. Never before in all the time of human history has life, especially children's life, been valued as highly as it is now. It is interesting, by the way, that it is still difficult for us to appreciate our life, but we have already learned to protect the nursery. nine0003

Many mothers, when they come to me for a consultation, say: I'm okay, but I don't want this to be passed on to the child. That is, taking care of yourself is still difficult, but taking care of a child is easier. When a skill is being worked out, it is always easier to first train it on someone, and then on yourself.

So caring for children is a very good “symptom” of our society. This suggests that, in general, the value of human life is increasing.

But there is another side of the coin. Yes, today we have enough information, we know a lot about risks, dangers and ways to overcome them. We are competent enough to ensure physical safety: medicine is now developed, there are various devices - window plugs, car seats, smart watches with GPS, and so on. We know a lot about psychology, we try to protect the child from mental trauma. nine0003

But at the same time we forget that man is not omnipotent. These are the rules of the game, this is how our world works: not everything depends on us. This is reality, and we have no other.

And here is an interesting moment. When we try to control everything, to be responsible for everything and everyone, it seems to us that we are super adults, we are responsible. But in fact, this is an infantile position. We really want to completely control the world, but this is not given to anyone.

Maturity consists precisely in accepting one's own limitations. nine0003

Ascribing responsibility for everything is a heavy burden, it can seriously neuroticize, provoke guilt and anxiety. Often this is inherent in just good parents - educated, thinking, socially successful. This is one of the sides of the “excellent student syndrome”.

Ever since our Soviet childhood we have been accustomed to hearing: try hard and everything will be fine. But in reality, life does not give any guarantees.

When is the alarm triggered? Differently. Someone says that she felt fear already in the maternity hospital with her first child, and someone complains that with a big age difference between the children, she “went crazy” only with the younger ones.

This is connected not only with the age of the mother - they say that in youth everyone is careless. This is also an indicator of how the attitude of society towards motherhood has changed over the past 10-15 years, how the requirements are growing. nine0003

But in general, when a child is born, we have a significant person whom we are afraid to lose. When this is the first experience, a mother often feels that she was given a child, and they forgot to attach instructions to it. This device is very fragile, she is afraid to break it, does not know how to use it, and there are not even any hints how to find out - what to do?

In modern society, the transfer of knowledge from the older generation to the younger one no longer works as it used to. Then there were prepared templates for actions, including caring for a child. The world is becoming more complex and changing rapidly. Now parents often know more than grandparents. nine0003

You have to try, improvise, look for information, develop your own parenting path based on your values. It's not easy and worrisome.

Mom is looking for. And often - finds something frightening. She is additionally neuroticized by doctors who are ready to prescribe tests, medicines, procedures. Because, since the patient has come, he must be treated.

Psychologists add fuel to the fire. How many articles have already been published with the headings: “5 phrases that should not be said to children”, “10 actions that will cause trauma to a child”, and so on. nine0003

It sounds everywhere: be careful, parent! Step right, step left and you'll ruin everything! Information plays an important role in the formation of our anxiety. No wonder they say: "the less you know, you sleep better."

An interesting fact: when I interviewed mothers after childbirth about whether their children had any health problems, the vast majority, several hundred people, answered “yes” and called, in general, typical things for babies - colic , regurgitation and so on. These are just stages of development, but they are perceived hard, cause anxiety. The ground for fears is ready. nine0003

Too much information today. And on the one hand, this is good - we are warned and armed. For example, recently the Liza Alert search team began to actively inform that children could die in cesspools. We can consider this moment, avoid such holes, close them, watch our children.

But sometimes the news filter is set to such disturbing content that it feels like horror is everywhere. Remember the story about the nanny who cut off the child's head?

If you think about it, statistically this is one case in millions, but it sounded so bright, and in itself it is so scary that my mothers still tell me: we are afraid to hire a nanny, what if something happens? It is clear that the risk of being hit by a car, for example, is much higher than that the nanny will cut off his head, but people are afraid.

Fear sells well. Journalists understand this, “an incident with children” is clickable. At the same time, of course, there are words about the need to disseminate important information. nine0003

But people treat her differently. Although it’s scary for some, it doesn’t last long - so I checked everything I can do about it, corrected it and calmed down. And an anxious person simply cannot get rid of these thoughts, up to health problems.

There's nothing wrong with fear itself, as long as it works the way nature intended. In control, too, if it is not hypertrophied. nine0003

Each of our emotions has a role to play. Anxiety, fear have a protective function, they warn us of danger. It is normal to feel them and then take some measures to protect yourself.

A healthy mechanism is to be afraid of heights and move away from the edge of the abyss.

But when it ceases to be protection, but becomes something that interferes, stops, if it worsens the quality of life, does not allow you to do business - there is a reason to turn to a specialist.

But if anxiety or fears become obsessive, they spin in the head non-stop, it is impossible to fall asleep, you cannot let the child go away from you for a long time - in a word, when they interfere with life, this is not normal. Sometimes it can indicate depression. nine0003

One cannot "hide" one's anxieties and fears from oneself. When we come up with instructions for ourselves and our children for all occasions, try to foresee and predict everything, we just hide our real emotions in a distant box.

It is more productive to interact openly with them. Tell yourself: yes, it's okay to feel worried about your child. Yes, at times I feel helpless, but that's also natural.

It is useful to draw in the form of a pie chart what depends on me and what does not. You need to focus on what you can do. I carry out my program, my area of ​​responsibility, and the rest - as God wills. I just remember that there is always some variable x that does not depend on me. nine0003

It happens that a mother gets into a vicious circle of worries: she seems to be waiting for the next incident, and when it happens, she triumphantly says: “I knew it.”

It seems that the child is ready to respond to her expectations - as if deliberately throwing up a variety of reasons for concern. What can be done here?

If the anxiety is situational - in response to some incident that the mother had or in her immediate environment, the child has nothing to do with it, it is the mother who needs to work with a psychologist. nine0003

For example, the mother of an allergic child once saw him have a severe attack, and now she is trying to protect the child in all possible ways. A psychologist can help you understand what is behind these fears.

If anxiety is a character trait, everything is more complicated. Yes, sooner or later something will happen, but you can treat it differently. Someone will say: it happens, and someone will take what happened as proof of their innocence: “I told you, I knew!” And then the anxiety turns out to be “needed” by the mother, and she will not fight it. nine0003

What is worth remembering? Our anxiety can stop the child's initiative. If danger is everywhere, he picks it up and begins to be afraid himself, does not show initiative.

Therefore, if even a small incident with a baby increases the mother's feelings of guilt and anxiety, this is a reason to work with a psychologist.

For those who cannot do this yet, there is sos-method , which was invented by the Viennese psychologist Viktor Frankl, who worked with obsessive-compulsive disorders.

Frankl offered to bring his fears and anxieties to the point of absurdity, not to avoid, but, on the contrary, to immerse themselves in them as much as possible. At some point, a fracture will occur, and the tension will decrease.

When it comes to physical safety, we can really consider many of the most common things that can save lives. But we can also give him psychological protection - and this is no less important. nine0003

A child needs our protection - it gives him peace of mind, the perception of this world as friendly, allows him to calmly explore the world and develop.

In psychology, this is called "reliable attachment" - the emotional availability of the mother, her sensitivity, attention to the needs of the child. This is more important than just leading him by the hand and physically protecting him from danger.

When talking about attachment theory, the thesis of "the stable presence of the mother" is often mentioned. He is mistakenly understood to mean that the mother does not physically leave the child. This is not so - it means emotional presence. nine0003

It can be difficult to protect a child here. Often we are afraid that someone will inflict mental pain on a child, even more than we are afraid of physical pain. But this is also the law of life: there are different people in the world, and sooner or later the child will also encounter them.

Of course, we can find a friendly environment for the child - a good kindergarten, circles, a circle of acquaintances. But it is still in our power to form that very reliable attachment so that the child knows:

if something bad happens to me, I can turn to my parents for help and support. This is the key thing. nine0003

It is up to us to be accepting, loving, empathic, supportive. When we ourselves respect the child, he grows up with the feeling that this is how it should be: I am good and I deserve to be treated well.

This is what should be taught from childhood, not English-dancing-aikido.

Do not infect children with your fears

The greatest gift to a child and the best protection is to make him feel "having the right to be". Formal care without it means nothing. nine0003 “When discussing dangers, the main thing is not to instill your fears in children”
Maria Kotreleva, 9 children, from 24 to 5 years old:
I have many children, and I gradually learned to curb my fears. My eldest daughter decided to go to Europe alone at the age of 18. I was very scared! I told her all my fears, but she said: I understand you, but this is my life. And this is important: the child has the right to have his own experience, it will not be the same as yours. In this sense, I try to trust God.
When discussing dangers, the main thing is not to inspire your children with your fears. nine0049 Here, I confess, I made a mistake: I'm terribly afraid of spiders, and unwittingly passed this phobia to my children. Now we squeal with the whole family, and there is no one who could drive this spider away from us. So you can discuss fears, say what happens and how to avoid it. But you can't broadcast them.
Of course, we also had all sorts of "fearful things", and moreover, when everyone is relaxed and does not expect a dirty trick. And from a height our child fell, broke his leg. And the daughter left the playground alone - they were looking for with the police. I would like, of course, to fasten myself with a short leash, not to let go. But what will happen then? I pray when I'm really worried. It helps. I pray and let go." nine0002 I worry about everything, so I don't trust God?

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Child alarm. 7 tips to cope with it

Nature has built in our body the ability to worry. Worry and anxiety are really useful when they push us to take action and solve problems. They cause a feeling of discomfort and this is normal: after all, we would hardly be saved in a dangerous situation if the experience of anxiety was similar to the state of inspiration when listening to our favorite song. nine0003

But if you are often preoccupied with the thoughts “what if?”, “something bad is going to happen”, “I have to control everything” and feel constant tension, then this anxiety becomes a problem. After all, you have to spend a lot of energy and time on it. It's like walking on level ground with the same effort as climbing steep stairs.

Chronic anxiety is a habit of thought that can be changed. And the good news is that you can train your brain, your behavior, change your attitude to experiences, to the very state of anxiety and open up new roads and horizons. nine0003

On the one hand, we may think that our constant anxiety can get out of hand, drive us crazy or harm our health. On the other hand, that experiences help us avoid something bad, prepare for the worst, or come up with solutions to bad scenarios in advance.

"Worry about worry" adds strength to our experiences and keeps them going (just as worrying about getting to sleep often prevents us from falling asleep). But positive beliefs about worry can be even more damaging. It's hard to break the habit of worrying if we think that worrying is protecting us. To stop worrying, we must give up our belief that constant worrying is justified and serves us well. nine0003

“After the birth of a child, I looked at the word “anxiety” in a new way”
Childbirth is a hormonal storm for the body, and after them, many diseases often either become aggravated or, on the contrary, disappear. Evolutionarily conditioned, in order to save the offspring, the mother needs to be more anxious, since the newborn cannot stand up for himself, and this is absolutely normal. Every day this need is decreasing, but many women (and men too) reinforce this pattern of behavior, which is also reinforced by social pressure. We all know the phrase “What kind of mother are you if you don’t worry about the child.” nine0003

“How not to worry? This is my child, I want him to grow up healthy and smart.”
Unfortunately, trying to protect a child from all dangers, we take away from him the ability to develop independence and self-confidence. Maybe the child will get higher grades, but how will this affect his life in the future?

Don't forget! Next to the need for security, another basic need of the child for AUTONOMY / INDEPENDENCE appears. According to statistics, children who grow up with anxious mothers, who often do not satisfy this need, achieve less in their careers, and also experience difficulties in their personal lives. nine0003

Yes, many people show their concern and love with their anxiety, but do the children themselves feel it? Are there other ways to show your love to convey to your children?

"It's very easy to say don't worry, but how do you do it?"

Advice 1. Isolate yourself from the source of your anxiety for the first time.

Try to cut down on reading medical literature, drug instructions, “people's advice”, spend less time on forums. There are medical professionals who have been studying for about a decade and can filter the information that is useful from the information that is harmful to your child. Even the most illiterate doctor with the wrong treatment will provide better help than "traditional medicine" from the Internet. nine0003

Advice 2. Determine what you are experiencing and separate useful experiences from unhelpful ones.

An alarm is useful if:

- I can influence events or a problem;

— the theme of the experience is real, that is, what I worry about can happen in principle;

- there is a high probability that the event that I am worried about can happen.

If you have identified the experience as helpful, write a plan for solving the problem or describe how you will deal with the situation. If you can't fix the problem right away, schedule a time when you can. nine0003

If you have identified the experience as unhelpful, just let it go (but don't drive it away) and turn your attention to some activity. It is better if it is exciting and interesting. At first it will be difficult to do, but as you practice, it will become easier to let go of experiences and switch.

Advice 3. Set aside special time for worries and learn to postpone worry.

Create a "worry period". Pick a time and place for your worries (it shouldn't be bedtime) and clear them out of the rest of the day. nine0049 Put your worries aside. If an unsettling thought or worry pops into your head during the day, briefly state it and then move on with your day. Remind yourself that you will have time to think about this later, so there is no need to worry about it right now.
Allow yourself to experience only the amount of time you have chosen for your worry period. If these experiences don't seem important, shorten your worry period and enjoy the rest of your day. nine0049 In this way, you break the habit of dwelling on experiences when you have other things to do, but at the same time there is no “not thinking about the white monkey” effect.

Tip 3. Be realistic about the situation instead of suspecting danger in everything.

A few questions will help you figure it out

• Are my predictions based on facts or feelings?
• Am I paying attention to all the information or just the negative part of it?
• How bad would it be if that happened? nine0250
• What is the worst thing that can happen in this situation?
• How can I deal with this?
• What has happened on such occasions in the past?

Tip 4. Treat your anxious thoughts as a false danger signal.

It is better to write down the answers to these questions on paper

• What is the evidence that the thought is true? Is there any evidence that she is wrong?
• Is there a more positive, realistic way to look at the situation? nine0250
• What is the probability that what I fear will actually happen?
• What are the more likely outcomes?
• How often have I seen a negative outcome before? And how often did these predictions come true?
• How does experience help me? How do they harm me?
• What advice would I give to a friend in this situation?

Tip 5. Embrace anxiety instead of avoiding it.

In order to get rid of anxiety, we can resort to non-constructive and destructive ways of responding to experiences: overeating, scrolling social media feeds for a long time, getting angry at ourselves, or avoiding situations associated with anxiety. nine0003

To overcome something, we need to go through it. Anxiety is not a threat at all, it is a passing reaction of your consciousness, it is not at all dangerous. Anxiety does not need to be controlled, it is not necessary to run away from it. It's like an alarm that's just set off by noise, and it'll go off on its own. When you stop giving your energy to anxiety, it will go away on its own. Instead of avoiding anxiety, treat it as a rewarding experience. Sometimes discomfort is our friend that tells us that we are moving forward. nine0003

Tip 6. Accept uncertainty.

The inability to tolerate uncertainty plays a huge role in experiences. Chronic worries cannot stand doubt or unpredictability. They need to know with 100% certainty what will happen. Anxiety is seen by us as a way to predict what awaits us in the future. This is a way to prevent unpleasant surprises and control the situation. The problem is that it doesn't work.

Thinking about all the things that could go wrong doesn't make life more predictable. You may feel more secure when you're worried, but that's just an illusion. At the same time, focusing on anxiety and worries about the future, it is unlikely that you will be able to enjoy the good, pleasant, pleasing that you have right now, in this present. nine0003

Is it possible to be sure of everything in life?

What are the benefits and harms of complete certainty in life?

Is it possible to know in advance for sure about all the events that can happen to us?

Is it possible to live with the ignorance that something negative can happen, given the fact that the probability of this event is very low?

Think about what you do every day, already accepting uncertainty (meeting people, driving a car, eating at a party or catering, etc.)

Tip 7. Practice mindfulness.

Anxiety is usually focused on the future - on what might happen and what you will do about it. Mindfulness practices can help you let go of your worries by bringing your attention back to the present. Unlike previous methods of challenging your anxious thoughts or postponing them until a period of worry, this strategy is based on nonjudgmental observation.

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