May 2, 2025
Is worry always bad? Not necessarily. Worry helps us stay alert, act promptly, and prepare for potential threats. It's only when we worry chronically that it becomes a problem. It distracts us, making it harder to do good work, to be present for others, and to recover effectively. Chronic worry tilts our internal systems towards burnout.
Why do we worry?
Predicting the future helps us feel more prepared, make better decisions, and gain a sense of control over our lives. When we interpret a coming event or situation as threatening, something that could cost us more than we can emotionally or financially afford, we worry.
In line with this research, we can think about worry happening in three stages:
1. Assessing the situation
2. Triggering worry
3. Coping with worry
This means we can deactivate unhelpful worrying by learning to observe how we're assessing future situations, changing how we assess them, and developing better coping strategies.
Here are some evidence-based things to try:
Externalise your worries
Before we become consciously aware that we're worrying, our brain has already simulated a coming situation and assessed its possible outcomes. At this stage, we evaluate how serious or threatening the situation might be, usually without even noticing. This automatic process can activate the stress response and make it harder to think clearly. Externalising our worries helps to interrupt this cycle by helping us observe our assessments more objectively. Here are two ways to do this:
• Write it out: writing encourages deliberate reflection rather than automatic assessments. Ask yourself, how might this future event affect my goals? How important are these goals to me? Is the situation truly threatening, or merely uncomfortable? How urgent is it, really? Consider the likelihood of your feared outcome actually occurring. If it does happen, what would be the worst-case scenario? Try to describe your thoughts in as much detail as possible. By transferring them to paper, you're creating space to see the situation more clearly. Externalised worries often feel less threatening and more manageable.
• Challenge catastrophic thinking: list reasons why the worst-case scenarios you fear might not happen. By consciously introducing more balanced or positive thoughts and mental images, you can reduce the power of negative ideation. This kind of thought switching helps break the cycle of worry, preventing unhelpful recurring thoughts about imagined outcomes that may never occur.
Build your coping muscles
Sometimes worry is triggered by low self-efficacy—a belief that we might not be able to cope with future challenges. This belief is one of the strongest influences on whether a foreseen challenge prompts worry. When we feel capable and in control, we’re much less likely to be overwhelmed by unhelpful worry.
The best way to strengthen self-efficacy is to take action, demonstrating to yourself that you're up to the challenge. Convert unhelpful worry back into the helpful version by taking active steps to prepare for and then confront the thing that's worrying you. Over time, it will also help to remind yourself of past occasions when you've coped just fine with similar challenges.
Another strategy that may help to boost confidence in the moment is power posing. This is a small physical practice that helps increase feelings of confidence and control by adopting open, expansive postures—even for just one or two minutes. For example, if you feel a persistent worry distracting you, you might step into a spare room (or even a bathroom for privacy) and stretch your arms up in a wide V shape or stand in a classic “superman” pose for a few minutes. This simple practice can help you feel calmer and more self-assured.
Welcome worry - within limits
It’s completely normal to feel worried before high-stakes moments like important meetings or presentations. A moderate amount of worry can help keep you alert and even enhance your performance. But excessive worry can have the opposite effect. In these moments, a stronger sense of self-efficacy can be the difference between feeling overwhelmed and performing at your best.
