Racing thoughts, tension in your muscles, fear in the pit of your stomach, and the alarming sense that disaster is imminent are the trademarks of our modern-day world-weariness. Whether it’s work, relationships, a volatile economy, wars overseas, political divisiveness, climate change, technology-induced anxiety—or a combination of all—these have added to the collective worry that causes us to conjure up doomsday scenarios of the future. However, while recognizing potential threats is beneficial to our sense of safety and security, getting caught in a cycle of spiraling fear can be harmful to our well-being.

Hence, coping with existential dread and the collective anxiety sometimes requires altering the narrative and trying new things. The following tips are merely a sampling of the many strategies we can use when we are worried about future change. How do we traverse the rugged terrain of “what if” thinking and retrieve our peace of mind?

Get “Philosophical”

Getting “philosophical” means using this time as an opportunity to develop a different relationship with your worry and fear. There are benefits of walking toward the pain as opposed to walking away from it. The relatively recent concept of allostasis (stability through change) refers to the mind’s way of achieving emotional steadiness through adaptive responses to adversity, not by circumventing it. In other words, stop resisting change.

So instead of running from the feelings and making them worse, try to embrace them in a way that will build Emotional resilience instead of avoidance. This is an epic learning experience, albeit a distressing one. When negative feelings are processed properly, exposure to them actually can make us wiser over time. But in the end, Emotional resilience is not about grit; it’s about learning to convert adversity into thriving.

Accept Your Feelings

This is a cliché, of course, but acceptance of how you are feeling (even if you are distressed) might be a good place to start. You are scared because the human mind is designed to prioritize danger. It’s how we have stayed alive for thousands of years. Hence, you will feel better if you focus less on the context (the details of whatever you’re afraid of) and more on reducing the activated feelings that are getting generated.

The trick is to treat your symptoms, not try to resist change or talk yourself out of your fearful thoughts. It’s OK to be scared, and it’s OK to be worried. Hence, acceptance is your inflection point. It’s your existential fuel. In the words of spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle, “What the future holds for you depends on your state of consciousness now.”

Examine the Evidence

A good technique for challenging fearful thinking is to separate yourself from the emotional involvement with your negative thoughts. If you are confronted by an episode of anxiety, examine the evidence by looking deeply into the statements you are telling yourself. Ask: Is this an opinion or an absolute fact? Is it interpretation or reality?

Typically, doomsday fears are inspired by cognitive distortions where we automatically assume the worst-case scenario. By carefully examining the likelihood of your fears becoming a reality, you gradually debunk them and loosen the grip they have on you. Otherwise, they will continue to be experienced as rock-bottom data or become fearful projections and predictions that are unfounded.

This Too Shall Pass (Seriously, It Will)

It’s another overused chestnut, but it’s good to remember that adversity and tough times are temporary setbacks and are not indicative of the rest of our lives. The same goes for worry. Life transitions, change, and even tragedy give us strength in many ways and force us to develop adaptive tools for the future. They fortify our coping mechanisms and help us build distress tolerance skills.

Remember, if stress were not useful to the human organism, evolution would have eliminated it a long time ago. It exists for a reason. It’s an adaptive function that is here to stay.

Be a Good Historian

Think back on times in your life when you have faced adversity: loss of job, financial hardship, illness, a bad breakup, death in the family, natural disaster. Now, remember how you got through it (I often ask my therapy clients to make a list). Remember how difficult it was for you. Remember how depressed and scared you were at the time. Then, remember how good it felt after you survived it. Rely on your past experiences of triumph to draw strength in this experience today. Learn to be a mindful historian. You’re much more buoyant than you think. According to philosopher Sören Kierkegaard, “Life must be understood backwards; but…it must be lived forwards.”

Maintain Structure

Stay busy and focused. Just as with the pandemic of 2020 and any other type of catastrophic event, resist the temptation to become inconsistent with your daily routines, your rituals, and your responsibilities. Don’t let the dejection affect your motivation to the point of changing the rhythms of your life. Don’t allow yourself to become resigned to the fear and think, “what’s the point?” Remain consistent and go about life as it was before. We are creatures of habit. If you lose your structure and consistency, your distress could increase.

Remember, there is even psychological value in regularly performing commonplace duties, such as throwing out the trash, tidying up your room, flossing your teeth, and helping your kids do their homework.

Focus on What You Have Control Over

To reduce the fear and powerlessness that is affecting you, focusing on what you have control over will conversely empower you. You will also feel more confident and will learn to trust yourself better. In other words, ground yourself in the present by zeroing in on yourself, your family, your job, personal projects, and chores around the house. Concentrating on what you have control over gives you a sense of agency; it gives you a sense of purpose amid the darkness.

Also, limit “doomscrolling” and excessive (social media) screen time—practice news hygiene. It’s great to stay up-to-date, but don’t saturate.

Be Careful With “What If” Thinking

Be careful with all of the catastrophic outcomes you are creating in your head about how change might negatively affect you. It’s important to care about important issues, but it’s irrational to toy with futuristic, fear-scaping thinking.

We don’t know what’s going to happen, and sometimes that’s OK. For now, stay realistic and remember that future-based thinking is only the play of thought; it’s not real. Stop fictionalizing tomorrow with apocalyptic scenarios. It will make you feel better.

Finally, in our rapidly changing world, doomsday fears will always scare us for sure, and they may linger in our minds for longer than we want, but they don’t have to control us. We can find a healthy balance of acknowledging them without needing to succumb to them.