The Mental Squeeze of Anticipation | #71

By Armaan Athwal

Today's Overview:

• How anticipatory anxiety traps your mind in the future

• How sensory grounding and mindful questioning can break the cycle

• Quote of the day

Why We Can’t Focus on Now

There’s a strange kind of exhaustion that comes from knowing something isn’t over yet. You feel it on a Sunday evening, when the weight of Monday starts creeping in. You feel it on the last day of vacation, when you’re half-packed and already thinking about the return flight. It’s not just dread, it’s a mental block, a sense that until this thing is done, your mind is trapped.

This is anticipatory anxiety in action. Your brain isn’t reacting to what’s happening, it’s reacting to what will happen. Instead of experiencing the moment, you’re mentally checked out thinking about the future.

Your trip is still happening, but your mind is already on the plane home. The weekend isn’t over, but you’re already mourning the loss of free time. The brain does this because it craves certainty. If it can predict what’s next, it feels more in control. But in doing so, it steals your ability to be where you are.

And it’s not just big events. Anticipatory anxiety shows up in all different ways. The meeting you have later in the afternoon makes it impossible to focus on anything before it. A conversation you need to have lingers in your mind all day. Your brain becomes a clenched fist around what’s coming, leaving no space for what’s now.

You can’t just tell your brain to “stop thinking about it.” But you can loosen its grip. One way is through sensory grounding, pulling yourself out of your thoughts and into your surroundings. What do you hear right now? What do you see right now? The more details you notice, the less space there is for anxious anticipation.

You must also genuinely question yourself. Question the urgency. When you feel trapped by an upcoming event, pause and ask: What is it about this that makes me unable to think about anything else?

Often, it’s not the event itself that’s overwhelming, it’s your mind’s attachment to what it thinks it means. The last day of vacation isn’t bad. Sunday night isn’t painful. The social event later isn’t going to kill you. But your brain has decided that they are, simply because of what comes next. We believe it’s consequential.

The irony is, relief doesn’t actually come when something is over. It comes the moment you stop gripping it so tightly.

Quote of the Day

“It is ruinous when a mind is worried about the future, wretched before its wretchedness begins, anxious that it may forever hold on to the things that bring it pleasure. For such a mind will never be at rest, and in awaiting the future it loses sight of what it might have enjoyed in the present. The fear of losing a thing is as bad as regret at having lost it.” - Seneca