How Do Our Thoughts Create Anxiety and Fear About Things That Haven’t Happened Yet?

We don't suffer reality. We suffer our perception of it.

"Amit," she said, "I keep replaying this scenario in my head. What if my boss calls me into his office? What if he's unhappy with my work? I see myself getting fired, struggling to pay bills, disappointing everyone. I am overwhelmed by this thought of what might happen."

"How many times have you walked down this mental path?" I asked.

"Hundreds of times. Every single day, for months."

"And each time you go down this path, what happens?"

She paused. "I feel terrible. Anxious. Scared."

"And how many times has he threatened to fire you?", I asked.

"He hasn't yet. He speaks rudely for a while, but then he calms down," she replied.

"Would you say then that your mind has created a fantasy," I said gently, "a story that feels so real that you're living in fear of something that exists only in your imagination?"

"But what if it really happens?"

"It cannot happen. It can't go exactly as you expect it to…unless."

"Unless what?"

"Unless you bring it about through your imagined fears. Unless you make mistakes in all that stress and create what you are trying to avoid." 
 

"That is true. I think that's what happens most of the time. He calls me in his office to correct the mistakes I make in a rush, or out of fear."

"Most of us live in the future that doesn't exist, or the past that is dead. We do not live in the present, where the problem doesn't really exist."

"But why then do I have these thoughts then? Why do I feel it does exist?"

"Because you are not having your thoughts. That would mean you are in control. Your thoughts are having themselves. They create and live in a reality of their own making. The design a problem. They glorify it. They make it worse. And they pretend to find a solution. And then those same thoughts start the cycle all over again."


"Then what is it that I am doing?", she asked in disbelief.


"You are being dragged along on a journey that you did not choose, with a permission that you did not give, headed towards a destination that you do not expect."

"And what destination is this?"

"Your past — the land of unnecessary suffering."

The Mind's Imagination Factory

Thought is an incredible storyteller. It takes fragments of memory and weaves them into compelling narratives that feel absolutely real.


These mental movies become so convincing that we start living as if they're actually happening.

How often do you find yourself imagining future conversations that never occur? Or replaying past events imagining different outcomes?

Thought creates these elaborate fantasies, and then your body responds with real stress, real anxiety, real excitement.

The Pursuing and Escaping

The same mental process that worsens our fears, also embellishes our desires.

We prefer to have all the pleasures we can, while avoiding all the pains we can.

But the same mechanism that perpetuates pleasure also powers our fears.

This is why those who chase pleasures, grapple with a multitude of fears.

 The stronger your pursuit of desires, the more desperate your avoidance of your fears.

Thought creates this reality where you are either chasing something or running from something.
  

Find The Silent Watcher.

Sit quietly for a few minutes and imagine there was an aware, awakened version of you, simply observing you by sitting right next to you.

This version of you has 3 properties:

1. They are separate from you.
2. They are non-judgmental. That is they do not label anything good or bad.
3. They do not interfere, only watch.

Now, do this.

Think of something that is a great cause of fear, worry or anxiety.

Got it?

Now let the Silent Watcher observe what is happening in your mind.

Notice how thoughts have a certain energy.

Notice how images flash across your minds eye rapidly.

Notice how you start going down a rabbit hole of possibilities.
 
This is your thought-factory at work.

It is creating a reality you will suffer.


Watch how none of it is real.

Do the same for an object of your desire.

You will arrive at the same result.

Stay here 15 minutes everyday.

You will begin to find that at the end of those 15 minutes, you are left with space, silence, and spontaneous understanding of your own ways of thinking.

That is Insight.

That is the foundation of all self-awareness practice and the beginning of your freedom.