“It’s ruinous for the soul to be anxious about the future and miserable in advance of misery, engulfed by anxiety that the things it desires might remain its own until the very end. For such a soul will never be at rest – by longing for things to come it will lose the ability to enjoy present things.” Seneca, Moral Letters.

We live in challenging times. Constantly worrying about the ‘what ifs…?’ of uncertain futures is natural, but not helpful. The stressed emotional mind can override your ability to think logically, make you blow things out of proportion and catastrophise. It can also dismiss all the positive things that are happening. We lose the ability to settle ourselves.

One way of tackling this emotionality is to answer each hypothetical ‘what if…?’ with a hypothetical ‘if, then…’. Staring facts in the face is the starting point. All plans need to begin with an assessment of where you are now. Making plans gives you a small sense of being in control. No-one ever said it was going to be easy, but it’s better than driving at speed without windscreen wipers on a rainy day.