When Nothing’s Wrong But Everything Feels Wrong

Here’s what’s really going on

You know that little voice in your head that keeps asking “What if…?”

• What if I mess up?
• What if I’m not good enough?
• What if all goes wrong?
• What if I make a mistake?
• What if I get rejected?

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Sounds harmless but that voice can turn your entire day upside down.

Here’s the thing: all of our what-if questions are just fears wearing different masks. Any thought that starts with what-if is almost always an anxious thought. And anxiety? It is fueled by the fear of unknown and what-if is the biggest unknown out there.

Anxiety makes the unknown feel like a haunted house, even when it’s just an empty room. Anxious thoughts thrive in uncertainty and confusion, convincing you that the worst-case scenario is not only possible but just about to happen.

But what-if isn’t reality. It’s just a possibility your brain has decided to overhype. And that overhype? It’s a mind prank or like your brain binge-watching worst-case scenarios when, in truth, nothing is actually wrong.

So how do you break free from the what-if spiral? Try replacing what-if with so-what or what-else. Let’s see some examples:

• What if I fail? → So what? I’ll try again.
• What if the one I love, loves or even marries someone else? → What else could this mean? Maybe this is saving me from years of one-sided love. Maybe I will find someone who looks at me the way I look at him. Maybe one day I will look back and thank this moment for leading me somewhere else. Maybe I am meant to focus on my passion, purpose, and peace right now.
• What if I get fired from my current job? → So what if I got fired? What else could this mean? Maybe it’s a push toward a job that suits me or values me more. Maybe this is how life makes room for something even better. Maybe it’s time to start something new I’ve been thinking about.

“Every time when your mind haunts you with these questions, remind yourself and even say out loud: So what? Repeat it again and again, fight back with it and watch how your fear starts to lose its power and slowly runs away.”

When you change the question, you change the outcome. You stop letting fear drive the story and open the door to possibility instead of panic.

Because at the end of the day, what-if might be the biggest unknown out there… but you get to choose whether it becomes your prison or just background noise you can laugh at.

[embed]Dhruvi Turakhia — Medium Read writing from Dhruvi Turakhia on Medium. Curious mind, thoughtful observer, storyteller. Writing as a hobby to…medium.com