I found myself having an imaginary argument with my new boss whilst in the shower this morning! I haven’t even met the woman or man before, never been to the premises, no idea really what the task is that I am going to do there tomorrow morning! All I do know is that if you are a minute late, you are docked 15 minutes pay – sounds punitive to me.
Somehow, my negative attitudinal bias (the in-built alarm system that constantly scans for threats, which was a useful tool when we roamed the earth along with sabre-toothed tigers) had fired off. In my defence it had rehearsed some interesting one-liners.
There are people in real trouble out there, suffering with Covid-19. Lives disrupted, relatives not being able to see loved ones… whilst my brain is churning through these imaginary petty arguments? Why?
I let it go. I remember from my mindfulness practices that the brain never stops scanning for danger, in many ways that’s it job. All I can do when I notice my mind has been pulled away into the future, is to come back to the here and now. Take a breath and start again in this moment. There will be enough stress in the future, I don’t need to fast-forward it to my present.