Have you ever been worried about something in your future? Maybe you have a huge presentation at work that you’re losing sleep over, or you’re training for your longest race yet and fear you’ll never cross the finish line, or maybe you’ve just accepted a job across the country and are worried about making friends when you move. Often we spend time worrying about the worst that could happen. Dealing with that anxiety about uncertainty can be challenging.

So when you’re feeling anxious, Gina Hassan a licensed psychologist in California, suggests focusing on the present moment rather than catapulting into thinking about a future which is uncertain. “When we think about the future, we can often go into states of intense worry and anxiety about things that will never actually occur,” she says. There’s no way to know what’s going to happen tomorrow, next week or even an hour from now. Think about what’s happening right now, if everything is okay right now, focus on that certainty. And consider this quote from Montaigne, “My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened.”