What if you didn’t have to answer every anxious “what if” to feel safe?
What if anxiety isn’t trying to predict the future, but pulling you out of the present?
In this Therapy Is My Cardio episode of Healing Is My Hobby, Jessica Colarco invites you to think about emotional fitness the same way you think about physical fitness. Anxiety, especially “what if” thinking, is treated here not as a flaw or failure, but as a habit that can be gently retrained.
This episode focuses on awareness as the first rep. Jessica helps listeners notice when their minds drift into future-oriented worry and guides them back into the safety of the present moment. Through grounding exercises, breathwork, and compassionate reframes, she walks you through how to separate thoughts from actual threat and how to calm your nervous system without needing to “fix” yourself.
You’ll practice a warm-up for mindfulness, learn how to respond differently to anxious thoughts, and move through a soothing cool-down that reinforces a powerful truth: you’ve handled hard things before, and you don’t need to solve the future to be okay right now.
This episode is a reminder that presence is a skill, anxiety is trainable, and this moment—right here—is enough.
Would you like to learn more about Jessica’s clinical practice? Click here.
anxiety, emotional fitness, mindfulness, grounding techniques, what if thinking, breathing exercises, self-compassion, healing, mental health, emotional core
Transcripts
Jessica Colarco (:
back to Healing is My Hobby, and welcome to our Therapy is My Cardio segment, where emotional work becomes the workout, and healing becomes a movement. We move our minds and nervous systems the way we would our bodies. And just like physical exercise, emotional fitness works best when we warm up, do the work, and then cool down.
As you know, we are focusing on anxiety this month, and today's workout is all about one of anxiety's favorite habits, pulling us into the future with what if thinking. Before we change anything, we wanna warm up by noticing. Ask yourself, are my thoughts in the present moment or in the future?
Am I trying to solve something that hasn't happened yet? Anxiety loves to ask, what if something goes wrong? What if I can't handle it? What if this never gets better?
Take a breath in. And as you exhale, remind yourself, I'm noticing future thinking. Not fixing it, not judging it, just noticing. That awareness alone is a powerful warmup.
We wanna get into our workout and we wanna begin to pull back from the what if. Anxiety puts us in prediction mode, not danger mode. Say quietly, my brain is predicting, not protecting me from something happening right now. This helps separate thoughts from threats. To interrupt future thinking,
we bring the body into the present. Place one hand on your chest and one hand on your belly. Ask yourself, what is happening right now, physically, in this moment? Notice your breath.
the temperature of the room, your body being supported by the chair or the floor.
Right now, in this moment, ask, am I safe enough right now? Not forever, not tomorrow, just right now.
Now gently reframe the anxious question. Instead of, what if bad things happen?
try what is actually happening right now, or what do I know for sure in this moment? We're not dismissing the fear, we're grounding it. Anxiety wants certainty, and we offer presence instead.
Anxiety often tells us, I won't be able to handle it. So we counter that with the truth. Say to yourself, I have handled hard things before. I don't need to solve everything today. I can meet this one step at a time.
Let's take in a slow breath for the count of four.
One, two, three, four, and out for a count of six. Two, three, four, five, six. Longer exhales calm the nervous system and pull us out of urgency.
To cool down, we intentionally release the future, just for now. Imagine placing your worries on a shelf. You're not throwing them away. You're just saying, not right now. Quietly repeat, I am here. I am allowed to be in this moment. This moment is enough. Take one final breath. Notice any shift.
physical or emotional, even if it's subtle. That's your nervous system learning a new
pattern
Future thinking is not a failure, it's a habit and habits can be gently retrained. Every time you notice a what if and return to what is, you are strengthening your emotional core. Before we end today, I wanna give you a preview of what's next in the healing lab. I'll be exploring a few non-clinical tools that are often recommended for anxiety. Herbal teas, tapping, and Tai Chi.
and I'll be sharing what actually feels regulating, what feels neutral, and what might not be for everyone.
Because healing is personal and curiosity matters. Thank you so much for listening. If you want to stay connected between episodes, I encourage you to follow my Instagram or YouTube at Healing is My Hobby. If you wanna sign up for the newsletter, I have a great grounding anxiety, I have a great grounding menu to help reduce anxiety. It is a free download when you sign up for my newsletter and you can sign up at healingismyhobby.com. ⁓
or my clinical practice website, jessicacolarcolcsw.com. And if you wanna find out more about my clinical practice, you can also follow me on Instagram at jessicacolarcolcsw. Until next time, have a great day.
