How long will this go on? I’m lonely. I want human contact, a hug, a smile. Can’t smile or see a smile behind the mask. I don’t know how to teach my kids. They don’t want to listen or settle down. I have cabin fever. It was a vacation at first. Now it’s a prison sentence. How can I stay safe when I have to go to work in an unsafe environment? How can I protect my family? How can I feed my family when I can’t work? What if we can’t pay our rent? The unemployment office doesn’t respond. What if I get sick? What happens if I can’t be there for my parents if they get sick? I feel trapped, confused, overwhelmed, sad, worried, angry, powerless, and I can’t stand the not knowing.

These are the worries and concerns I hear each day from my patients, my friends, my family. This is some of the noise that goes on in my own mind. In fact, it seems that all of our minds are out to mug us as we try to cope with a crisis with no parallel and therefore, no road map. No historical comparisons that give us understanding of what we might realistically expect.

I find myself frequently repeating this truth, “There is no such thing as the future.” The future exists only in our imagination. We are never living in the future because it is always, always, always the present. It is never not the present.

Think about this. Last summer I planned a trip to go to Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. In a present moment in May, I made plane reservations, booked a car rental, researched and arranged places to stay. Then I imagined the future trip, the sights I would see, the company of my daughter who joined me, what the weather might be and the delicious food I might eat. The future of my trip was in my imagination. But I experienced the trip in the present moment.

This is important to remember these days. I can worry about many things, but the worry is just imagining the consequences of things that might never happen. So when I start to get lost in the “What ifs?”, I ask myself if there is anything I can do about it right now. If so, in the present moment, I do what can be done. If not, I remind myself that the feared future is just imagination, and I bring myself back to the very real present moment. And in this moment, I remind myself of what there is to be grateful for or I simply focus on the thing I am doing in this moment. Right here, right now, this one thing I do. I wash this dish, I read this blog, I scratch my nose. Stay in the moment. I remind myself that anytime I spend imagining the future in an anxious way only ruins the present moment where I am living right now.