If you’ve been feeling a low hum of unease, a sense of “something isn’t right,” or even sharp waves of panic when you think about the state of the world, you’re not alone.

Many people are carrying a version of this right now, in response to the systems we’ve quietly relied on - economic, political, environmental, or social - starting to feel less solid. This unpredictability can make the future feel more uncertain.

What you might be experiencing is often referred to as existential dread. At its core, existential dread is the distress that arises when our collective long-term safety and stability is threatened. It is often triggered by threats to larger communities and groups of people, rather than possible harm to individuals.

You might also hear it described as existential anxiety, anticipatory anxiety, geopolitical anxiety or climate (eco-) anxiety. While the language varies, the experience is similar: it can result in feelings of anxiety, fear, hopelessness, or anger, and can affect how we are able to show up for our work, families, relationships, and communities. And we know that when people are feeling overwhelmed, they are actually less likely to take action and affect change.

This kind of distress tends to intensify when uncertainty is prolonged, when large systems feel unstable, when media exposure is constant, or when you finally have a quiet moment and your mind has space to wander. The reasons why this happens makes sense: your mind is trying to anticipate and prepare for threats, and your nervous system is trying to protect you. And at the same time, something deeper may also be getting stirred up - questions about meaning, direction, and what kind of life you want to live in a world that feels uncertain.

While this uncertainty and change can’t be eliminated, we can change how we relate to it. The goal isn’t to solve the problem - the goal is to cope in order to live alongside it. Here is a list of strategies you can use when facing feelings of existential dread or anxiety.

Managing Existential Dread

While this uncertainty and change can’t be eliminated, we can change how we relate to it. The goal isn’t to solve the problem - the goal is to cope in order to live alongside it. Here is a list of strategies you can use when facing feelings of existential dread or anxiety.

NAMING WHAT YOU ARE FEELING

This is a simple and powerful tool to create space between ourselves and a feeling. Instead of being the panic, try naming it:

“I am experiencing panic.”
“I am noticing fear.”
“This is dread.”

In ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), we call this defusion - observing your internal experience without becoming fused with it. By creating space, even a tiny amount, we can shift our relationship to the emotion. This can start to allow us to reclaim our agency in relation to the distressing emotion, in order to mindfully choose a different response.

FOCUS ON WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL

When the world feels unpredictable, your attention will naturally drift toward everything you can’t control, which then exacerbates feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. A helpful exercise to try is to write down everything running through your mind, using three columns: what you can control, what you can’t control, and what you have influence over (where you can take some actions, but the outcome is ultimately outside of your control). Writing something down can help slow racing or ruminating thoughts and reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed. Again, the goal is to rebuild a sense of agency and to increase your distress tolerance. Even if you can’t control the broader story unfolding around you, you are still writing your own.

If you find yourself spiraling into “what if” thoughts, or you can’t stop yourself from thinking about the future, you can use mindfulness techniques to gently anchor yourself in what is true right now:

You are here
You are breathing
There are things around you that are steady, even if they are small

BE INTENTIONAL ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE NEWS

There is a difference between staying informed about issues and global events, and constant exposure to others' pain and suffering. While staying informed can be helpful to gather information, constant exposure does not equal preparedness - it often just keeps your nervous system in a state of activation.

Notice what happens in your body when you scroll through social media or watch the news. If you feel a spike of tightness, urgency, or dread, that can be a cue that continuing to engage is perhaps not helpful at this time. This isn’t about avoidance - it’s about staying regulated so that you can process, respond, and log off when it’s time to log off.

You could try:

Setting specific times to check updates, and/or use a timer to help keep track of how long you’ve been scrolling
Limiting how many sources you follow
Taking breaks when you notice activation building

WIDEN THE NARRATIVE

When you’re overwhelmed, your brain tells a narrow story of what’s happening. And in the face of instability, the story is often that things are getting worse.

Seeking out stories of endurance and survival can help widen your perspective. Humans have lived through immense instability before - and not just survived, but adapted, rebuilt, and found ways to keep going. Creating hopefulness can help balance feelings of anxiety.

Some suggestions to start with are:

A Paradise Built in Hell - Rebecca Solnit
Man’s Search For Meaning - Victor Frankl
The Cellist of Sarajevo - Steven Galloway
Waiting For First Light - Romeo Dallaire

CREATE MEANING ON PURPOSE

When the external world feels unstable, humans instinctively turn toward meaning-making. Throughout history, during times of uncertainty, people have told stories, made art, created rituals, and built connections to each other. This goes beyond simply engaging in hobbies, and instead into the realm of shaping meaning when the world feels chaotic. And often, that looks like creating something:

Cooking or baking
Writing or drawing
Building something tangible you can touch (yes, lego counts!)
Tending to plants or spaces

It can be grounding to bring something into existence when the future feels uncertain.

LET YOURSELF REST

Distraction, connection, and rest is a necessary part of self-regulation. You are not meant to carry the weight of the entire world all the time. It’s important that you can actually engage in a restorative activity by doing something absorbing enough that your mind can step away for a little while. Some suggestions for this are:

Watching something light or funny
Spending time with people who feel safe
Try a new activity that requires you to learn something new

To counteract hopelessness, you need to increase agency. To counteract anger, you need to increase distress tolerance. To counteract the despair, you need to increase meaning and purpose.

Finding What Works for You

This post is brought to you by Inward Bound therapist Chelsea Kelba. If you want support in navigating uncertainty and building your tool box of strategies, an Inward Bound therapist, like Chelsea, can help. You can reach out with questions or for help determining next steps for you. Contact us using the form below, or visit our Therapists and Booking page.