Are you part of the breathing dead? You are if you spend most of your life in a state of dread.

Dread, pure and simple, is anticipating the worst possible outcome in just about every case. Dread goes way past negative thinking. It’s fatalism on parade.

Dread is the opposite of hope which is also a state of mind. Neither has an effect on the outcome. They’re both just a state of mind we enter when we don’t know what the results will be.

I can remember a time when I would go to a movie and was aware of the run time of the film. I was more concerned with how much time was left in the movie and the possible outcomes rather than paying attention to the storyline. This behavior ruined a lot of movies for me.

I was jumping out of where I was into an imagined future that I had no control over, using either hope or dread.

I will admit that hope feels better but, bottom line, neither has any effect on how things will turn out.

If you find yourself in a state of dread, here’s a prescription: Get out of your head.

Put your attention on what’s currently going on. A tried and true practice for getting in touch with what’s going on now is to notice your breathing. You’re not focusing on whether you’ll be breathing or not in the future; you’re focused on your breathing now.

It’s a great practice for getting out of your head and not dwelling on dread.

You don’t replace dreadful thinking with positive thinking. That just sets up a mental battle between the two. Noticing what’s actually happening now gets you tethered to reality vs. fantasy.

If you want more life in your life, pay attention to what’s happening now and leave dreadful thinking to the walking dead.

All the best,

John