Reducing the reach-back

Reach-back is the time for which we're anxious about something in the future.

This 'something' won't have happened yet, but we're likely to be thinking about it in certain ways:

Anticipating the worst - we're likely to be catastrophising - running over in our minds how bad and awful this thing is going to be. This 'negative cognitive rehearsal' only makes us feel more anxious.

Forgetting our strengths - we're less likely to be thinking of our skills, abilities and past experiences which remind us of the positive, strong and healthy ways we've coped before.

Discounting our options - we're less likely to think about the things we could do differently. When we're feeling anxious, it can seem as though we're 'trapped' - we think we 'must' do something, and that there's nothing else we could do.