How did you logically convince yourself not to worry?

Post date: 2021-05-11 11:20:57

I would like to eliminate some existential dread from my life, where it is sensible to do so.

A couple examples... As a kid I used to worry about shark attacks. Then I realized they are too rare to be worth worrying about. More recently, I worried about self-replicating nanomachines (AKA "grey goo") destroying all life on Earth. Then I Googled and found plausible theories that the machines wouldn't be able to power themselves.

But there are worries I haven't been able to quell. Some examples:

A shortage of jobs paying livable wages

Worldwide prevalence of far-right ideologies

Climate crisis inaction

If you have convinced yourself logically that there's a good chance a serious problem will turn out all right, how did you do so? What conclusion did you come to? What was your process for reaching it? It could be one of the above items, or another problem you used to worry about but no longer do.

I am not looking for problems where you don't see a likely positive outcome. I'm also not looking for ways to calm yourself regarding unsolved problems. Those topics are best discussed in other threads.

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