How to Cope If the Worst Came to the Worst..

Many of us suffer enormous anxieties about what might happen if the worst came to the worst. Well-meaning friends often reassure us that things might go really well, but there is often great relief to be found in imagining the darkest scenarios and being able to see that we could, ultimately, survive them.

FURTHER READING

“In the background, many of us are terrified of so much – disgrace, illness, sacking, our mortality, the suffering and death of loved ones… When these fears come up, we are often encouraged, out of kindness, to think of the best-case scenarios. It’s a well-meaning move, but it also – unintentionally – leaves our fears to fester; they fill us with unnamed dread and sometimes loom far larger than they should. So an opposite move – displayed here – involves looking our anxieties directly in the eye, refusing to be cowed by them and examining them in exhaustive detail so as to drain them of their debilitating power. Doing so is liable to bring us to an important realisation: we could cope – even if the worst came to the worst…”

You can read more on this and other subjects here: bit.ly/2s4OZRU

MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE

Watch more films on SELF in our playlist:
bit.ly/TSOLself

SOCIAL MEDIA

Feel free to follow us at the links below:

Facebook: facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/

X: twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife

Instagram: instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/

CREDITS

Produced in collaboration with:

Mad Adam Films
madadamfilms.co.uk/

Illustration from 'The Magic Pudding' by Norman Lindsay (1918) Copyright © H, C and A Glad.'

Images and Music from:

Brazil 1985
Citizen Kane 1941
The Singing Detective 1986
Rogue One 2016
A Christmas Carol 2009
Clouds of Sils Maria 2014
The Wind in the Willows 1995
Nosferatu 1922
Pan's Labyrinth 2006
BBC Cunk on Britain 2018
Moonrise Kingdom 2012
Another Year 2010
The Horse's Mouth 1958
BBC Life on Earth 1979
The Moon and the Sledgehammer 1971
American Honey 2016
Phantom Thread 2017
The Kid with the Bike 2011
Almost Famous 2000
Only Lovers Left Alive 2013 #TheSchoolOfLife