71 | How to Break Your Doomscrolling Habit When Anxiety Is Running the Show and Faith Feels Far Away

Hey, my friend, grab your coffee and get comfortable because we are talking today about something that's been on my heart for a Today we are going to talk about fear, specifically the way that our phones can become one of our favorite tools for practicing it.

And sometimes I think we don't even realize that we're doing this.

We're going to talk about the root of the problem, what to do in the moment when fear and anxiety are running the show, and then how to start building a different habit with the phone that is already in your hand.

So fear forecasting, what is that? And what does it have to do with your phone? Well, fear forecasting is what happens when your brain starts predicting bad outcomes before they even really occur.

You start imagining the worst.

You run through scenarios, you replay conversations, you think through every possible way that could go sideways, and then your body responds as if those things are already happening.

Now, here's what is important to understand from a brain science standpoint.

Your brain is actually wired to do this.

So there's part of your brain called the amygdala, and one of its most important jobs is to scan for threats and keep you safe.

In a dangerous world, that is such a gift.

But in our day-to-day lives, usually the same threat detection system can get hijacked really easily.

And one of the biggest hijackers right now is the phone in your hand.

Think about what happens when you pick it up out of anxiety.

So you open a news app and then your brain just starts processing the headlines and a potential threat.

You see a post from someone whose life looks more together than yours and then your brain files that away as a problem.

Your fear of failure and that feeling that you're not good enough might even rise to the surface.

You send a text and then you check and then you check again and then you wonder why that person has not answered yet and what that means and whether something's wrong.

You are feeding your brain a steady stream of what ifs when you do that and your amygdala is working overtime to respond to every single one.

This is not just a bad habit.

It's actually a pattern that keeps your nervous system stuck in a low-grade place of anxiety.

And over time, it shapes the way that you see the world and the way that you see yourself in it.

So what do you actually do in the moment when you catch yourself doing this? Because knowing it's a problem and knowing what to do are really two different things.