Well I can think of at least one case of anxiety based on something happening at the time.
Would you agree that, in the case where the anxiety was based on something happening at the time, the feelings were being caused mainly by thoughts about what
could happen as a result of whatever was happening at the time?
Seeing how anxiety is based in a past that can't be changed and/or a future that hasn't happened yet means that you can focus on what's going on right here and now. If something has already happened, or hasn't happened at all then what is there to cause anxiety or worry to arise other than thoughts about it?
If you can't change what's gone before then why let it affect what's happening now?
If the future hasn't happened yet then there is no reason to be anxious about what isn't happening right now.
Easier said than done, I know, but it's possible to get to a point where you can use this information in a practical way and break down the feeling itself, see what it's all about and what lies at the root of it.
I see how most anxieties will relate to something past and future but could you go into why this helped?
I'll give you an example from my own experience, about two months ago a situation arose in work which could have led to me being fired. Due to me publicly disagreeing with, and openly criticizing, the management I was told that they would basically find, or manufacture a reason to sack me which led to me becoming incredibly anxious. I ended up going to the doctor and getting signed off from work as I was in a state of anxiety from the moment I set foot in the place, constantly worrying that there were just waiting for me to trip up so that they could get rid of me. Now, although my meditative practice over the years has allowed me to objectify and disembed from these emotions there were still feelings of fear and anxiety coming up, I could deal with them as they arose but it didn't stop them from happening or from having an adverse effect on me if left unchecked.
I sat down on the first day I was off and examined these feelings in real-time. A year or so previously I had been in a situation where I had no employment or income whatsoever, my house was about to be repossessed, there were bills left unpaid for months and, partly due to the financial situation, my relationship had collapsed. With this in mind it was clear that I didn't want to repeat the same situation yet the past still had the potential to inform my current experience, the fear of falling back into this sort of scenario was a big part of what was causing the anxiety to arise. Each time a feeling arose which had the potential to manifest as anxiety, I would pay attention to what was happening at a sensate level right here and now, seeing this made it clear that the anxiety was being caused by mental phenomena and nothing more. It had no existence at that moment in time beyond the thoughts in my head and the patterns of sensations in my body - tension in the chest, a jagged pain in the solar plexus and a sense of constriction to name a few - so constantly bringing the attention back to this moment and observing these sensations in real-time as they happened caused them to lose their ability to affect me. When future-based thoughts came up, potential scenarios and mind-loops informed by previous experience, the same applied. It's not that you're dismissing the feelings, or repressing them, you're just seeing them for what the actually are which allows you to then investigate what lies at the root of anxiety and fear itself.
In my case, the majority of the problem was rooted in unhelpful beliefs, perceived social expectations and the idea that I, as a man, must be the sole provider for my family and shoulder all the responsibility. If I lost my job I would be unable to provide and therefore I would have failed as a man, based on the social identity constructed around this belief. If I lost my house then I would be unsuccessful and ashamed of my lack of social standing, whatever I thought that was, as I would no longer own a house. All these little bits and pieces gradually build up into big towers of anxiety but their foundations are made of sand. By breaking them down a bit at a time they can be entirely eradicated and this has been my experience of it so far.
Why do you find it noteworthy when anxiety is about something in future? What's the significance?
If the anxiety is based on something in the future then, just like past-based worries, it has no existence beyond your thoughts about it. For me, this was a big thing as the majority of my concerns were about what could happen in the future, particularly during the time I've mentioned above, but what helped was to see that none of the potential outcomes were happening right now. Yes, I
could have lost my house, I
might have ended up losing my job but none of this is actually happening right now, and if they
did happen then I would have to deal with it
if it happened but, until that became what was actually going on, there was no point in allowing it to prevent me from being happy and harmless right now. When feelings arose which prevented this from being the case then, and only then, did I examine them and dismantle their structure so that they no longer came up, or were at least attenuated enough to allow me to return to being attentive to the senses.
Any fear based in the future only exists in your head, regardless of how high the probability of it actually occurring is, until it's actually happening. People say things like "Well, you could cross the street tomorrow and be hit by a bus", which is true but where's the value in living your life waiting for that to happen? If you live your life in a state of fear and worry about what
could happen in the future then you're basically standing in the road, waiting for the bus to hit you.
The whole point is just to bring attention back to this immediate sensate experience, as in what's going on at the sense doors right now, and maintain this constantly. If you find that you are unable to do so, investigate why and examine the feelings occurring at that moment in time, future and past thoughts are not who you are, nor are they factual representations of what will happen in the forthcoming moments of this experience. I know this is easy to say and that it can be difficult to put into use while feeling that way but it's well worth the effort to do so and it is incredibly simple in practice.
Any better?