PLGRM

Do you live your life always worried the other shoe is going to drop? any people tell us that bracing for the worst will help us get through it when/if it comes. It’s a sign of mental toughness, they say.

Bracing has an effect both before and after an event, and it’s not cut and dried.

Despite mixed evidence on the immediate benefits of bracing, research consistently suggests that bracing does not have more lasting benefits. When students were asked to rate how they felt about their exam grades 24 hours after receiving them, there was no difference between students based on whether they had held positive or negative expectations about their grades. Similarly, the extent to which students ‘braced’ – as measured by the decline in their expectations from two weeks before the exam to one day before – did not predict how they felt two days after receiving their exam grades.

Why it might not help – and could hurt – to brace for the worst

I liken bracing to those energy drinks you buy at the gas station. Yeah, you get a boost right now, but the crash is HARD and not at all worth it.

But what are we to do? How are we do deal with the dread that we fell like something is coming?

Here are a few evidence-based ideas:

1. Favour optimism, particularly when you have control over an outcome. Returning to the link between expectations and reality, researchers recently found evidence that having positive expectations about an outcome means one is more likely to put effort into achieving that outcome. Of course, you don’t necessarily want to assume you’ll get a positive outcome without putting in the work, but it’s better to be optimistic than to expect the worst.
2. Try not to spend your energy figuring out what the outcome might be, especially if you lack control over the outcome or you’re currently waiting to find out what the outcome is. Instead, you could try distracting yourself from the situation, for example by watching a TV show, doing exercise, or catching up with a friend. You could also try to acknowledge and accept how you feel about the situation, without trying to change it. These are both helpful ways of managing emotions.
3. Open up to those around you. If you let people know that you’re waiting for an important outcome that could turn out badly, they can be ready to offer support when you receive the outcome.

Why it might not help – and could hurt – to brace for the worst