Why we are hard-wired to worry, and what we can do to calm down

  A new year brings both hopes and anxieties. We want things to be better for ourselves and the people we love but worry that they won’t be, and we imagine some of the things that might stand in the way. More broadly, we might worry about who’s going to win the election or even if our world will survive.

  As it turns out, humans are wired to worry. Our brains are continually imagining futures that will meet our needs and things that could stand in the way of them. And sometimes any of those needs may be in conflict with each other.