Is it in my hands right now? A two-pile test for worry

On the podcast Ein gutes Gefühl (July 2026), German psychologist Ulrike Scheuermann recorded a solo episode on living with uncertainty: the open question, the result you're waiting for, the choice you can't make yet. Partway through came a question Scheuermann called simple and unspectacular. Ask it about a worry, the advice went, and answer with the first thing that comes.

"Liegt das gerade in meiner Hand? Ja oder nein?"

In English: "Is this in my hands right now? Yes or no?"

Ulrike Scheuermann, Ein gutes Gefühl, 2026

Two answers, two moves

If the answer is yes, the episode goes on, ask what your next concrete step is, now. If the answer is no, going over it is lost energy, and so is simply wishing. It doesn't change the outcome, or barely, and it wears you down.

A few minutes later the question became an exercise you can do while listening. Think of one open question in your life right now. Then sort it into two piles. On the first pile, the one in your hand, goes everything you can influence: a conversation, some preparation, a next step. On the second pile, set down on the floor or a table, goes everything that isn't up to you right now.

For the first pile, pick exactly one concrete step. For the second, Scheuermann suggests a sentence you can repeat or adapt, which in English runs roughly: this isn't up to me right now, and I can let it go, for now. The last two words matter. You aren't giving up on the second pile forever, only for the moment.

What guidance and research add

Public guidance asks the same question. The NHS "worry tree" on its Every Mind Matters site helps you separate problems you can solve from hypothetical worries beyond your control, then decide whether to act now or schedule it for later (NHS, Tackling your worries).

Research explains why the step on the first pile helps even before you take it. In a set of experiments, unfinished goals kept coming back to mind during unrelated tasks. When people made a specific plan for the goal, those intrusions stopped, even though the goal itself was still undone (Masicampo and Baumeister, 2011). Only the summary of these studies is available, so read it as a direction: a step with a when gives the mind permission to put the worry down.

One caution from the program's own rules. A step that is only checking again, like one more search or one more call to ask if it's fine, doesn't belong on the first pile. It feeds the loop, so it goes on the second.

How this fits the Reduce worry and overthinking program

In the 1h Protocol to Reduce Worry and Overthinking, chapter 2 builds this question into a test you use on a real worry: can I act on this now? If yes, you do the step or book it. If no, you park the worry in a few words for a worry slot you set, and if you're not sure, you give it two more minutes and ask three short questions. For people whose loop is the What-If Chain, the free first step is this same question, and Scheuermann's episode is on the program's listening list. The first chapter is free.

Source: Ein gutes Gefühl (sinnsucher.de), wie du gelassener mit Ungewissheit umgehst, 7 Jul 2026 Research: Masicampo and Baumeister, 2011 · NHS, Tackling your worries