If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today.

The remark proposes a simple experiment: measure the real weight of today’s anxieties by checking whether last year’s worries still matter—or are even remembered. Its point is not that problems are imaginary, but that many fears are temporary, overestimated, or resolved by time and circumstance. By linking “memory” and “worry,” Cossman implies that anxiety often lacks lasting significance; what feels consuming now may soon be trivial. The line functions as a cognitive reframing tool, encouraging detachment, humility about one’s predictions, and a longer time horizon when evaluating stressors.