Stop Catastrophizing About Your Future. Try the Skill of Mental Imagery Instead

God bless the best therapist on Youtube

“Not imagining perfection, but imagining myself facing challenges with the grace that I want to be facing them, in order to create the outcome I want.” That is terrific advice.

I learned from another one of Emma's videos that keeping out the bad "What if's" is the key. You can also replace them with What Ifs like "What if that doesn't happen, and everything goes fine, like it has sooo many times before?" or "What if something bad does happen, but it turns out to be an easy fix, or just not as big a deal as I'm imagining right now?" I lean toward the positive knowing that the excruciating suffering I put myself through with catastrophizing is absolutely certain and real, but the bad scenario I'm imagining is just drama theater going on in my head about things that will very likely never happen that way.

2:33 - Exactly! My brain actively tries to catastrophize because it thinks that it can “soften the blow” of rejection or failure if it does happen. My brain tells me that if I don’t dwell on the worst case scenarios, that I will end up being disappointed. That’s the logic behind it. But the catastrophizing just ends up ruining the present moment.

It's taken me 69 years to realise there IS NO FUTURE. All we have is the Mindful Moment. I've done worse case scenario ALL my life especially with PTSD but all we have is the here and now and IF I can manage to focus on that moment I'll be sweet. Tomorrow becomes today and today becomes History. We live 24/7/365 in the Mindful Moment. Don't waste your life worrying about the "FUTURE" ... Steph says with serious Hindsight ❤ Happy Christmas and New Year ❤

One of the worsts for me is "What if I live like this forever?", "If I never get better?", "If I loose life joy?". 😓

I believe that’s my main problem. I see everything wrong and bad around me. I’ve been suffering from depression and anxiety for too long. I am looking to see myself making a positive change soon.

what my therapist told me to do which im trying to put into practice is change the story in your head or add onto the story. Dont leave the catastrophizing or the worst case scenario as the only outcome in your head give your mind another option, another story where youre able to move passed and continue on living life. Give your mind that space to realize there are better outcomes. If our minds can make us feel so anxious and unwell surely we can do the same thing to make ourselves feel better . 'We suffer more often in imagination than in reality'

This is so good. We lost our daughter in law and I’m helping my son raise his 3 girls. I’ve really struggled with anxiety since taking them in. I think it’s my fear of failing them. I can’t possibly fill the void of their mother.

One of the things that prevented me from doing the positive instead of negative imagery was thinking that if I thought about the worst outcome, I'd be prepared and not be so disappointed if it happened. But at the end of the day, that doesn't really help me achieving my goals. Instead, it's better to be optimistic and imagine the things I want to come true, but also keep in mind that I am capable of dealing with let downs and it's not the end of the world.

Yeah we call this in AA "Future Tripping" and it's quite common. The visualization techniques you mentioned really do help but I'd also offer for anyone who's stuck in a future tripping mindset to bring your thoughts back to the present moment. In AA we also say "You've got one foot in tomorrow, one foot in the past and you're pissing on today" as a way to remind us that this present moment is all we have. We can't change the past. It's over and done with so forgive yourself for not being perfect in the past. You did the best you could with what you had to work with at the time. If you were better or healthier or whatever, you may have handled the situation differently. BUT you weren't so whatever. Let it go. Dwelling on it won't change it and it won't help you moving forward. Give yourself the gift of a clean slate moving forward. It's OK to make plans for the future - that's 100% NOT future tripping. It's simply setting a focus point. In sailing a ship using only wind power, you have to set a focus point or else you'll be blown all over the water. You also aren't usually able to sail directly at your focus point because you're at the mercy of the wind. The focus point is simply that point you want to reach at some point in the future. You may take a really squiggly path to that end focus point but eventually you'll get there. It's also OK to be concerned about future events and try to plan for them. Like the runner in the story. But when fear stops you from taking action, then it's often times helpful to write these things down and develop a plan for what you'll do if that fear actually materializes. You should write these things down so that you can let them go in your mind, you free up mental energy so you can move forward and surprisingly when you do this, you often discover additional options you never considered before because your mind was free to come up with other solutions rather than remembering what to do if something goes wrong.

Absolutely, but if you can't stop believing in the worst case scenario (sometimes it's hard), you don't have to. I remind myself, while also engaging in self soothing, "I never really know what's going to happen." Positive visualization is great, definitely, but in a dark place, if it's not possible, introducing uncertainty works. When feeling negative the brain will trick us into certainty and by reclaiming the reality of more possibilities we can reclaim our peace and our power. From that place we CAN go to positive visualization. If we want to, if not, remain open to more possibilities, that is actually enough.

Thanks you so much for making these videos! I really needed to learn these skills to cope with anxiety and am so grateful that you have these free resources available for everyone to access.

Thank you. I needed to hear this. I’m a young stroke survivor and I’m restarting my life again this year. I’m going to drop 50lbs, finish my course and go back to work. I’ve been stuck for 22 months since the stroke in a state of fear of having another one. I start to catastrophise with health anxiety. I will try your technique. X

When I worry I start shaking I get tense dizzy my heart beats fast and I get strange chills and sensations

Here's another one: keep $500 in your pocket for a long period of time and you'll notice how good you'll feel knowing that you have that much cash at immediate disosal, without ever needing to spend it. This notion rewires your brain about abundance and draws more to you. I'm speaking from first-hand experience. Do it. You won't regret it.

Your past is not your future. You don't have to have the same negative thoughts that you have had before. Every day, we are a new person. We change with every day. Good advice in this video. This is just another place now where I've heard about visualization.

For some reason, the following tweet from Byron Katie made my anxiety plummet a few months back. Of course, I still have some worries and concerns, but the overwhelming anxious feeling has stayed gone ever since. FYI, I'm not a religious person, so it wasn't the "God" or "prayer" part that got me. It was something about how she worded what came after. Here it is: "If I had a prayer, it would be this: 'God spare me from the desire for love, approval, and appreciation. Amen.'" It felt like a weight had been lifted off me. I had cared too much about doing a good job that it was fueling my anxiety prone mind. Reading this quote from her freed me. I went into a "I don't care" mode where I no longer put other people's feelings above my own. I didn't need their stamp of approval to know I was doing a good job. I didn't need acceptance from anyone but me.

It’s easy. Stop buying newspapers, stop watching television. I did this 20+ years ago and can thoroughly recommend it. I’m surrounded by people who simply regurgitate the media negativity. They are not actually thinking they are imitating.

“It’s not magical thinking, it’s problem solving from a place of love and action.” 💯 (Some people would call that magic 😉 but I totally get your point, it’s not passive or relying on something irrational or superstitious— it’s actually very rational).