Catastrophizing is an easy way to ruin
your day and it's very easy to do when
we're not in a grounded state. It's when
we turn our thoughts about the future
into a disaster story. It's when we get
sucked in to thinking that something is
going to have the worst possible outcome,
and we get so into that story that we
experience it like it's real, and we feel
it. By the end of this video you're
going to have ideas and practices I know
you can do to catch yourself when you
are catastrophizing and shift your
perspective out of it, and hang around to
the end because I want to show you how
you can access a free additional
tutorial which goes beyond this, which I
think will be of massive value to you.
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My name's Steve and I'm a
professional coach and trainer. I work
mostly with professional people like you
on combining personal brilliance with
unshakable emotional wellness, so for the
best ideas and topics in that theme,
please subscribe to this channel and
don't forget to hit the notifications
bell so that you'll know when new
content arrives. This video is really
part of a series dealing with thinking,
emotional resilience and self-care for
executives and professionals, for
instance not being able to stop thinking
about work when you're at home, or over
thinking about things, and in the case of
this video, catastrophizing. What I share
today is work that I did with my coaches
that turned my thinking around and what
I now do with my clients which supports
them. Tip number one is to interrupt
yourself and stop. Catastrophic thinking
is a little bit like going down a rabbit
hole, and the more you go down the rabbit
hole, the more the only thing you can see
is what's even further down the rabbit
hole! The first step to climbing out
of the rabbit hole is to catch yourself,
to stop, to look around and see that
you're going down a rabbit hole.
Literally just stop and let the mind and
let your emotions settle down a little
bit. This is something that's worth
mentally rehearsing ahead of time
because mental rehearsal is a great way
of laying down a reminder to do
something in the future, a prompt if you
like, so that when it's time to do that
thing, like to catch yourself and stop
yourself, then you remember in the moment.
This is why I do a lot of mental
rehearsal with my clients. Tip number
two is to shift the energy into the body
and give your mind a break. A great way
to get out of our heads is to get into
the body that means shifting all the
energy that we were spending on
rumination and putting it into movement.
That means get the body moving! Go for a
brisk walk, go for a run, go for a bike
ride even, or do something energetic like,
I don't know, clean the bathroom, get
the elbows moving!
This not only spends the energy that we
were spending on thinking but it gives
our minds a break from that thinking, and
in that break your unconscious mind can
do some processing. After that break
things will generally look a bit
different because you're not down that
rabbit hole anymore, you're not looking
at it through the rabbit hole. It's like when
you sleep on something and you
wake up in the morning and it looks and
it feels different. It's like that, By the
way I'd love to know how you've learned
to deal with overthinking and
catastrophizing. If you're okay then
leave it as a comment and I'll read all
the comments and I'll reply to as many
as I can.
Tip number three is to remember that
it's just thought. The reason
catastrophic thinking gets us is
because we imagined it so vividly and
we're getting involved with it so
vividly that it feels real to us, but it's
not real! What we're responding to is an
experience created in thought. When I
used to watch really scary movies on TV
when I was younger, the kind of movie
I'm talking about here is one that would
really draw you in and get you involved,
if I wanted relief from the emotions
that I was feeling watching that movie,
relief from the fear, all I had to
do was to take my eyes off the
television set and look around and see
some of the real world things around me
and remind myself it's only a movie.
So let's borrow that. Look away from your
thinking look around you
at the real-world things that are going
on right now and remind yourself it's
just a thought! Now, you might be thinking,
yeah it's just a thought but it's a
thought that might really happen! Well
that brings me on to my next tip which
is tip four, which is to visualize
the spectrum of possibilities.
Imagine this. I was 22 years old. I was
fresh out of university, brand-new in a
job, I had less than a year of work
experience there, I just bought a house
on a mortgage, and the recession was
coming, and there was talk of redundancy.
I told myself a helluva story.
Because I was the last one in I was
gonna be the first one out, because I'd
had less than a year experience I wasn't
to be able to get another job, because
I've been there for less than a year I wasn't
gonna get any redundancy money, so I was
going to default on my mortgage, I'll
lose my home, I was not gonna be able to
afford to rent, I was gonna end up homeless in a
gutter drinking booze out of a brown
paper bag and probably ending up getting
killed for that booze by somebody.
What about that for a rabbit hole! I mean
from young new professional with a
degree and a house and a job in a
prestigious company to getting killed
over booze in the gutter! When I look at
it now like that I can see how silly
that was, I can see how pulled out that
was, but I couldn't see it then because I
was in it! Well once you've had a break
from the rabbit hole you can see what
you're doing with your thinking, you can
look at the story you were telling
yourself and you can see how ridiculous
it's becoming. So having fantasized the
worst possible outcome, the most extreme
version of the story, then why not
fantasize the best possible outcome? Why
not spend some time with that? It's no
more the truth or a lie! And also when
you got those, when you've got the best
possible outcome and the most extreme
worst possible outcome, then you can
start to see a spectrum of all kinds of
possibilities from the best possible
outcome all the way through to the worst
possible outcome,and from that you can
remember two things! Number one, what will
actually happen it's probably not even
on the spectrum, because what's on the
spectrum is limited by your imagination!
And you don't know what's going to come
in the future! Point number two to
remember is that wherever what actually
happens will end up being on the
spectrum, it's really not very likely to
be at the extremes! It's much more likely
to be somewhere between. Somewhere
comfortably between. Seeing that can
be very very soothing! Tip number
five is really really simple, and that is,
take action if there's some action to
take. If there is anything practical to
do that is going to head off something
which is a reasonable worry then do that
thing, or at least agree with yourself
when you are going to do that thing.
If you'd like to explore
how we can create transformational
results together, I would love
to hear from you, you'll see my contact
details in the pinned comment below this
video. And please like the video if you
did like it, it helps other people see it.
Please share with your friends if you think
this will help them, but most of all please
subscribe to the channel.
I also mentioned at the beginning of
the video about a free tutorial that I
would love for you to take access of. It
is five simple steps to master your
composure in conflict pressure and
stress in the moment, and to get access
to that tutorial all you have to do is
find the link in the pinned comment
below this video and just sign up to get it.
It's absolutely free so please help
yourself and other than that I'll see
you next week
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