When confronted with a situation where the outcome was unknown I often responded by imagining the worst possible scenario. I suspect this habit had something to do with the belief that I was preparing myself to handle any difficulty that might arise. Once I started to be more observant of my thoughts and behaviours and the direction they pointed me in, I discovered a serious problem with this strategy. Whenever I imagined the worst possible outcome I’d experience intense fear and anxiety. My heart would pound rapidly and my thoughts would race
out of control. I noticed it was irrelevant whether what I imagined eventually occurred. Simply thinking about a negative outcome caused significant emotional and physical distress. Medical research confirms my observations. The physical body does not distinguish between a real event and an imagined event; the effect is the same. Thus, whenever I imagine a negative outcome or tell myself a negative story I create distress equivalent to these events actually occurring. I discovered something else of significance. I discovered fear is never about something occurring in this moment. Fear is always about a future event. Fear is always about something I
imagine might happen. The cause of fear is amazingly simple. Fear occurs whenever I tell myself a negative story about a future event.
FEAR = Future + Negative Story The imagination is very powerful. We can create pleasure or pain, joy or fear with the simple use of our imagination. Unfortunately most people use their imagination to create pain and fear. They do this by imagining negative outcomes rather than positive outcomes. Research reveals the average person thinks nine times as many negative thoughts as positive thoughts. This means they tell nine negatives stories for every positive story. No wonder so many people live in a chronic
state of fear and anxiety. “I’ve had a very difficult life.
Fortunately, most of it didn’t happen.” Mark Twain
Don't let the dark side lower our frequency with fear. |
