Negative Predictions

 

Negative predictions lead to more and more anxiety.

When we tend to have negative predictions; instead of looking forward to events in the future, we anticipate the worst possible outcomes.
Negative predictions often involve:

• Overestimating the likelihood that bad things will happen.
• Exaggerating how bad things will be.
• Underestimating your ability to cope with a difficult situation.
• Dismissing factors that suggest things may not be as bad as you predict.

 

For example:

• Studying for a final exam and predicting to get a low score.
• Going to a job interview and predict immediate rejection.
• Instead of looking forward to a social event, to anticipate feeling bored or embarrassed.

 

Negative predictions often show up as “What if” questions.

• What if I can’t …
• What if I panic …
• What if I loose …

 

Those thinking patterns lead us to ignore our resources, our pleasant and constructive aspects of our lives.
This creates a form of anxiety as sufferers worry about such feared outcomes.
These predictions and anxieties can in turn produce unhelpful behaviours as a means of attempting to cope with or indeed avoid our fears.
Such unhelpful behaviours can, in turn, have undesirable consequences.
This further complicates our lives and can also help further enforce our strongly held negative self-beliefs.

The circle is often completed in that people experience low mood when considering their lives, and its negative cycle yet again reinforcing their unhelpful thoughts about themselves.

One way to address negative predictions is to challenge them.
Our thoughts and predictions are often opinions we have picked up or learned, rather than facts.
Therefore, rather than blindly accepting our thoughts, instead we can question them, particularly if they are causing us distress and leading to unhelpful avoidance or safety behaviors.

In trance it is possible to work on the tendency of negative predictions.