This is a disaster for people’s mental health, because this overthinking of negative outcomes increases anxiety and stress, says Bartricia Riedel, a professor of applied neuroscience, in an article on Thinking the Worst.
“When we imagine future events we feel an emotional reaction to the story we are creating – and we use this response to determine how we will feel in the future – but this way of predicting the future is often wrong because we are unable to imagine everything that might happen,” she says. To create a wrong emotional response to future situations in our minds,” according to “The Conversion.” So, Riddle put several tips for these people to resist the negative thoughts that attack them:
Trying to make decisions in the morning
We often worry regarding the future at night. When we are asleep, activity decreases in the rational part of our brain and activity increases in the more emotional part of our brains. As a result, we tend to use this emotional part to visualize the future in times of nightly wakefulness. This leads us to focus more on what might go wrong and makes us more vulnerable to stress.
Reduce self-criticism
Internal or self-criticism can negatively affect a person, so it is useful to train the inner voice that criticizes all our actions to be calm and empathetic in situations and reduce the pressure emanating from within.
“Try to imagine your inner critic as if you were looking through someone else’s eyes. What language would you use and would you use that language when talking regarding someone else in a similar situation?” On these negative questions, be aware of the language your inner critic uses when you’re anxious or stressed. If it’s too harsh, try switching to a more gentle way of talking to yourself.”
– Be kind to yourself
This point relates to the former, because it relates to how self-compassionate we are, as Riddell says in this section: “Planning for the ways things might go wrong in the future serves a purpose to keep us safe, but if you often find that you are being ignored by thinking regarding all the worst-case scenarios – Especially at the expense of your mental health – it may be important to remind yourself that the things you worry regarding may not happen often, they probably, and that if this approach becomes more harmful than positive, try to avoid it.”
