Irrational Thoughts And Fears

Fear can feel incredibly convincing. A thought enters your mind and, within seconds, it can become a prediction. Something might go wrong. Someone might judge you. You might fail. You might lose control. The more you think about it, the more real the possibility can seem. But there is an important difference between feeling afraid and being in danger.

Our minds are designed to look for threats. Sometimes that instinct protects us. At other times, it creates frightening scenarios that have little connection with what is actually happening. A possibility becomes a probability, and a probability starts to feel like a certainty.

That is when an irrational thought can begin controlling a rational decision. The answer is not to tell yourself that fear is stupid or that you should stop feeling it. Fighting a thought can give it even more attention. Instead, examine it.

What am I actually afraid will happen? What evidence do I have? Am I responding to something happening now, or something I have imagined happening in the future? And perhaps most importantly: what would I do if the thing I fear actually happened?

That last question can change the conversation in your head. Instead of imagining yourself as powerless against an unknown future, you begin considering how you would respond.

Positive thinking is not the elimination of fear. It is learning that fear does not have to make every decision for you.

You will have irrational thoughts. Everyone does. You will sometimes imagine the worst. That does not make those thoughts facts. Question the thought. Understand the fear. Then decide whether it deserves to control what you do next.