As much as worry and fear can bring us to our knees sometimes, much of what people get challenged by is not about life changing, catastrophic events but rather the smaller things and the meaning that is made of them. Many suffer unnecessarily when their nervous systems are hijacked by worry, usually not serving well and impacting overall happiness.
Your thinking can get fuzzy and convince you there is reason to panic as it feels like an emergency! If core beliefs developed long ago in your family of origin get caught up into this, it’s even more complicated. For example, consider how failure for someone who is perfectionistic and operates under the belief that they have to do things perfectly could impact them. Worries such as these can feel overwhelming because there is a lot at stake for us emotionally.
Here are some other examples of worries involving self-esteem:
- “I’m worried about meeting this group of respectable people in my field. What if I don’t measure up?”
- “I’m worried about my blind date tonight. What if he/she doesn’t like me?”
- “I’m worried about my presentation at work tomorrow. What if I fall apart?”
If you allow this type of worry to consume you, it is not only distressing but can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy if you behave as if it’s already true.
There are many other types of “small stuff” worries which can cause unnecessary suffering including those related to perfectionism, performance, a strong negativity bias (bad things will…
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