How Your Imagination Fuels Anxiety and How to Stop It

If you are prone to anxiety, you might be aware that you can worry about anything.

Even at times, you find new stuff to worry about. The truth is that worry can lead to a miserable life.

Strong emotions promote catastrophising, which in turn worsens anxiety. When we are becoming overly creative and imaginative, we allow fear to grab us and feed our anxiety. We are in the fight-or-flight mode, ready to react or hide.

Overactive Imagination

Imagination is running high! Think about the role your imagination plays in your life. Do you use it to help or to hinder yourself? To be human is to be anxious. Anxiety has a role to play in our lives. It wants to keep us safe. Making business decisions without due diligence would be as disastrous as crossing a busy street without looking for traffic.   We anticipate potential mishaps to ensure our safety. Our over-imaginative minds can deceive us, as demonstrated by my friend's experience while serving overseas.

A True Story: When Imagination Goes Too Far

As my friend was walking down a path covered in trees and bushes, leading him to a small private beach when the sun was setting, he could hear footsteps behind him. As it got darker, he could only see the shapes of two people coming down the same path. His heart began pounding, causing him to feel uneasy. The closer the two people came to him, the more anxious he got, and he felt a panic attack coming on. The two people started to speed up, coming closer and closer to my friend, who by now was scared, thinking he was going to be attacked. 

Once these people were close enough, they shouted to my friend, "Hey, we think you have dropped something!" Is this yours? My friend panicked even more, thinking it was a trick. Then he realised he had lost his cap, which had fallen off his backpack. He took a deep breath and felt rather sheepish as he gratefully accepted his cap back.

The Emotional Clickbait in Your Mind

Have you ever read a headline that grabbed your attention like it just screamed at you? Wham! Bam! You are strongly reacting to the headline in front of you. However, you realise something important when you look beyond the sensational headlines. You start to read the story underneath and quickly discover the headline is misleading or even downright fake news.

Not everything is as clear-cut as the media may initially portray. The press tries to get our attention, but we often find it very misleading once we read beyond the headline. Even our internal stories can have headlines run by heightened emotions like fear, defeat, anger, and low self-esteem.

Words have the potential to change the entire story. For example, rather than saying, "This always happens to me," say, "This could happen to me." With practice, your mind will start thinking like this automatically.

Emotional Damage Caused by Thinking

Headline thinking is rife among people who suffer from emotional problems.

I believe it's not just a consequence of psychological distress but also the cause.

Headline thinking is emotionally damaging, and getting control means looking past the fake news and seeing the bigger picture.

When we are depressed, anxious, insecure, and have low self-esteem, we start thinking about these attention-grabbing headlines. 

Many of my clients tell me, 

• My life is a total mess.

• People are just out there to get what they can from me. 

• I will never get it right. 

• No one likes me.

This way of thinking doesn't imply that their headlines are false, as each headline contains a sliver of truth. But we must look deeper beyond the surface when we consider these headlines. Occasionally, we all think of headlines that can be incomplete or downright misleading. I have done it, and I still do it occasionally. However, seeing beyond our initial emotional headline can improve our overall emotional and psychological well-being.

Training the Mind

Now, we understand that when anxiety kicks in with all-or-nothing headline thinking, we need tools to quiet our minds. The truth is, many little stresses build up into a pretty intimidating pack of stresses. We need new skills and ways to manage our imaginations and emotions suited to today's world and prevent our imaginations from torturing us!

But many of my clients often tell me that they feel as if fear and anxiety just seem to happen or are always there. Of course, people don't usually say to themselves, "I'm having anxiety" or "I'm having a panic attack." That's because it's your subconscious mind at work, not your everyday conscious mind. Your subconscious mind is like a powerful but not always innovative guard dog that needs to be trained only to react when needed.

We have a lot more control than we realise. Overcoming fear and anxiety will free you to pursue your true desires. It takes effort, but imagine the rewards. You naturally feel relaxed and in control without needing any medical interventions. You might think that something is wrong with you, that you have a syndrome, and this might make you feel like you have your condition; this is who you are! However, this perception is not entirely accurate.

Reimagining Through Hypnosis

Because your subconscious emotional mind drives the mind, we can guide you through hypnotic suggestions, retrain the overimaginative mind, and create tools for home use.

Imagine, perhaps through closed eyes, seeing yourself in the situation you dread. 

Now imagine yourself being calm, composed, cool, and comfortable as things go well. Doing this will start to recondition your mind to feel more relaxed and upbeat about upcoming events or regular situations that are causing anxiety. 

With practice, your mind will start to do it automatically. Hypnosis effectively uses your imagination, which is why I use this fantastic tool.