Do you spiral into worst-case scenarios the moment something feels uncertain? 😵💫 You're not alone! This is a common cognitive distortion called catastrophic thinking, and it’s tied to anxiety and nervous system dysregulation.
In this empowering solo episode, Rae, somatic coach and breathwork facilitator, guides you through:
🌿 What catastrophic thinking is and how it shows up in your mind and body
🌿 Why this pattern is a nervous system response rooted in protection, not personal failure
🌿 How to spot when you’re spiraling and how to gently interrupt the fear loop
🌿 Somatic tools to shift from anxiety to grounded presence
🌿 How self-compassion widens your window of tolerance and builds inner resilience
🌿 A mindset reframe: Best case, worst case, most likely outcome
You'll also learn how to pair mindset work with body-based healing to regulate in real-time.
This episode is perfect for you if you’re an anxious overthinker, a recovering perfectionist, or simply ready to stop letting fear call the shots. Tune in to reclaim calm, access inner safety, and meet your anxious thoughts with compassion instead of panic.
🎁 Free resource mentioned in the episode: Sign up for the Somatic Healing Newsletter to receive Breathe Easy, a free resource library of trauma-informed breathwork and nervous system tools.
💌 Like what you heard? Share this episode with a friend or leave a review to help the podcast grow!
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Disclaimer: Please remember that the information shared on this podcast is intended to inspire, educate, and support you on your personal journey. It does not substitute for professional mental health advice. I am not a psychologist or medical professional. If you are experiencing distress, mental health challenges, or medical conditions, please seek help from a qualified professional.
Episode Transcript
Welcome back to the podcast.
If you are new here, I'm Rae,I'm a somatic coach and
breathwork facilitator, and ifyou aren't new here, welcome
back.
I'm so glad that you are tuningin to today's episode.
So for today's episode, I wouldlove to dive into what is
(00:23):
called a cognitive distortion,and so we all experience many of
these, and it's basicallyanother form of like a thought
pattern that doesn't serve us,and so the one that I want to
dive into today is calledcatastrophic thinking, and I
think that this is reallyhelpful for just talking more
(00:44):
about, and it's really helpfulfor anxiety, and I'm going to
tie it into this theme of, youknow, nervous system regulation
and working with the body, and Ialways find it helpful to kind
of take these challenges that wetypically see talked about from
(01:04):
a thought perspective and seehow we can also talk about them
from a body perspective.
So that is what we're going tobe diving into today and, yeah,
I hope that you find itsupportive and I hope you enjoy.
So, catastrophic thinking isone form of a cognitive
(01:24):
distortion, and there are somany of them, but this is when
we can see ourselves reallyjumping to the worst case
scenario, like immediatelysomething happens and we are
like it is a catastrophe.
That's how we got tocatastrophic thinking.
So it's really jumping to theworst case scenario and it's
(01:47):
when we are assuming that theworst possible outcome is
happening.
And so it is a fear-basedthought and typically it's
related to a past trauma or achronic state of stress or
anxiety or overwhelm.
And this can come out in a fewdifferent ways in our day-to-day
life.
So, you know, maybe we send anemail or a text message or we
(02:11):
submit an application and we'rekind of like waiting to hear
back from something that youknow sometimes it just takes
time to get a response and soautomatically we go into like oh
well, you know they're notresponding to me because of this
reason.
Or you know, I didn't hear backfrom that application because
you know I definitely didn't getit.
And so we go into this likevery quickly, this worst case
(02:34):
scenario thought.
And sometimes it can also happenif you know, generally speaking
, we're just having a bad day.
Like you know, things are goingreally well, but all of a
sudden we might have this youjust having a bad day, things
are going really well, but allof a sudden we might have this
bad day.
And then we start thinking thateverything is falling apart and
everything is bad.
When, if we kind of take a stepback and we look at the big
(02:56):
picture, it's like, oh no, we'reactually, we're just having a
bad day.
So sometimes we can do these,we can fall into these patterns,
these thought patterns thatdon't always serve us, and
catastrophic thinking isdefinitely one example of that
happening.
So this thought pattern, thisform of thinking, it's
definitely, you know, a symptomof anxiety and it is a form of
(03:20):
being dysregulated in thenervous system, being
dysregulated in the body.
So if you listen to last week'spodcast episode, this is what
would fall into the hyperarousal state or the
fight-or-flight state, and sothis is when the nervous system
is in the state of scanning fordanger.
It's waiting for the other shoeto drop, waiting for something
(03:43):
to go wrong, and it's waitingfor the other shoe to drop,
waiting for something to gowrong, and it's struggling to
access, you know, differentperspectives.
So I mentioned a few momentsago, like taking a step back and
zooming out.
It's struggling to have thatability to see the big picture
and it's amplifying everythingthat it is seeing to be
perceived as a threat.
So everything that is in itspoint of view.
(04:03):
It is like, oh, oh well, thisis horrible.
This is, you know, again, worstcase scenario thinking it's the
worst day ever, everything'sfalling apart.
Well, what if this, what ifthis, what if that?
So it's this thought patternthat comes from the nervous
system being in a hyper arousal,fight or flight state, and this
way of thinking is, you know,super uncomfortable, definitely
(04:26):
doesn't feel good, it can reallyget our anxiety pretty high, it
can make us feel uncomfortableand ultimately, this, this
response, it is trying toprotect you from something.
It's trying to protect you fromgetting hurt again, or it could
be really anything.
It's trying to find safety,it's trying to protect itself
(04:49):
because it feels like maybe it'sunlovable or, you know, it
could be anything.
But ultimately, the thoughtpattern is trying to protect you
from getting hurt and it endsup showing itself in the body as
well, so it can come up in thebody.
As you know, your heart isracing, maybe you're having
racing thoughts, maybe you'refeeling, you know, tightness in
(05:12):
the chest or your stomach hurtsor your jaw is really tight
mouth, maybe there is a sense ofrestlessness and maybe your
breathing is like super shallowand you feel like, you know you
can't catch your breath or youcan't even take, like, a deep
breath, and so the next time youfind yourself in one of these
thought patterns that reallyisn't serving you, it's an
(05:34):
opportunity to ask yourself,like, what does this feel like
in the body?
How am I experiencing this in mywhole experience, including the
experience of the body, andwhat this is going to allow you
to do is that so often withanxiety or with these thought
frames that don't feel good, wewant to push away the fear, we
(05:54):
want to push away the anxiety,and when we have that moment of
pause, to say like, okay, theanxiety.
And when we have that moment ofpause, to say like, okay, well,
what else is here for me?
Like I'm not having the mostpositive mindset right now.
How might this be showing upfor me and my body as well?
It's allowing you the time andspace to also meet yourself
exactly where you're at.
(06:14):
So it's giving you the option,the opportunity, to say like,
okay, this is what's up, nothingneeds to change or be different
right now, but I'm going to seewhat else I can learn about
this situation, about what mightbe coming up for me here and
what that is going to allow youto do that pause and that shift
is it's going to bring in moreof that flexible thinking.
(06:36):
It's going to bring in more ofthat spaciousness and that
creativity of like.
Okay, this is what's coming upfor me right now.
Here are some things that Icould do, or here are some
things that some ways that Icould meet myself more
compassionately and some of myyou know tools that I would
suggest for in these momentsbreath, work, grounding, getting
(06:59):
into the body through movement,using things that will help you
uh, you know, work with thebody or bring you more into your
body in terms of like textures,so something like a weighted
blanket or a warm cup of tea,something that are something
that's activating your senses insome way and interrupting the
thought or the fear loop.
(07:20):
So oftentimes, with catastrophicthinking, we're thinking worst
case scenario.
I always love to suggest inthis form of thinking can you
think of the worst case scenario?
Can you think of the best casescenario?
Can you think of the mostlikely outcome?
So, again, it's not like we'repushing these thoughts away.
We're not making them bad orwrong, we're not pushing away
(07:41):
the sensations in the body orrunning away from them, but
we're using our tools toultimately build safety in the
body and safety in the mind, tofeel like we can understand and
move through and metabolize thefear or the thought or the
anxiety and I mentioned this alittle bit earlier.
But we really want to meet thecatastrophic thinking with
(08:03):
self-compassion.
So, knowing that your mind andyour body are trying to protect
you and you don't have tobelieve every anxious thought,
you don't have to believe everyanxious thought, you don't have
to believe every catastrophicthought, every worst case
scenario, and you can start toinvite language into your
experience of I'm safe in thismoment, what's another possible
(08:24):
outcome, what's the bestpossible outcome, what's the
most likely possible outcome?
So we're welcoming in more ofthat flexibility into the
thoughts and into the mind.
And every time that you usethese tools, you catch yourself
in a loop and you have theability to pause and meet
yourself with thatself-compassion and with that
(08:45):
safety.
Those are the moments where youare widening your window of
tolerance.
So, building off of last week'sepisode with the window of
tolerance, when you giveyourself that little bit of
spaciousness to really meetyourself in your experience, you
are increasing your capacity,you are widening your window of
tolerance, you're practicingyour tools and if you are tuning
(09:07):
into a podcast like this, thatis something that is really,
really going to support youreaching your goals, creating
your vision, moving forward,really working through
challenges in a way that don'tfeel so, yeah, isolating and
alone.
Like using these tools willabsolutely support you in
(09:28):
improving your mindset andconnecting with the mind and the
body and making it a place thatfeels really good and really
safe and something where youfeel like you can handle
anything that comes your way.
So if you are experiencingsomething you know challenging
like anxious thinking,catastrophic thinking, worst
case scenario thinking what itreally means is that you can
(09:50):
learn to support yourself in awhole new way and you can widen
your window of tolerance and youcan create new patterns and new
ways of being, and you are inthe exact right place to do that
and you are already on the pathand doing the thing.
So that's what we have fortoday's episode and I hope that
(10:11):
you enjoyed today's episode.
Thank you so much for tuninginto the podcast each week.
I really enjoy recording theseepisodes for you and if you want
a free resource so you canbuild on all these tools and
practices that we talk about ineach episode.
You can check out the shownotes for a resource.
(10:32):
It's called Breathe Easy andyou receive it automatically
when you sign up for the somatichealing newsletter.
So definitely check that out.
And, yeah, I hope that you havean incredible rest of your week
.
I hope that you have anincredible rest of your day and
I will talk to you soon.
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