The habit of catastrophizing is very dangerous especially when it becomes a habit. It leaves us feeling panicky, fearful, and anxious, about almost all that is negative to any situation that we presume is going to turn out to be a disaster. For example if you have to deliver a speech the tomorrow, today itself you start panicking and your mind begins telling you that you are going to get stuck mid-way, you’ll have a wardrobe malfunction, the audience is going to boo you and so on. So how do you stop thinking this way?

1) Say stop to your inner critic: It is your inner critic that gets a voice to tell you to imagine the worst scenarios. You need to shut down that inner critic and silence its voice before it gets the better of you. You need to take charge. If needed look yourself in the mirror eye to eye and tell it to go away.

2) Take a look at the past: Reflect and think of how many times the catastrophic situations that you’ve imagined actually came true. You will realize it almost never was true. Remind yourself of this fact and calm yourself down.

3) Focus on your breathing: Go to a quiet room for 2 minutes. Do nothing but breathe deeply and bring your focus to your breath. This will calm you and bring your focus on the present instead of the catastrophic events that are happening inside your head.

4) Talk it through: Find a friend, a colleague, a spouse or an expert like a life coach to talk about your situation. Nothing works better than letting out what bothers you. I can help you Coaching. With proper guidance you can immediately stop feeling like this.

5) Reduce the things that make you feel this way: Certain things like the television, social media or forums on different websites make you feel catastrophic. Avoid watching these.

Practice these points in the coming days in order to build a healthy environment for yourself and for your situations.