Day 4199: Catastrophizing and a Car Chase?

 

   

"Z-man": junk collage, photo, digital.

 

  

Want music?

 

    

Click here: Daniel Caesar, We Find Love.

 

  

 

 

2GN2S

Are you catastrophizing? Here’s how to stop assuming the worst.

Nine experts weigh in on curbing and diffusing your overly negative thoughts.

If you’re a person who spends even a minuscule amount of time consuming news of any kind, you may find yourself in a doom spiral: ongoing war, the upcoming presidential election, climate change, the withering of the media. It isn’t just news that can inspire despair. Life is full of anxiety-inducing interactions, high-stakes scenarios, and unavoidable conflicts that can lead to overthinking, hopelessness, and catastrophic thinking.

Catastrophizing is a common thought pattern where you assume the worst possible scenario. If you fail a test, you might believe you’ll never get a job in the future. When the group chat is silent after you initiate plans, you jump to conclusions and take it to mean everyone hates you. Your boss says she wants to talk and you assume you’re getting fired. Catastrophic thinking escalates the most benign interactions into crises. Very often, though, these predictions do not come to fruition.

“We understandably pay more attention to bad things happening in our lives because, let’s face it, they are upsetting. Catastrophizers, however, have a habit of devoting large amounts of time, attention, and energy to thinking about the worst-case what-ifs, in addition to any bad things that might be happening each day. To neutralize or reverse this tendency, we often need to start taking notice of when things turn out okay or go well. Keeping a daily list can be a reminder of real rates of good versus the upsetting. 

 

  “The minute your train of thought starts to get off the rails, force yourself to think that you are not the master. You do not have control over the future. But you do have the power to either fight it or accept it. So think about all the positive ways you will deal with that catastrophic event.”

 

This is a small part, for full article, here.

 

 

Late Night Car Chase ?

 

ABC, our local Channel 7 lets me know whenever they are covering a car chase, and we have them often. I had just finished the blog, and was wrapping a birthday gift, but I did stop to watch. Tonight was a red Corvette and the driver's speed was as high as 140 mph when I was watching.

 I watched, then he got into a downtown LA and they said had gone into a parking garage, so nothing to see. The helicopter (who watches from overhead) gave us a good shot of  LA City Hall tonight.

Never a dull moment, even in my studio?

 

 

 

 

  

 

A 4 minute super-cute video, Escapist, here.

 

 

  

Just because ...

  

Great Horned Ow family, Arizona

 

Saturday's Smiles ...