There’s an old story of a person who waited and feared a burglar. You’ll probably find different versions of it, but the point is the same. This person lived in fear for decades, did everything possible to protect themselves from the dangers of being robbed, locked the doors every night, and held whatever they had close. One day, when the person turned 92, the burglar appeared at their door. Do you know what he said?

“You waited for me all those years. Now I’m finally here.”

The Trap of Negative Thoughts

The person ended up robbed. The burglar left, happy for two things

  • He got the goods
  • He proved his point

But most importantly, he left the person believing that they were right. They had maintained a negative idea about the negative event that “will happen one day” and no matter how much they prepped, the event happened, and left a negative consequence.

When observed through the Law of Attraction, the negative event becomes sort of a Schrodinger’s cat. If a person hadn’t thought about it, they wouldn’t have attracted it. Nevertheless, they ended up living their fears, which in reality doesn’t always happen. I wrote more about the point of negative events, what they are and how we can observe them, especially during the time of the pandemic.

Many kids did this when their parents would leave somewhere and ended up coming back late – they’d think the parents have died. In reality, what the kids were going through was a cognitive distortion. The kids, as well as the victim, started catastrophizing. Only the kids’ idea and negative emotions attached to it were quickly interrupted. The victim lived with it for years on end.

Emotions are strong for a reason – they’re supposed to protect us. They are the primal instinct we should act upon. On the other side, we have our beautiful mind, ready to help us react as soon as danger appears. Combined, emotion, and thought are our most powerful weapon. But what happens when there are no enemies to fight?

Yes, our minds served us perfectly when we were among animals, hunting them, trying to survive. But in the modern world, there are no such problems, and we don’t need to hunt to survive. So we end up trapped in negative thoughts over and over again. If and when we realize that we’re thinking negatively, we start fighting the thoughts.

Our brain is attempting to defend us from itself. It’s bored, there are no enemies and no danger or threat, so it must create it for us.

COVID-19 Knocks on Our Doors

Do you remember how you felt when the pandemic started getting serious? You probably rushed to the store to stock on food and other supplies. You started reading the news frantically, looking for the tiniest clue that you’re the person who will fall ill next. The news will mention your name. You might die.

In a snap of a finger, COVID-19 became your burglar.

It’s “finally” here, ready to bring havoc. And to many, it did, there’s no point in denying it. But the whole obsession over those who suffered from the disease only makes you focus on it more.

This pandemic had justified your fears, and the worst thing is that it can push you into the pattern of catastrophizing everything, every time something happens in the world. Coronavirus caused strong emotions within you, woke up the buried anxiety, which might stay embedded, causing you to react in the future. It changed the way you think now and it has to power to do it again.

Unless you stop it.

Different Approach to Your Thoughts

Cognitive-behavioral therapy or CBT is one well-known way to deal with your negative thoughts. It’s supposed to teach you techniques to recognize your irrational thinking patterns and replace them with positive ones.

The cycle of thoughts is:

  • Inaccurate or negative thoughts cause emotional distress 
  • These thoughts and the resulting distress lead to unhelpful or harmful behaviors
  • These thoughts and behaviors can become a repeating pattern 
  • Learning how to address and change these patterns can help you deal with problems and future distress 

 Some of the most popular techniques in CBT are:

  • SMART goalsGuided discovery and questioning
  • Journaling
  • Self-talk
  • Cognitive restructuring
  • Thought recording
  • Positive activities
  • Situation exposure

You’ll have to take a lot of work back home, but in time you’ll notice that you can recognize your negative thoughts and behavioral patterns faster, and noticing them is the hardest part!

Once you recognize the thoughts and behaviors, you’ll be able to assess what works best for you and keep on correcting them, until one day you see that you changed your mind.

Conclusion

Coronavirus has the power to condition us into catastrophizing any future event, no matter how minutely negative it is. The old story mentioned at the beginning of this article could have been different. The person might have realized the danger of negative thoughts and addressed them. And yes, the burglar would’ve come either way, but the person would at least live a life free of fear and anxiety.