NP stands for negative predictions, our tendency to predict bad things that will certainly happen to us, our loved ones, or our world. We confuse possibilities with probabilities and this leads to anxiety spikes and, for some, obsessing about the dire consequences of our predictions.

NAT stands for negative automatic thoughts, usually about ourselves, e.g., “I’m bad. I’m a loser. I made all the wrong choices. I am unlovable.” The possibilities of NAP are endless. 

We read somebody’s version of Chicken Little, “The sky is falling” and it’s the end of our world, the end of money, the end of life as we know it, and we react. Some of us think it might be possible. Some think it’s probable. Some believe it’s coming soon, and therein lies the difference in our anxiety levels.

In times of great uncertainty, when chaos and confusion are everywhere, and the arc of political behavior ranges from unkindness to downright viciousness and lies, with many preying on local, national, and international fears, the challenge is how to keep one’s head. How can we remain centered when it seems like threats of violence and danger are everywhere? Some people become extremely anxious. Some just check out. Some actively deny what’s going on. And some join the clamor and din, thirsting for some sort of victory-no matter the cost to trust, civility, and the common good.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) examines interactions between thoughts, feelings, behavior, and physiology from the perspective that each drives and affects the others. If your history and your habit of reactivity have set you up to believe negative predictions, or, NAPs about things that will happen two seconds, two minutes, two days, two weeks, or two years from now, how true are they? Where is the evidence that supports the NPs? Where is the alternative evidence that the predictions are not 100% true? 

One CBT strategy is to deal with one NP at a time and to remember that until it actually happens, it is only a prediction. If you identify the trigger, meaning the event, thought, action, or something you read or hear that sets everything in motion, then you can identify the feeling that leads to the NP about yourself, such as the thoughts of “I’m a loser. I’m a fraud.”

With the trigger/feeling identified, the next step is to look at every piece of evidence that supports that NP, and then to look at every piece of alternative evidence that it is not 100% true. If you do the work, you will find there is an unlimited amount of alternative evidence. Possibilities are not probabilities. NPs are not facts. It takes work to retrain yourself but the rewards of arriving at a place of balance, more than justify that work.

“If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs” you’ll be better off for it. You’ll also be clear about when taking some kind of action is appropriate.

Barbara & Oliver