4 Ways to Avoid Catastrophizing

Over the past few months, we’ve heard a lot of complaints over flights being cancelled and according to at least one of the people involved they were treated inhumanely.

Before I start giving you recent examples, I wanted to tell you why I relate to this situation in a small way. In March of 2019 I left Portland Oregon to fly to Vancouver B.C., then on to Toronto Ontario. As we arrived in Vancouver, we were told that the Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes were being grounded, and we would not be able to fly on to our destinations. This was due to two deadly crashes with this type of plane on October 29^th, 2018 and another on March 10^th, 2019. While Canada was one of the last hold-outs on this temporary banning I know this was done for safety reasons.

When it comes to safety in an airplane, I am all in favor of this. While this may be viewed as humorous, I like my life and want to live along life. And above all was pleased that Canada got on board with this temporary banning.

What was the most interesting thing that happened when we were told of not being able to fly to our destinations as planned, I saw some very unique and different approaches to this situation;

1. there was the catastrophizers and were looking for any way to cause an issue,
2. there was those who accepted the situation and got comfortable for the long-wait until another plane would show up, and
3. there was a group of us that decided to have fun with the situation. We were making jokes, and kidding others about their plans for the day.

A question, which one of these groups managed the over 12 hours wait?

Yes, you are right; the ones who decided to have fun with the situation.

Now let’s get back to the facts.

There was the young man from Quebec who stated; “It really pissed me off. I’ve been waiting for five months for this trip.”

Then there is the Ontario traveler set to return home from Mexico on Christmas Eve. He stated; “It just felt like inhumane treatment from a place where you’re supposed to feel safe like in the airport.”

I decided to look up the word inhumane and according to Mariam-Webster it means to be treated like a prisoner. With my wildest imagination I am having trouble seeing how a flight being cancelled is like being treated as a prisoner.

It appears to me is that the catastrophizers complex is truly hurting many people. So, what needs to be done?

First of all, we need to understand that when we catastrophize, we are only looking for the worst possible outcome in an event. We are saying to ourselves; ‘This will never improve; it is a disaster.’ or ‘This is going to cause me too much discomfort.’ or ‘How could they do this to me?’

So many people think that the body is independent of our mind, which is wrong. This is because every thought you have has an impact on our body. Research has shown that negative attitudes and feelings of hopelessness and helplessness can create chronic stress; which can actually decrease our lifespan.

What can we do to reduce the catastrophizing in our lives;

• Understand that life is full of good and bad experiences. Remember that life is what you make it to be.
• Learn how to control your inner thoughts. By controlling your thoughts, you can decide whether a situation is really bad or good.
• Learn to become more resilient to the happenings in life. Yes, being able to bounce-back from challenging circumstances in life is the key to long-term growth as a person.
• Keep perspective on what is really happening in your life. Instead of being a victim by catastrophizing, think about how lucky you are that you have life, and all the opportunity that living provides.

I believe that the definition of a victim is a person that does not understand how life works. For me: life is a series of changes and events mostly beyond my control. We all need to embrace these changes or events as they have been placed in our lives to help us grow and develop into the person we were meant to be. We have a choice whether we want to live or we want to exist, and the choice of thinking that we can control everything in our life will only lead to unhappiness, we need to embrace life’s uncertainty.

To conclude a question; do you want to be a victim or do you want to be a victor in life?