(#90) A Somatic Approach to Understanding Catastrophic Thinking: Nervous System Healing for Anxiety and Overwhelm

Do you spiral into worst-case scenarios the moment something feels uncertain? 😵‍💫 You're not alone! This is a common cognitive distortion called catastrophic thinking, and it’s tied to anxiety and nervous system dysregulation.

In this empowering solo episode, Rae, somatic coach and breathwork facilitator, guides you through:

🌿 What catastrophic thinking is and how it shows up in your mind and body
🌿 Why this pattern is a nervous system response rooted in protection, not personal failure
🌿 How to spot when you’re spiraling and how to gently interrupt the fear loop
🌿 Somatic tools to shift from anxiety to grounded presence
🌿 How self-compassion widens your window of tolerance and builds inner resilience
🌿 A mindset reframe: Best case, worst case, most likely outcome

You'll also learn how to pair mindset work with body-based healing to regulate in real-time.

This episode is perfect for you if you’re an anxious overthinker, a recovering perfectionist, or simply ready to stop letting fear call the shots. Tune in to reclaim calm, access inner safety, and meet your anxious thoughts with compassion instead of panic.

🎁 Free resource mentioned in the episode: Sign up for the Somatic Healing Newsletter to receive Breathe Easy, a free resource library of trauma-informed breathwork and nervous system tools.

💌 Like what you heard? Share this episode with a friend or leave a review to help the podcast grow!

WORK W. ME
Somatic Breathwork Experiences
Events
Return to Soul Retreat

CONNECT
The Monthly Newsletter
DM on IG
Website
Subscribe & Review Apple Podcasts
Follow & Rate Spotify

Disclaimer: Please remember that the information shared on this podcast is intended to inspire, educate, and support you on your personal journey. It does not substitute for professional mental health advice. I am not a psychologist or medical professional. If you are experiencing distress, mental health challenges, or medical conditions, please seek help from a qualified professional.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Catastrophic Thinking
• 1:40 How Catastrophic Thinking Manifests Daily
• 3:13 Catastrophic Thinking and Nervous System
• 5:05 Body Sensations During Catastrophic Thinking
• 7:21 Tools for Breaking Thought Loops
• 9:25 Widening Your Window of Tolerance

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome back to the podcast. If you are new here, I'm Rae, I'm a somatic coach and breathwork facilitator, and if you aren't new here, welcome back. I'm so glad that you are tuning in to today's episode. So for today's episode, I would love to dive into what is called a cognitive distortion, and so we all experience many of these, and it's basically another form of like a thought pattern that doesn't serve us, and so the one that I want to dive into today is called catastrophic thinking, and I think that this is really helpful for just talking more about, and it's really helpful for anxiety, and I'm going to tie it into this theme of, you know, nervous system regulation and working with the body, and I always find it helpful to kind of take these challenges that we typically see talked about from a thought perspective and see how we can also talk about them from a body perspective. So that is what we're going to be diving into today and, yeah, I hope that you find it supportive and I hope you enjoy. So, catastrophic thinking is one form of a cognitive distortion, and there are so many of them, but this is when we can see ourselves really jumping to the worst case scenario, like immediately something happens and we are like it is a catastrophe. That's how we got to catastrophic thinking. So it's really jumping to the worst case scenario and it's when we are assuming that the worst possible outcome is happening. And so it is a fear-based thought and typically it's related to a past trauma or a chronic state of stress or anxiety or overwhelm. And this can come out in a few different ways in our day-to-day life. So, you know, maybe we send an email or a text message or we submit an application and we're kind of like waiting to hear back from something that you know sometimes it just takes time to get a response and so automatically we go into like oh well, you know they're not responding to me because of this reason. Or you know, I didn't hear back from that application because you know I definitely didn't get it. And so we go into this like very quickly, this worst case scenario thought.

Speaker 1: 2:36

And sometimes it can also happen if you know, generally speaking, we're just having a bad day. Like you know, things are going really well, but all of a sudden we might have this you just having a bad day, things are going really well, but all of a sudden we might have this bad day. And then we start thinking that everything is falling apart and everything is bad. When, if we kind of take a step back and we look at the big picture, it's like, oh no, we're actually, we're just having a bad day. So sometimes we can do these, we can fall into these patterns, these thought patterns that don't always serve us, and catastrophic thinking is definitely one example of that happening.

Speaker 1: 3:13

So this thought pattern, this form of thinking, it's definitely, you know, a symptom of anxiety and it is a form of being dysregulated in the nervous system, being dysregulated in the body. So if you listen to last week's podcast episode, this is what would fall into the hyper arousal state or the fight-or-flight state, and so this is when the nervous system is in the state of scanning for danger. It's waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting for something to go wrong, and it's waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting for something to go wrong, and it's struggling to access, you know, different perspectives. So I mentioned a few moments ago, like taking a step back and zooming out. It's struggling to have that ability to see the big picture and it's amplifying everything that it is seeing to be perceived as a threat. So everything that is in its point of view. It is like, oh, oh well, this is horrible. This is, you know, again, worst case scenario thinking it's the worst day ever, everything's falling apart. Well, what if this, what if this, what if that?

Speaker 1: 4:15

So it's this thought pattern that comes from the nervous system being in a hyper arousal, fight or flight state, and this way of thinking is, you know, super uncomfortable, definitely doesn't feel good, it can really get our anxiety pretty high, it can make us feel uncomfortable and ultimately, this, this response, it is trying to protect you from something. It's trying to protect you from getting hurt again, or it could be really anything. It's trying to find safety, it's trying to protect itself because it feels like maybe it's unlovable or, you know, it could be anything. But ultimately, the thought pattern is trying to protect you from getting hurt and it ends up showing itself in the body as well, so it can come up in the body. As you know, your heart is racing, maybe you're having racing thoughts, maybe you're feeling, you know, tightness in the chest or your stomach hurts or your jaw is really tight mouth, maybe there is a sense of restlessness and maybe your breathing is like super shallow and you feel like, you know you can't catch your breath or you can't even take, like, a deep breath, and so the next time you find yourself in one of these thought patterns that really isn't serving you, it's an opportunity to ask yourself, like, what does this feel like in the body?

Speaker 1: 5:37

How am I experiencing this in my whole experience, including the experience of the body, and what this is going to allow you to do is that so often with anxiety or with these thought frames that don't feel good, we want to push away the fear, we want to push away the anxiety, and when we have that moment of pause, to say like, okay, the anxiety. And when we have that moment of pause, to say like, okay, well, what else is here for me? Like I'm not having the most positive mindset right now. How might this be showing up for me and my body as well? It's allowing you the time and space to also meet yourself exactly where you're at. So it's giving you the option, the opportunity, to say like, okay, this is what's up, nothing needs to change or be different right now, but I'm going to see what else I can learn about this situation, about what might be coming up for me here and what that is going to allow you to do that pause and that shift is it's going to bring in more of that flexible thinking. It's going to bring in more of that spaciousness and that creativity of like. Okay, this is what's coming up for me right now. Here are some things that I could do, or here are some things that some ways that I could meet myself more compassionately and some of my you know tools that I would suggest for in these moments breath, work, grounding, getting into the body through movement, using things that will help you uh, you know, work with the body or bring you more into your body in terms of like textures, so something like a weighted blanket or a warm cup of tea, something that are something that's activating your senses in some way and interrupting the thought or the fear loop.

Speaker 1: 7:20

So oftentimes, with catastrophic thinking, we're thinking worst case scenario. I always love to suggest in this form of thinking can you think of the worst case scenario? Can you think of the best case scenario? Can you think of the most likely outcome? So, again, it's not like we're pushing these thoughts away. We're not making them bad or wrong, we're not pushing away the sensations in the body or running away from them, but we're using our tools to ultimately build safety in the body and safety in the mind, to feel like we can understand and move through and metabolize the fear or the thought or the anxiety and I mentioned this a little bit earlier.

Speaker 1: 8:01

But we really want to meet the catastrophic thinking with self-compassion. So, knowing that your mind and your body are trying to protect you and you don't have to believe every anxious thought, you don't have to believe every anxious thought, you don't have to believe every catastrophic thought, every worst case scenario, and you can start to invite language into your experience of I'm safe in this moment, what's another possible outcome, what's the best possible outcome, what's the most likely possible outcome? So we're welcoming in more of that flexibility into the thoughts and into the mind. And every time that you use these tools, you catch yourself in a loop and you have the ability to pause and meet yourself with that self-compassion and with that safety. Those are the moments where you are widening your window of tolerance.

Speaker 1: 8:50

So, building off of last week's episode with the window of tolerance, when you give yourself that little bit of spaciousness to really meet yourself in your experience, you are increasing your capacity, you are widening your window of tolerance, you're practicing your tools and if you are tuning into a podcast like this, that is something that is really, really going to support you reaching your goals, creating your vision, moving forward, really working through challenges in a way that don't feel so, yeah, isolating and alone.

Speaker 1: 9:23

Like using these tools will absolutely support you in improving your mindset and connecting with the mind and the body and making it a place that feels really good and really safe and something where you feel like you can handle anything that comes your way. So if you are experiencing something you know challenging like anxious thinking, catastrophic thinking, worst case scenario thinking what it really means is that you can learn to support yourself in a whole new way and you can widen your window of tolerance and you can create new patterns and new ways of being, and you are in the exact right place to do that and you are already on the path and doing the thing. So that's what we have for today's episode and I hope that you enjoyed today's episode. Thank you so much for tuning into the podcast each week.

Speaker 1: 10:17

I really enjoy recording these episodes for you and if you want a free resource so you can build on all these tools and practices that we talk about in each episode. You can check out the show notes for a resource. It's called Breathe Easy and you receive it automatically when you sign up for the somatic healing newsletter. So definitely check that out. And, yeah, I hope that you have an incredible rest of your week. I hope that you have an incredible rest of your day and I will talk to you soon.