How to avoid catastrophic thinking
Overcoming the “End of History” Illusion
Here’s a fact of life that no one likes, but we all know to be true: bad shit is going to happen to you and the people you love.
The question is: how do you want to handle it?
Whether you’re in the middle of a crisis right now or just (like me) locked in habitual cycles of catastrophic thinking about potential bad events, cognitive scientist Dr. Maya Shankar offers a foundational shift in perspective to help you break free from anxiety about the future.
Much of our catastrophic thinking stems from what Maya calls the “End of History” Illusion. Namely, we are surprisingly good at acknowledging how much we’ve changed in the past, but when we look at our current selves, we believe that we are the finished product and will never change again.
This is fuel for catastrophic thinking. We look at a potential future disaster and think “I can’t handle that.” By that we really mean the version of myself I recognize today isn’t equipped for this. But Maya points out that your mental map of your current self is generally missing a lot of territory. We judge our future capacity based on the “fairly random set of data points” collected through the experiences we’ve had thus far.
Because we haven’t been pressure-tested in every possible way, there are parts of our current selves that are effectively invisible to us until change unearths these hidden capacities. You don’t just “deal” with the change; you become a person who has unlocked new perspectives, values, and abilities that were previously inaccessible to your imagination.
Most of us waste a huge amount of time and energy bracing for a “personal apocalypse.” But Maya points out the word “apocalypse” actually comes from the Greek apocalypsis, which means revelation.
This isn’t to say you should put “personal disaster” on your vision board, but an antidote to catastrophic thinking is resting in the knowledge that even if the world as you know it gets blown up, something potentially more authentic, useful, and resilient within you can emerge.
In other words, while you can be confident that bad shit will happen, you can also be confident that you can almost certainly handle it.
For more on how to regulate your emotions and mental chatter when bad things happen, listen to the full episode with Dr. Maya Shankar.
Also out today, my episode with Dr. Tara Narula on how a simple mindset shift can reduce the risk of heart disease and improve overall health.
I’m going live with Teacher of the Month Jay Michaelson tomorrow, Feb. 3 at 4:00 p.m. ET, for a guided meditation and Q&A on Zoom, exclusively for paid subscribers. You can find details in the Upcoming Events section of the app and leave your questions for us in the comments. Don’t miss it.
We’ve updated our Teacher of the Month meditation schedule. To help you prioritize your practice as you head into the week, we’re moving to a cadence of one new standalone meditation released every Sunday. We’re kicking things off with a new meditation from Jay Michaelson called “Wordless Metta” — a twist on a classic loving-kindness practice. If you’ve ever felt stuck on the traditional phrases of metta, this one’s for you. If you’re a paid subscriber, you can find it waiting for you in the app right now.
Finally, this February our friends at New York Insight are offering a special month-long online program honoring the legacy of Black dharma teachings—traditions that have long cultivated resilience, wisdom, and community in the face of profound adversity. This offering is open to people of all backgrounds and levels of experience. Learn more and register here.
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What struck me here is the shared language of maps and territory. In my own writing about chronic illness and loss, I’ve found that when the map burns, it isn’t just that we discover hidden capacity—it’s that the very way we navigate changes. The questions shift from “How do I get back?” to “How do I live here now?” That feels like the deeper revelation.
Excellent breakdown of the End of History bias. What really gets me is how we apply this asymetrically - we trust our past growth but freeze our future potential. I caught myself doing this last year when my company restructured and I panicked about adapting, forgetting I'd already navigated three major career shifts before. The apocalypse-as-revelation framing is clutch, totally reframes the whole anxiety spiral.