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Why worry worrying is a hard habit to break, especially because we often believe we should worry.

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We might tell ourselves that worrying helps us think of solutions to a problem, prevents us from being

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blindsided by bad news shows we care, can make things turn out well, helps motivate us.

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These beliefs generally are false.

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For example, we cannot avoid potential being by imagining the worst case scenario, which would be

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just as upsetting if it actually happened.

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Blast.

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We feel needless to stress from countless worries that never materialize.

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When we see the futility of worry, we are more likely to redirect our thoughts, thus our predictions.

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This technique sits at the intersection of cognitive and behavioral approaches.

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When you've identified a fear about how a specific situation will turn out, you can design a way to

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see if your forecast was right.

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Lily dealt with a lot of social anxiety at work.

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She was convinced that if she spoke up in a meeting, her colleagues would ignore her ideas and probably

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even criticize them.

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She wrote down these and other expected outcomes before a meeting, and then she took a risk and volunteered

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her thoughts.

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While people seemed a bit surprised when she spoke up and nobody criticized her ideas.

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In fact, her supervisor asked her to lead a support group that would develop her proposal.

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After the meeting completely narrowed down the actual outcome versus her prediction.

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Our core beliefs can distort our memories, thereby reinforcing our beliefs.

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It's important to record when our predictions turn out to be false, to help us encode and remember

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information that's counter to our expectations.

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Testing our predictions is closely tied to exposure.