03:23

Catastrophic Thoughts And Safety

by Lynn Fraser

Rated
4.5
Type
guided
Activity
Meditation
Suitable for
Everyone
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2.9k

Take 3 minutes to settle. Let's go directly to our thoughts. It's usually our thoughts that are making us feel unsafe. Right now there is a lot of uncertainty and turmoil in the world. That drives our primitive brain to try and figure it out. If this happens, I'll do this.

ThoughtsCatastrophic ThinkingPrimitive BrainMindfulnessAnxietySafetyTappingThought ObservationNervous System AwarenessPresent MomentFuture AnxietyHypervigilancePsychological Safety

Transcript

And let's go directly to the thoughts.

It's usually our thoughts that are making us feel unsafe.

So right now there's a lot of turmoil and uncertainty in the world.

No matter where you live in the whole planet,

We're being affected by COVID-19,

By climate change,

Economic disruption,

Fear,

Political unrest.

There's a lot of uncertainty,

And our primitive brain doesn't like uncertainty.

And then it goes into a,

Let me try and figure this out.

Let me try and predict all of the things that could go wrong.

And that can be a really tough environment to live in when our brain is hypervigilant for danger and it's desperately seeking to find some certainty in a world where there's very little certainty,

Especially right now.

So let's kind of sit with that for a minute.

What does your brain and your thoughts,

What do they have to do?

What's the connection between your brain and your thoughts and your felt experience of safety in your body?

So we could observe the thoughts as they're rising and falling.

They come in,

Some have a lot of intensity,

Some just kind of drift through in the background.

So what is the content of your thoughts right now in relation to safety?

And what's the energy of your thoughts?

And one thing we can notice about thoughts is that they're usually about the past or the future.

And when there's fear,

We're often really focused on the future,

What's going to happen?

I don't know if this is going to be okay.

And that can have a direct impact on us not feeling safe.

I notice when you follow a thought like that,

And I'm sure we've all had a certain amount of compulsion in our thought stream and a certain amount of catastrophic thinking as well.

Are we watching democracy fall apart?

We're certainly watching polarization.

A lot of things that were a little bit more hidden are becoming really exposed.

Life as we know it has really dramatically changed in the last several months.

Continue to notice your body and your breath.

If you're having a lot of compulsion in your thoughts and it feels like it's really kind of ramping you up,

You could use some tapping or any of the tools we use for thoughts.

Bring your attention away from the thought and just into the sound of the tapping,

The sensation of it on your forehead.

Some of the thoughts that are in our mind are really scary.

And the thing about our mind is our primitive brain especially is that we don't really know that that's not real.

We're using all the experiences we've had in our life to date and then we're projecting into the future.

And with catastrophic worst case scenario thinking,

We can really alarm ourselves.

So it's helpful to see is that part of what's creating this feeling of unsafety and then what could we do?

One of the things we can always do is come back to the reality of our own moment right now.

Right now in this moment,

What's happening in your body?

Are you able to breathe with some ease?

And what's happening in the mind?

What's happening in your thoughts?

Meet your Teacher

Lynn FraserHalifax Canada

4.5 (232)

Recent Reviews

Ulli

April 14, 2025

Thank you for this reminder... to be aware if and if yes, how much of our being unsettled, feeling anxiety etc., is related to real threats and how much of it stems from our evolutionary patterns. This is so helpful. πŸ™

Tatyana

March 25, 2024

Thank you for your explanation about the origin of our catastrophic thoughts and how to deal with them . Makes a lot of sense . Much love and gratitude to you πŸ™β€οΈπŸ•ŠοΈ

Mikayla

May 30, 2022

Great. Really helped me refocus my attention to my body and my breaths. I feel calm.

Jayne

May 13, 2022

Thank you very helpful πŸ™πŸ’œπŸ•Š

Glee

December 16, 2021

Great wisdom. Thanks πŸ™

Dolores

November 23, 2021

This meditation realizes the truth of the situation today and brings us back to now. Would like it to go even more into this and the tapping. Thanks!

Heather

July 8, 2021

Excellent!

Leslie

November 2, 2020

I found this meditation very helpful. The reminder that often fear is based on the future. And we don’t know what the future holds. I felt reassured that it isn’t surprising due to the primitive mind, that I am anxious. Thank you for offering this.

Mimi

October 30, 2020

I would love to hear a longer version of this. I am grateful for your words and your reassuring voice. Much needed these days!

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Β© 2026 Lynn Fraser. All rights reserved. All copyright in this work remains with the original creator. No part of this material may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

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