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Sally M. Winston Quotes

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Famous Sally M. Winston Quotes

“Thoughts do not change probabilities in the real world. While worrying about someone might make you feel like you are doing something to protect them, in reality you are only training your brain to reinforce a cycle of worry.”

“Avoidance makes it impossible to check out your what-if thoughts and imagined catastrophes. It eliminates the possibility of learning that your anticipatory anxiety might be an inaccurate predictor of the upcoming event.”

“We start every new experience as a beginner. Remember that the most expert, most self-assured individual you know started out as a rank beginner. Almost always, beginners feel awkward, anxious, and uncomfortable and yet proceed to make choices along with or in spite of these emotions. And, if you wait to proceed until your awkwardness or anxiety dissolves, you might wait forever!”

“Myth: Thoughts that repeat are important. The importance or meaning of a thought has little to do with how much it repeats. Thoughts tend to repeat if they are resisted or pushed away. Any thought that you attempt to squash is more likely to keep repeating, like Don’t think about that itchy spot, or Stop noticing the piece of food in her teeth.”

“You say to yourself, I can’t back out of this. I will just HAVE to do it. No matter how awful I feel, I’m gonna get through this. This is going to be terrible. Unfortunately, most of the time, this is a formula for ensuring that anticipatory anxiety wins the battle. One of two things will happen. Either, as you get closer to the actual event, your anxiety skyrockets, and you decide to cancel anyway. Or, you do go, but your experience leading up to the event is such an ordeal that, no matter how it goes or how you do, the misery of anticipation becomes vividly embedded in your memory. And your experience of anticipatory anxiety usurps the memory of the actual event, so you feel no better the next time.”