Now what happens to our thoughts and emotions when we approach rather than avoid uncertain situations? When we approach the uncertain situation, we can learn that uncertainty is not catastrophic and that it is manageable. This will increase the likelihood that we approach the situation in future and feel more confidence around it. To break the vicious cycle of uncertainty and rumination, we want to engage in alternative behaviours, which in turn, leads to improved emotions and realistic thoughts. See the diagram below for breaking the vicious cycle.
Here, we are applying principles of behavioural activation to help you face - rather than avoid-uncertain situations and to break the cycle of rumination. In other words, rather than ruminating in uncertain situations, these principles will help you activate alternative behaviours to approach the situation and feel more able to cope with uncertainty in the long term. That is, to overcome rumination, you want to pick an alternative ‘approach’ (instead of rumination) to uncertain situations and practice/schedule it with an aim of managing the uncertain situation. This alternative approach should help you reduce rumination, leading to less negative emotions. Now, with this GOAL in mind, let’s learn how to find alternative activities that can help you achieve this goal.
Let’s have a look at Juan’s example.
| Juan keeps thinking/ruminating about how badly his last training session six months ago went and how he felt after, and this makes him feel even more nervous and stressed about his first training session at his new fencing club. These thoughts and feelings make him not want to go to the training session. To help Juan feel less nervous and stressed and go to the training session, his school counsellor suggests to Juan that instead of sitting and thinking about the past and how he felt then, he could engage in an alternative activity, such as watching some interviews with professional fencers, who talk about how they overcome their mistakes and the feeling of losing, so he can remember that everyone has bad training sessions, even professionals but they still go back to training and he can too. Another activity could be joining an online group of fencers, such a Reddit page and discussing his nerves with other people who would understand him and provide some tips to feel less nervous about it – such as practising some drills at home. |
