Writer: Chantal Karyta:
ABOUT CHANTAL: – I help high-achieving women remove subconscious blocks in business, money & love, so success feels easy & aligned | RTT Practitioner | Mindset & Money Coach | Subconscious Reprogramming
EDUCATION: – Kingston University, London England
Unmasking the Mind’s Fear Factory: How Imagined Stories Shape Your Reality
Have you ever noticed that fear can feel so real, even when nothing has happened yet?
This is because fear doesn’t live in reality…it lives in the stories we create in our minds. The brain is a master storyteller. It can take one small moment and spin it into something much bigger.
“If I put myself out there, people will laugh at me.”
You want to post on LinkedIn, but you hear: What if my old colleagues roll their eyes? What if someone leaves a nasty comment? What if I look like a fraud?
“If I raise my prices, no one will pay me and I’ll lose everything.”
You think about changing your rates, but your mind runs: Clients will think I’m greedy. They’ll find someone cheaper. I’ll end up with no clients at all, and everyone will know I failed.
“If I say the wrong thing, they’ll think I’m stupid.”
You’re in a meeting and the story starts: What if I stumble over my words? What if they ask me something I can’t answer? They’ll realise I don’t belong here.
“If I fail, everyone will know I was never good enough.”
You’ve got an idea you want to launch, but you hear: If it doesn’t work, people will whisper about me. My family will be disappointed. I’ll prove all the doubts right.
What’s powerful is that the body responds to these imagined stories as if they’re real. Your heart races. Your stomach twists. Your muscles tighten.
And science backs this up. A study at the University of Colorado Boulder found that simply imagining a threat activated many of the same brain regions as experiencing the threat in real life – areas like the auditory cortex, nucleus accumbens, and prefrontal cortex. In other words, your nervous system can’t always tell the difference between what’s happening and what you’re picturing in your mind (Wager et al., 2018).
Often these stories began in childhood. If a parent dismissed your ideas, or a teacher mocked you for a wrong answer, your brain learned to predict rejection before it happened. The story became protection.
And if we go further back to our ancestors, imagining danger was what kept us alive. If you assumed the rustle in the bushes was a predator, you lived to see another day. But today, the same instinct keeps us stuck, avoiding opportunities that could actually change our lives.
Your imagination is powerful. It can keep you small… or it can set you free.
Action Point:
Catch one fearful story you’re telling yourself today. Write it down word for word. Then ask: What else could be true?
For example:
“If I raise my prices, I’ll lose all my clients” becomes “If I raise my prices, I’ll attract clients who truly value me.”
“If I fail, people will think I’m not good enough” becomes “If I fail, I’ll gain lessons and resilience that make me unstoppable.”
“If I speak up, I’ll sound stupid” becomes “If I speak up, someone may finally hear exactly what they needed.”
The story you choose shapes the outcome you create.Thank you to Chantal https://www.linkedin.com/in/chantal-karyta-492b5a36/
