Imagine you’ve applied for a dream job, and you have now been selected for the second round of interviews. Do you celebrate your progress so far, and start preparing for the new challenge? Or do you immediately start visualising a rejection, agonising over what it will do to your self-esteem? “If I flunk this, I’m a total failure,” you tell yourself.

Or perhaps you’re waiting for a reply to a message to a friend. When you don’t receive an immediate response, you start imagining all the ways you might have offended the person – without even considering the possibility that they are just occupied with some other task.

To read the full article, click here.