“Bad Things Are Going To Happen” — A Core Limiting Belief

Common Emotional Triggers:

• Success, stillness, or ease

• Any unknown, unpredictable, or ambiguous situation

• Letting your guard down emotionally

• Positive feedback or connection

• Transitions, departures, or sudden changes

What Therapy Does to Break the Cycle:

This belief isn’t about overthinking — it’s about over-sensing.
Your system isn’t broken. It’s been scanning for danger so long it can’t tell the difference between safety and vulnerability.

At ShiftGrit, we help rewire the reflex that says: “Calm is a trap.”

1. Understand: Trace the early experiences that linked calm with collapse
2. Shift: Map how your body stays activated even when your mind says “it’s fine”
3. Recondition: Retrain your threat system to regulate, not just prepare

👉 Book a session today →

Related Belief Expressions:

• Something bad is going to happen

• I can’t let my guard down

• Calm means danger is coming

• I always have to be ready

• If I stop preparing, I’ll fall apart

• Good things don’t last

• I can’t relax — it’s not safe

• I shouldn’t trust anyone or anything

• The rug is always about to be pulled

• Disaster is just around the corner
  
  

These aren’t just anxious thoughts.
They’re body-level survival patterns — and we can retrain them.

🧩 Belief Progression Loop:

The “Bad Things Are Going To Happen” belief forms in environments where chaos was sudden, safety was rare, or good moments never lasted.

Non-Nurturing Element:
Unpredictable caregiving, trauma exposure, or emotional modelling that associated calm with incoming threat.

Evidence Pile:

• You were blindsided by emotional outbursts or unexpected losses

• Moments of calm were interrupted by threat, trauma, or instability

• You were told to “be ready,” “not get your hopes up,” or “not trust anyone”

• Crisis was the norm — peace felt suspicious

• You felt responsible for managing or anticipating everyone’s stress
  
  

Loop Progression:

• Limiting Belief: Bad Things Are Going To Happen

• Internal Rule: If I relax, I’ll get blindsided

• Protective Conclusion: Stay vigilant, stay ahead, stay small

• Opt-Out Pattern: Overthink, overprepare, avoid calm or vulnerability
  
  

This belief keeps your system in a loop of hypervigilance — not because you’re dramatic, but because you were trained to equate stillness with danger.
Therapy helps reset your internal alarm — so peace doesn’t feel like a trap.

Emotional Regulation: The Key to Rewiring the Loop

You don’t need to think your way out of anxiety.
You need to show your system — over and over — that it’s safe enough to stand down.

Reconditioning turns fear loops into real-time responsiveness, not reactivity.

Related Resources:

• Vulnerability to Harm Schema

• Anxiety Therapy – Calgary

• Anxiety Therapy – Edmonton

• Pattern Reconditioning Overview

Related Content:

• Why Stillness Feels Unsafe — and What to Do About It

• SlideShare: Reconditioning the Urge to Stay On →

Explore the Therapy Path for This Belief

Want to see how this belief shows up in real life — and how we treat it at ShiftGrit?

👉 View the Core Belief page →

Want to Break Free from “Bad Things Are Going To Happen”

You weren’t born anxious.
You were trained to stay alert — because no one else was watching the door.

We help you teach your body what safety actually feels like.

Book a Therapy Session →

Break the Pattern That’s Been Running Your Life

This belief isn’t just a thought — it’s a loop.
At BreakThePattern.ca, we show you how real people are getting out of survival mode and rewiring the system that’s been keeping them stuck.
If you’re ready to stop coping and start changing — that’s where to go next.

👉 Visit BreakThePattern.ca →