Negative Visualization
I knew a man who was constantly in fear that his wife would have an affair. He would bug her about where she was going, who she was with, call her constantly to make sure she was where she said she would be … you get the picture. His wife had no intention of having an affair; she loved her husband. After a few years of having "affair-affair-affair" thrown at her, she actually did have an affair. It was an idea which had previously been foreign, but which became normalized by the repetitiveness of her husband's fear. This is not to say that her having an affair was his fault. She could have handled it many other ways.
However, for the husband, his recurring visualization of his most feared scenario gave it more power. The more he imagined his wife's affair, the more real it became to him. He shut down input from his senses that disproved his fear and validated any input that he could twist into corroborating his fear; until he was simply not in touch with the reality of his wife's love for him. He was incarcerated by his own illusion.
I see negative visualization immobilizing people about not getting a job, not having enough money, enough love, enough self esteem, enough >>>>>>. This morning, I was in a meeting that had a group consensus that we couldn't enroll enough participants into the May More To Life Pay It Forward pilot. Fortunately, this group of spiritual warriors knows how to rid themselves of negative visualization, and that's what we did.
When Rebecca was little, I used to have a fear that someone would abduct her. While it never happened, I found out later, that she had nightmares about being taken away where I couldn't find her. My negative visualization, which I never told her, still impacted her.
Visualization is very powerful. Make it work FOR you.