Flip the What-If Switch
Sep 30, 2025 06:45AM ● By Deb Beroset
You know that 2 a.m. mind movie: What if I blow the presentation? What if this ache is Something Terrible? What if I’m too late to change? Your brain, trying to keep you safe, runs worst-case trailers on repeat. That ancient survival wiring is efficient—but it isn’t your destiny. With a little imaginal intelligence (your inner capacity to envision and rehearse a truer future), you can aim the same neural machinery toward possibility. Same “what if,” different direction.
Neuroscientists describe the brain as constantly predicting what will happen next. Scan the past, forecast the future, prepare the body. Because survival once depended on spotting threats, our prediction engine leans negative. That “negativity bias” is why 10 compliments vanish but one offhand comment lingers. None of this means you’re broken—it means your hardware is doing its default job.
Here’s the liberating part: prediction is trainable. What you repeatedly imagine—especially with emotion and sensory detail—teaches your nervous system what to expect. That’s neuroplasticity in plain language. Rehearse catastrophe, your body braces. Rehearse growth, connection and courage, and your system begins to orient toward them.
Imaginal intelligence is the grown-up cousin of imagination. It’s purposeful. It asks: What if I let myself picture a future aligned with who I’m becoming—and practiced feeling at home there? When you engage this faculty, you’re not ignoring reality. You’re shaping it at the level of attention, meaning and micro-action. You’re becoming the author of your “what if,” not the audience held hostage by it.
Future-You Flash (3 minutes):
1. Ground. Sit comfortably. Inhale for four, exhale for six, three rounds. Feel your seat, your feet.
2. Set the scene. Close your eyes and choose one specific “what if” you want to reroute (the conversation, the creative leap, the appointment, the first class, the date).
3. See and feel. Imagine it going better than expected—not perfect, simply better. Notice three sensory details (the light on the table, the sound of your own steady voice, the warmth in your chest).
4. Name a quality. What quality are you expressing in this scene—clarity, play, steadiness, boldness? Whisper it.
5. Do one tiny action. Open your eyes and write one visible action you can take in the next 24 hours that matches that future. Do it.
That’s it. You’ve fed your prediction engine a new template and paired it with evidence. Repeat daily for a week and watch how your inner narrator softens.
Expect the safety voice: Nice try, but you’re not ready. Thank it—seriously. “Thanks, Protector. You’re keeping an eye on me.” Then return to the practice. This isn’t toxic positivity; it’s training.
If your body is revved, start with a 60-second nervous-system reset: hum on an exhale, look around the room and name five colors, or put a cool glass against your cheek. A calm body equals online creativity.
• Prime the day: Before you reach for your phone, ask, What if today contains one small surprise in my favor? Notice what unfolds.
• Place a cue: A sticky note where your worry usually spikes—“Flip the switch.”
• Collect evidence: Keep an Evidence of Better list in your notes app. Three bullet points a day. It trains your reticular activating system (the brain’s filter) to spot what aligns with your intention.
• Pair it: Tie the Future-You Flash to something you already do—coffee brewing, walk to the mailbox, car in park before you head inside.
For seven days, pick one arena—health, creativity, love, work or home. Each morning, run a 60-second version of the Future-You Flash for that arena. Each evening, log three pieces of evidence that your “what if” gained traction (you noticed a resource, you chose a kinder thought, you sent the email, you paused before reacting). At the end of the week, celebrate one shift you can feel, even if only by a few degrees. Sustained over time, those few degrees change a life.
If you’re reading this and thinking, But my habits are decades old, good. You’ve also got decades of pattern-recognition, meaning-making, and wisdom that younger you didn’t have. Midlife is prime time for remapping because you know what matters. Pair that clarity with imaginal practice and your nervous system finally has a north star worth following.
Flipping your “what if” isn’t a one-and-done trick; it’s a rhythm. In Soul Care Masterclass, participants spend five weeks building that rhythm into real life. The program creates gentle white space for the mind to connect dots, teaches somatic resets so the creative brain can turn back on, and practices imaginal tools that help Future-You stop being a concept and start becoming a daily companion. There’s structure, coaching and a community of brave, generous women who make change feel not just possible, but inevitable.'
If this piece sparked something, consider it your invitation. Bring your current “what if”—the tender one you only whisper at night. Soul Care Masterclass will give it a home, a language and a path. You haven’t run out of time; you’ve run into it. Train your brain to expect what you’re here to create—and then take the next small, bodacious step.
Deb Beroset, CNTC, is the founder of It’s Time For Moxie and a certified neurotransformational coach who tea-ches imaginal intelligence and guides creative, soulful women into their next luminous chapter. She leads the five-week Soul Care Masterclass; learn more at ItsTimeForMoxie.com. See ad, page 25.
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