Fully embracing positive experiences, expressing gratitude, and practicing self-appreciation are key strategies to rewiring your brain for positivity.
The Negativity Bias Defined1
Humans tend to be impacted by negative experiences more than positive ones. For that reason, we attend to, learn from, and use negative information far more than positive information. Additionally, we react far more rapidly to negative events than we do to positive ones. Among many, here are some example of how we exhibit the negativity bias:
- Recall unpleasant conversations more than pleasant ones.
- Overthink negative situations more than positive ones.
- When judging, focus on the negative more than the positive.
- Recall insults more than compliments.
Why do we have this Negativity Bias?1
Thousands of years ago, recalling and learning from negative information is what ensured our survival. Responding quickly, and fiercely to a negative stimulus was essential. Today, the negativity bias still plays a positive role in our lives, such as helping infants (who have little learned information) avoid harmful situation. However, our society has evolved and the negativity bias is not something we need to survive anymore. As a result, the thoughts and events we ruminate upon and recall tend to bring us more emotional harm, than a way to survive nowadays.
Rewiring your Brain for Happiness
Thankfully, what we practice gets stronger, and this applies to our brains as well! This is neuroplasticity! Our brain has specific neural pathways it often uses when thinking: Habits. For example, you may have a habit of entering your house and automatically talking about all the negative events that happened in your day. You can change that habit!
Every time you get home, talk about the positive events that happened in your day. Slowly but surely, your brain will create a new pathway in which you think positively when you get home. Consequently, the more you practice going down the positive pathway, the more it will become a habit. Sooner or later, you won’t need to make conscious effort to think positively, it will be an automatic response when walking through your door.
Strategies to Rewire the Brain
Here are some research-based strategies you can use to start rewiring your brain to think with the positive pathway.
1. Fully Embrace Positive Experiences2
When seeing beautiful things, how many times do we stop and really absorb the beauty? We are constantly on the go and often forget to stop and enjoy. Savoring the multisensorial experience of positive emotions and situations will help us remember them better.
We often have positive memories from our youth, from trips, from “first times”. However, we don’t often associate our everyday life with a positive memory. What if we did? Rick Hanson suggests that if we savor positive experiences for more than 10 seconds, they get transferred from our short-term memory to our long-term memory.
How to?
- Practice mindful eating: Eat slowly, savour the flavours, the smell, the texture, the aftertaste.
- Savour positive moments for 20-30 seconds: Every time you experience something that makes you happy, mentally note the different sensations you are receiving. Take a mental picture of what is going on, and what you are feeling.
- Engage in experiences that you know will bring you positivity.
2. Express Gratitude3,4
Gratitude has been termed as a two-part definition:
(a) an affirmation of goodness or “good things” in one’s life.
(b) the recognition that the sources of this goodness lie at least partially outside of the self.
(Emmons & Stern, 2013, p.846-47)
Feeling grateful signifies that we are other-centered, rather than self-centered. Research suggests that one of the greatest contributors to overall happiness levels is how much gratitude we show. In addition, gratitude has been associated with physical and psychological health, increased happiness, life satisfaction, and much more!
How to?
- Gratitude list: Every morning or night, write 3 things for which you are grateful. Every time you write something you are grateful for, focus your attention on the pleasant sensations derived from that thought for 10 seconds.
- Gratitude letter: Write a letter to someone you are grateful for, call them, and read it to them.
- Negative situation with a twist: Think about a negative situation, and list what you have learned from it. What are you grateful for, within that negative situation? What opportunities did that situation allow for?
3. Practice Self-Appreciation5,6,7
As the term applies, self-appreciation involves being appreciative of yourself. Dr. Neff, a leading expert in self-compassion, argues that the ability to celebrate our qualities in a healthy way lies in the practice of self-compassion.
Self compassion involves: Self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness.
Self kindness: Appreciate compliments from you to you, as you would expect friends to appreciate compliments you give to them. Quietly acknowledge them by writing them down or saying them aloud to yourself on your own time.
Common humanity: Appreciate yourself, not because you are better than someone else, but because everybody has good within them. Appreciate all aspects of the universe that allowed to shape your life. Dr. Neff beautifully quotes:
“You are a wonderful manifestation. The whole universe has come together to make your existence possible.”
Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hahn
Mindfulness: Mindfulness can help you become aware of your qualities, in addition to your negative traits. Mindfulness allows us to become self-acceptant, without judgement. Accepting your authentic self will allow you to be less obsessed about the criticism, and more open to the compliments.
The better we become at controlling our thoughts, the better we become at shifting our attention away from self-criticism.
“Research has shown that 20 to 30 % of the variability in depression, anxiety, and quality of life can be explained by how self-compassionate a person is.”
Dr. Bailey
How to?
- “I am” list: Every morning or night, write “I am…”, followed by 3 statements that show your appreciation towards yourself.
- Write yourself a letter: Write yourself a kind letter in which you truly express what you love about yourself.
- Practice mindfulness: Become focused on the present moment you are living in. Fully embrace the activity you are doing. If you notice thoughts or judgments arise, acknowledge them, and bring your attention back to your activity.
This Post Has 2 Comments
Excellent article, you are right, need to rewire our brain toward positivism. We are flooded by negative news as they “sell” better in a society that has in general a very short span.
Thanks
Denis
Hi Denis, thank you for taking the time to read this article. Definitely, bad news sells better. Learning how to cope with hearing all the bad news is key!
Comments are closed.