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I just finished a feature for News Channel 8’s Bloom Series with Gayle Guyardo on ways to think more positive and counteract negative thinking. We all encounter negative thoughts and the daily self-talk we frequently engage in directly impacts the quality of our lives. With the proper skill set in place, you can change your thoughts and change your life! Our brains act like velcro for negative thoughts. Research has shown that our brains have the tendency to focus more on the negative things in our lives versus the positive ones. This is called negativity bias.
Imagine that you have a presentation that requires your team of four to share feedback with you on your performance. Three of those people compliment your presentation and one person criticizes your presentation. Which will you remember at the end of the day? If you are like most people, your mind will gravitate to the one person who criticized your presentation and that is due to negativity bias. Typically, when this happens many people tend to “get stuck” in the negative. If we continue to do this, negativity bias can have long term impact on our lives, in-cluding being less happy or more pessimistic and even further stressed. It may also lead to de-pression and anxiety. Negative experiences actually register in our brain immediately, as it helps us survive daily. Interestingly, we also possess the capacity to rewire the brain to appreciate and absorb more of the “positive” moments in our life and not ruminate endlessly on the “negative” moments. We can reshape the brain’s neural pathways to savor the “good” moments in our life by storing them in our emotional memory. Furthermore, we can transform and implant those moments for retrieval to become stronger and happier.
One of my favorite strategies to challenge our negativity bias is by neuropsychologist, Dr. Rick Hanson, and it’s called “Taking in the Good”. When you’re taking in the good, it’s important to acknowledge the emotional aspects of your positive experiences. There are three easy steps and the more you practice it, the more routine it can become for you:
Step 1: Deliberately seek out good experiences throughout the day.
Pay attention to the positive experiences, however large or small, you encounter in your world. This can include the smell of coffee, noticing a flower’s fragrance, watching a sunset, catching the front parking spot, or even just having a pleasurable exchange with someone in your path during the day. By simply savoring a positive experience, this helps activate the brain by culti-vating an awareness to the good in your life. There are opportunities to do this throughout the day.
Step 2: Enrich the experience.
In order to do this, sit with the experience for a minimum of 5 seconds, ideally 10-20 seconds. Try to to be aware of the details—the way you felt, the time of day, or other ancillary elements of the moment. Notice the details.
Step 3: Absorb the experience.
Use awareness to come from a place of appreciation for the experience. Allow it to really sink in and dwell in the situation.
The benefits of “taking in the good” is an investment in your own mental health. Through awareness and repetition, you will gradually notice a shift toward a more positive view that will leave you more optimistic, more resilient, and more confident. You’ll garnish an appreciation of the world around you, too. So today, begin to notice the good experiences going on in your life. If you would like to “change your brain” contact our counselors at McNulty Counseling and Well-ness. We now have three locations (St. Petersburg, Tampa and Sarasota) to serve you!
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