In Search of Positives

I am still amazing how easily we can find negatives: negative situations and negative thoughts. They are always right there for us to see, feel, small, taste and touch. Each and everyday we are confronted with negative stuff in our lives and the lives of other through the media and there seems to be so much of it. Yeah? Why our we so hardwired toward negativity? This is due to the brain’s negativity bias: Your brain is simply built with a greater sensitivity to unpleasant news.

Our capacity to weigh negative input so heavily most likely evolved for a good reason—to keep us out of harm’s way. From the dawn of human history, our very survival depended on our skill at dodging danger. The brain developed systems that would make it unavoidable for us not to notice danger and thus, hopefully, respond to it. People are more likely to choose things based on their need to avoid negative experiences, rather than their desire to get positive experiences..All well and good. Having the built-in brain apparatus supersensitive to negativity means that the same bad-news bias also is at work in every sphere of our lives at all times.

In our brains, there are two different systems for negative and positive stimuli. The amygdala uses approximately two thirds of its neurons to detect negative experiences, and once the brain starts looking for bad news, it is stored into long-term memory quickly. Positive experiences have to be held in our awareness for more than 12 seconds in order for the transfer from short-term to long-term memory.

A recent study by Jason Moser and his colleagues at Michigan State University, and published in The Journal of Abnormal Psychology have found brain markers that distinguish negative thinkers from positive thinkers. Their research suggests that there are in fact positive and negative people in the world. In their experiments they found people who tend to worry showed a paradoxical backfiring effect in their brains when asked to decrease their negative emotions, which Moser said, “suggests they have a really hard time putting a positive spin on difficult situations and actually make their negative emotions worse even when they are asked to think positively.”

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentimihalyi contends that unless we are occupied with other thoughts, worrying is the brain’s default position. This is why, he says, “we must constantly strive to escape such ‘psychic entropy’ by learning to control our consciousness and direct our attention to activities which provide ‘flow’ activities which give positive feedback and strengthen our sense of purpose and achievement.” His views echoes those of Martin Seligman and Rick Hanson who both make the point that while negative emotion always has the ability to “trump” positive emotion, we have to learn how to keep negative emotion in check by amplifying positive emotions (published by Ray Williams on Jun 30, 2014 in Wired for Success).

The point is, you can become more positive but it takes work. So many of the ways I’ve talked about being more positive were supported by Ray Williams:

• Don’t tell people who seem to be inclined to be negative to think positively, as that may actually make it worse for them. Slowly help them move the needle.
• Be conscious of the viral effect of negative people and how they can infect positive people, and take actions to minimize their effect.
• Be mindful of triggers that can stimulate negativity by reflecting on whether the negative situation has been exaggerated or blown out of proportion, and how it can be calmly managed.
• Avoiding over-analyzing or ruminating on past negative events; rather focus on what can be done in the present in a proactive manner. Just press play.
• Focus on the small wins and progress on a daily basis, and take time to celebrate those, rather than waiting before celebrating (published by Ray Williams on Jun 30, 2014 in Wired for Success).
• Every situation has a positive and a negative. Look for the positive.
• Something may seem negative because of the story you are telling yourself. Is the story accurate?

Remember that it takes 5-10 positive events to counterbalance one negative event.Start writing them down!

And take advantage of my free download: Small tweaks in language make a huge difference.

Happy searching!

Dr. Michelle

Photo cred: en.wikipedia.org