We all have it. The negativity bias. It’s the tendency of our brains to put more weight and emotional impact on negative experiences than positive ones. It’s a well-documented psychological concept.
Here are a few practical examples:
- It can take five compliments to overcome one criticism.
- Bad news tends to stick with us longer than good news.
- If you make an embarrassing mistake, it will likely occupy your brain longer than a success will.
Focusing on the negatives can lead to overthinking problems, dwelling on past mistakes, or feeling discouraged even when you’re making progress.
And the more we dwell on the negative the more our brains “hardwire” to think negatively. Negativity literally rewires the brain to think even more negatively. But the good news is we can rewire our brains toward the positive. It takes practice and intentionality, but it’s entirely do-able.
How do you overcome your brain’s tendency to drift to and camp on the negative? Here are a few tips:
- Look for the good things you experience and that you are blessed with.
- When you feel yourself drifting negative, capture those thoughts and challenge them with positives.
- Congratulate yourself even on small wins.
- When something good happens, pause for a few seconds and replay it mentally, allowing yourself to experience the feeling for a while.
- Your brain – like all of our brains – is probably already biased toward the negative, so don’t flood it with more negativity. Be careful of doomscrolling and social media comparisons.
- Surround yourself with positive, healthy relationships as much as possible.
- When you find yourself drifting toward the negative, don’t beat yourself up. Negatives are going to happen. Acknowledge their reality, but balance the scale with the positives you already have in your life.
Rod Robison is an Arizona based mentalist, magician, author, and speaker. More about Rod Robison’s magic and mentalism shows, inspirational seminars, and sales training at www.ArizonaMentalist.com
