Training Your Brain to Beat Negativity & Have Success
It is human nature to experience negativity. It’s part of life. The negativity bias can happen to anybody. This can often hardwire us for issues like depression and a lack of motivation. When we begin to believe that more negative things happen to us than positive things, whether that is true or not, it can be extremely discouraging. We start to feel like the entire world is against us, and no matter how hard we try, the cards will always be stacked against us. When you are negative success and positivity seems to be the furthest thing from your mind.
However, the truth is that we undervalue positive experiences and overvalue the negative ones. This can make it very difficult for us to move on and let go of negative events that happen to us. We find ourselves reeling from negative events for days and days often replaying these in our minds, while positive events often become forgotten by the end of the day and we no longer find any value in them or their memory.
Why Our Brains Think Negative
This happens because we train our neural pathways for negativity and not for positivity or success. These are the synapses in our brains that connect and help us to process information and react appropriately to the input that our mind is receiving. For example, if you are treated negatively by somebody for a long period of time. And you become able to predict their behaviour, your neural pathways will fire off the appropriate response to that stimulation. This can be great at the moment, but if our brain is misinterpreting cues that seem close to what we are used to but actually do not have malicious intent, our negativity is actually unwarranted. And yet we can’t seem to help ourselves when it comes to our reactions.
Anybody who goes through this type of conditioning is likely to have certain responses to certain situations that other people wouldn’t have.
Your Brain Can Be Trained for Positivity and Success
Thankfully, the human brain is magnificent and can rewire itself to change the way we interpret sensory input. If we are willing to interrupt our negative thoughts and replace them with positive thoughts. This can actually help us to remap our neural pathways so that we are capable of changing our response to negativity. Ultimately resulting in more positive thoughts, which lead to positive actions that lead to more success in our lives.
Interrupting Your Negative Thoughts
If you find that you are a negative thinker. Or you have a tendency to overvalue negative situations over progress, this can hold you back. Start interrupting your negative thoughts with active attempts to remind yourself that you are making great strides toward success. Stop yourself and find something positive in the situation. This can short circuit negativity. Even if you can’t think of something positive about the situation think of a positive quote, a positive speech, a past positive event in your life.
Think positive
If you still can’t think of anything positive, then take action and go for a walk. I find that taking a brisk walk will interrupt negativity. Every step that you make toward progress is a huge deal. And allowing yourself to feel pride toward your accomplishments is a great way for you to combat your negativity bias. And prime yourself for even more success down the road.
All of us are capable of rewiring our brains, no matter what the situation might be. Use this knowledge to your advantage and start retraining your mind today!
