Hey, what's up, I'm Michelle B and in this video I'm going to talk about some ways that you can
train/hack your mind to be generally more positive.
The human brain is trained to pay more attention to the negative to remember the negative more and
disregard the positive a little bit more easily than the negative.
Think about it like you go to Domino's. Fun fact: Domino's Garlic bread is vegan friendly
- and the server is like super rude, but you also got served by three other people in that same day
and they were all super positive but the one that you remember the most and
the one that impacts your mood the most is the negative server.
And that's because your mind is wired to remember the negative more easily.
Basically when something negative happens, not necessarily catastrophic, just not great,
all of the alarm bells go off in your brain and the experience is very quickly stored in like your long-term memory
But when something really good happens your brain doesn't so easily pick that good thing and go yes,
We're going to keep this forever and remember it from time to time. The negativity bias exists for a reason,
but it doesn't really exist to help protect us from rude dominos servers or a
passive-aggressive comments and your most recent instagram post. It exists to protect us from like
- tigers
- bears
So now that you know what the negativity bias is, let's talk about how you can try to overcome it.
Step one is to hold on to the positive.
When something good happens, take notice of it.
Hold on to that like hit of
appreciation that you get in your body for longer than you would usually.
Keep it there, and don't let it go for a little while.
If someone says something nice or something nice happens say thank you out loud
if it's appropriate and then relive that positive experience in your head again, then say another big
mental like thank you to the universe. If you want to take it a step further start logging your positive moments like: create a little
note in your phone note taking app or you can even email the positive moment to yourself as you're at work usually.
The negativity bias is set up so that you don't remember positive events,
they don't have as big of an impact on you as those alarm bells don't go off,
So as a result you need to like hold on to the positive moments for a little bit longer
so they can be stored in your memory so that you really like savor them.
Step two is to write love notes more often.
If there's something that I appreciate my life it's fricking beautiful people that I am surrounded by
so send random little like I love you messages to your best friend, to your partner...
comment nice things on your friends photos, compliment people before you judge them.
There is actually a page on Facebook, it's called wholesome memes.
It has memes like this, and I tag my friends in them all the time
and it's just like an easy way to know like hey, you're so beautiful
And I appreciate you so much. Being positive and like appreciative on the inside is so great
But letting other people know how appreciative you are for them is so much greater.
You can even take it a step further: write a little love note to your local ?? because of that friendly customer service person.
Comment something lovely on the video of a YouTuber,
I mean ;)
Only joking. The next step is to keep a gratitude journal and it might be frustrating to hear this over and over
Gratitude is like a fad at the moment, but if being positive is something that you struggle with: start a gratitude journal
I'm pretty positive. I made a whole video on the benefits of gratitude journals, or all links are somewhere up here
I find it easiest to just write down what I'm grateful for like after I get home from work just in a little notebook.
You could say what you're grateful for out loud just in your car on the way home when you have nothing better to do
You could talk about what you're grateful for with your partner if that's something that they would be open to.
I haven't suggested that to Luke
I think he would be down for it, but a little bit apprehensive because of like the cheesiness
I found some people and they have like a gratitude buddies or a little gratitude group
And they just like message each other things are grateful for every single day or email it to each other
And I think that's a really nice way to do it because not only do you like
Tell other people you're great for, you get like a big head of appreciation from other people, too
And it makes you like see even more that you can be grateful for.
And my last tip for fighting the negativity bias is to
Bring yourself into the moment more often. This is something I don't do enough,
I don't think anyone does this enough and it's paying attention to what's around you and living in the moment.
When you heighten your awareness of the now, heighten your awareness of what is around you,
It's like gratitude turns on like a switch. It'll happen when you're in like an unusual setting so if you're traveling, that's why traveling is
so good because it's all so new it's like you're paying attention like you are in the now
whereas if you're just doing your normal thing doing your daily routine,
it's kind of hard to get yourself to start focusing inward and to start paying attention to what's around you.
Try and bring yourself into the now by just paying attention to the
Sensations that you're feeling the different noises around you the different activities
Around you I find that especially if I'm in nature and like it the sun is shining that is when the gratitude is that like?
Ultimate high so those are my tips for trying to fight the negativity bias
Trying to maintain a more positive outlook on life as we know the negativity bias is legit
I guarantee you that you guys can think of a million [examples] of the negativity bias playing a part in your [life]
There are possibly other names for it. That's just what I found
I absolutely don't remain positive 100% of the time
I don't want to give off the facade that I do something negative will happen and my lizard brain will 100% dwell on it
But as we know forever trying to fight the lizard [brain] or working with the lizard brain even better if you guys have any other
Little life hacks that you use to stay positive, leave them in the comments down below
That's what we're all here for I appreciate you guys at so much [sending] all the good vibes and love it your way and I
Will see you soon