Let’s talk about why your mind keeps cycling going back to the negative.
I get questions about this a lot. My usual response focuses on the emotional heart and re-patterning the old limiting beliefs to establish a newfound ownership for your truth.
Here is a link to a video and blog post about how that works.
But, today we are going to talk about it from the perspective of the mind and what is actually biologically happening to your brain in those moments. This pull that your brain has to focus on what’s wrong or the negative is called Negative Bias.
Your brain is always on the look out for the negative because it is trying to keep you safe. It is a leftover biological response from our primal existence. Your brain is always scanning to see what’s wrong so that you can fight it, take flight to get out of the way, or freeze so that you can’t be detected. While all of those tasks can be very helpful, you don’t want that amygdala part your brain to run on autopilot keeping you in a pattern of survival.
You want to be able to experience more of your life from your prefrontal cortex, allowing you to create from a place of higher-level thinking. This gifts you the opportunity to feel really good in your life and creates a pattern of thriving.
So here is the thing you have to keep in mind; your brain is itself a tool so that your humanity and divinity to create the life before you. You run it, it does not run you. You ultimately have control over it and the power to use it as the tool it was designed to be in your life. You have the power to choose your thoughts and the direction at which you focus those thoughts. You also have the power to witness your thoughts and adjust if you don’t happen to like where they are going.
Now I know that if your brain has been running unchecked from that place of survival, that statement will not sound true. Believe me I get it, because I was once in that deep place of survival. I very much lived my life from a place where my amygdala was running on autopilot, and I know how desolate that place can feel. Having your brain drive your life from that place of survival affects you emotionally and physically too.
That’s why I want to take the time today to remind you of this truth and help you build a road map from that negative bias to your executive function, from your amygdala to your prefrontal cortex. You have the power to create a positive bias for yourself.
Taking your brain off of autopilot happens one thought and feeling at a time. Breath, metacognition, a thought or perspective of optimism, gratitude or putting yourself in nature can all help you get there. Each act as a mechanism to quiet the chatter of negative bias and amplify the influence of your executive function.
BREATH:
Activating a conscious pattern of breath slows everything down and quiets that chatter of the amygdala. I practice square breathing where you inhale from your nose for four counts, hold for four counts, exhale through your mouth for four counts and hold for four counts. You will be able to feel the change throughout your whole being. Your muscles will relax, your mind will clear, and for the time that you are breathing in this way you will find yourself in a moment of peace.
METACOGNITION:
This is your ability to have awareness and understanding of your own thoughts. You have the ability to watch yourself, and be a witness to your own thinking and the world around you. This is a powerful vantage point when shifting from amygdala to prefrontal cortex, because it allows you stop in the moment of reaction and pull up to an oversight of the whole situation and take a beat and just witness before you act. This turns off that auto reaction and allows you to be an active participant in choosing where your mind goes and how it responds.
OPTIMISM:
This is a learned neurological function where your brain focuses on what feels good and what is possible. It’s the ability to see past the present moment and into the next with the positive filter of potentiality. It is as if you are making room for something good to flow right into your experience one neurological pathway at a time. Actively using this filter quiets the negative bias because your focus is on the silver lining. When your attention is focused through optimism you are building a pathway for a positive bias to take hold.
GRATITUDE:
This is the ability to find what is right and good and be thankful for it. Gratitude trains your mind to scan for things that are positive and a value-add to your experience. It can be something small or something profound. As your mind calls attention to it, with an essence of joy and appreciation, your focus on what is working and good in your life allows it all to expand and multiply. A single thought of gratitude is contagious and can create a whole path to a positive way of thinking.
NATURE:
Nature holds so much wonder. It can be on a micro scale like of witnessing an ornate pattern on a flower pedal or butterfly’s wing. Seeing it feels like you are witnessing a phenomenon of sorts. It can also be on a macro scale like taking in the landscape of a mountain range or standing at the ocean’s edge. You find yourself marveling at the vastness of it all. Being present in and with nature has a way of quieting the noise and chatter of the mind. It helps you find that soothing connection of being a small part of a larger picture. This can gift your brain the space it needs to shift into a higher-level place of thinking.
If you don’t want your mind to keep going back to the negative, then it’s time to take the negative bias off autopilot and start to realize you have power over your mind. You have the ability to create a positive bias if you choose to.
Here is a video and blog I did about creating a practice of optimism that you might find useful!
I am here if you need any help along the way. Leave your comment on the video and let me know where you might be getting stuck or if you have any questions.
Remember no matter where your mind might be right now, you are powerful and worthy just as you are.
