We are living in times that constantly bombard us with a huge amount of information. A large portion of this information has negative content ranging from worrying reports on climate change, political crises or the declining economy to more regional and specific news stories such as crime or natural disasters.
Have you ever noticed the structure of most news segments? At the end of a tirade of depressing news there is often a little titbit, the birth of a baby giraffe in the local zoo or the charitable efforts of a six-year old to raise funds for cancer research… nearly like a little lifeline to help us cope with all the bad news we have just been exposed to. This onslaught can be quite overwhelming and it’s important that we consciously make time to “take in the good” in order to create some balance.
We mustn’t forget, that even in these uncertain and worrying times of global magnitude, we live on a breathtakingly beautiful planet. We owe it to our Earth to be in awe of all the incredible, amazing, stunning, surprising and inspiring parts of creation and we CAN consciously make a decision that we direct our awareness to all the “good” there is.
The Negativity Bias:
A few years ago I was listening to a talk by Dr. Rick Hanson in which he explained, that the human brain has an inbuilt negativity bias. As he explained it, our brains are like Velcro for the bad and like Teflon for the good information and experiences in our lives. Supposing our day goes really well, we have many positive encounters and experiences but one thing goes wrong, what will we remember about this day in the future? Probably the one thing that “spoilt” it.
The scientific and historical background makes perfect sense:
Our brains have slowly evolved through millions of years, as mentioned in Rick Hanson’s book “Hardwiring Happiness” we share common ancestors with “bats, begonias, and bacteria, that go back at least 35 billion years, to the very first microorganisms.” It’s incredible to think that mammals emerged about 200 Million years ago with the first evidence of primates 60 million years ago. When we think that the Homo Sapiens is just the tender age of 200,000 years old, we can appreciate the incredibly slow evolution of our current version of the brain. Original survival instincts from basic creatures such as insects, mice or jellyfish for example, are building blocks of our modern human nervous system.
Our ancestors thousands of years ago lead lives in unison with Nature and her cycles. Life was simple and slow on one hand, but on the other hand humans had to have very alert survival instincts to ensure the preservation of the species. Some threats such as predatory animals or rivalling tribes required immediate reaction like fighting or fleeing (hence the term “flight or fight response”), or seeking shelter in difficult weather conditions for example. Challenges were immediate, tangible and often foreseeable and the human brain was structured accordingly. The main human instinct is survival to ensure passing on the strongest genes to future generations, and our brains have mechanisms to support this.
Rick Hanson gives the metaphor of “carrots and sticks” to explain these processes: In order to procreate and survive, our brain seeks out the basic pleasurable things, the carrots: shelter, food and sex, while at the same time avoiding the “sticks” that threaten survival: predators, starvation and rivalling human tribes for example. The vital difference between carrots and sticks is, that we’ll be okay if we don’t get a carrot for a day or two. The “stick” situations are much more urgent and require immediate action, otherwise as Rick Hanson puts it: “No more carrots forever!” As a consequence we now have “carrot and stick” or “Teflon and Velcro” brains with an inbuilt negativity bias.
Other examples of the negativity bias include that we:
- Remember insults better than praise.
- Remember traumatic experiences much more than positive ones.
- Tend to dwell more on negative thoughts than positive thoughts.
- React much stronger to negative stimuli.
Also:
- Positive interactions need to outweigh negative ones by at least 3 to1, or higher, in order for a relationship to thrive.
- Loss aversion: Science shows that we will put a lot more effort into avoiding loss rather than gaining something positive.
So is that it? Are we forced to live in the murky waters of the negativity bias forever?
Absolutely not! The part of our brains that is responsible for our overreactions is called the limbic system, and the main components are the amygdala, the hypothalamus and the hippocampus. These three buddies work together in order to “rescue” us from dangerous situations, starting a snowball effect of reactions when we encounter a real or imagined threat:
- The negative stimulus activates the amygdala.
- The amygdala alarms the hypothalamus and sympathetic nervous system.
- The Hypothalamus sends information to release stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol.
- Our bodies start to respond with increased heartbeat, sweating and increased blood flow to the muscles to enable fast running so we can escape the threat.
- The experience and reaction is stored in our memory and over time these “negative” circuits get more and more embedded.
As mentioned before, we can train and rewire our brain, including the rigid circuits and neural connections. Neuropsychologist Donald Hebb coined the famous phrase: ‘Neurons that fire together wire together!’ Through conscious efforts and exercises we can actively help to balance our negativity bias. Every beginning is difficult. Anybody who has ever started a new diet or fitness regime, or stopped smoking for example can vouch for this. It takes some effort to override these firmly ingrained neural pathways, but the more we practice, the easier it gets.
Some helpful examples of “taking in the good” exercises are:
- Starting a gratitude routine
- Naming three beautiful things we can see around us right now
- Smiling
- Remembering a joyful experience
- Savouring a treat
- Consciously becoming aware of Nature around us
When we think about the future of our Planet Earth, we automatically think of disaster. We have heard news about climate collapse, species extinction, plastic pollution and natural disasters so many times, that it has become our default mode. But what about the bird nesting in the tree beside our house, the view of the blue sky, a bumble bee buzzing in a flower? What about all the amazing creatures of stunning beauty, the plants that don’t give up on producing oxygen for our survival, the microorganisms inside ourselves and on every surface there is?
When we go into stress mode we tend to shut down. We owe it to ourselves and our incredible Planet Earth to do our best to change this, to support our own health and wellbeing, but also to honour the natural world with fierce love and appreciation, for all the glorious beauty there is all around us.
Rick Hanson gives the following four steps that are necessary to effectively take in the good, which can be remembered easily with the acronym HEAL:
Have a positive experience.
Enrich it.
Absorb it.
Link positive and negative material.
The initial positive experience is the activator, the next three steps help to integrate it into the brain rather than slipping through the net, with the last step optional but powerful nonetheless. For more detailed information on “Taking in the Good” I highly recommend the aforementioned book: “Hardwiring Happiness” by Rick Hanson.
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