What Negative Thoughts Do to Your Brain
Hi! I'm
David Mitchell from
Whitewright. Play along with
me for a moment.
Let’s say that you’re walking through the forest and suddenly a tiger
steps onto the path ahead of you. When this happens, your brain
registers a negative emotion — in this case, fear.
Researchers have long known that negative emotions program your brain
to do a specific action. When that tiger crosses your path, for
example, you run. The rest of the world doesn’t matter. You are focused
entirely on the tiger, the fear it creates, and how you can get away
from it.
In other words, negative emotions narrow your mind and focus your
thoughts. At that same moment, you might have the option to climb a
tree, pick up a leaf, or grab a stick — but your brain ignores all of
those options because they seem irrelevant when a tiger is standing in
front of you.
This is a useful instinct if you’re trying to save life and limb, but
in our modern society we don’t have to worry about stumbling across
tigers in the wilderness. The problem is that your brain is still
programmed to respond to negative emotions in the same way — by shutting
off the outside world and limiting the options you see around you.
For example, when you’re in a fight with someone, your anger and
emotion might
consume you to the point where you can’t think about
anything else. Or, when you are stressed out about everything you have
to get done today, you may find it hard to actual start anything because
you’re paralyzed by how long your to–do list has become. Or, if you
feel bad about not
exercising or not eating healthy, all you think about
is how little willpower you have, hxercisow you’re lazy, and how you don’t
have any motivation.
In each case, your brain closes off from the outside world and
focuses on the negative emotions of fear, anger, and stress — just like
it did with the tiger. Negative emotions prevent your brain from seeing
the other options and choices that surround you. It’s your survival
instinct.
Now, let’s
compare this to what positive emotions do to your brain. This is where Barbara Fredrickson returns to the story.
What Positive Thoughts Do to Your Brain
Fredrickson tested the impact of
positive emotions on the brain by
setting up a little experiment. During this experiment, she divided her
research subjects into 5 groups and showed each group different film
clips.
The first two groups were shown clips that created positive emotions.
Group 1 saw images that created feelings of joy. Group 2 saw images
that created feelings of contentment.
Group 3 was the control group. They saw images that were neutral and produced no significant emotion.
The last two groups were shown clips that created negative emotions.
Group 4 saw images that created feelings of fear. Group 5 saw images
that created feelings of anger.
Afterward, each participant was asked to imagine themselves in a
situation where similar feelings would arise and to write down what they
would do. Each participant was handed a piece of paper with 20 blank
lines that started with the phrase, “I would like to…”
Participants who saw images of fear and anger wrote down the fewest
responses. Meanwhile, the participants who saw images of joy and
contentment, wrote down a significantly higher number of actions that
they would take, even when compared to the neutral group.
In other words, when you are experiencing positive emotions like joy,
contentment, and love, you will see more possibilities in your life.
These findings were among the first that proved that positive emotions
broaden your sense of possibility and open your mind up to more options.
But that was just the beginning. The really interesting impact of positive thinking happens later…
How Positive Thinking Builds Your Skill Set
The benefits of positive emotions don’t stop after a few minutes of
good feelings subside. In fact, the biggest benefit that positive
emotions provide is an enhanced ability to build skills and develop
resources for use later in life.
Let’s consider a real–world example.
A child who runs around outside, swinging on branches and playing
with friends, develops the ability to move athletically (physical
skills), the ability to play with others and communicate with a team
(social skills), and the ability to explore and examine the world around
them (creative skills). In this way, the positive emotions of play and
joy prompt the child to build skills that are useful and valuable in
everyday life.
These skills last much longer than the emotions that initiated them.
Years later, that foundation of athletic movement might develop into a
scholarship as a college athlete or the communication skills may blossom
into a job offer as a business manager. The happiness that promoted the
exploration and creation of new skills has long since ended, but the
skills themselves live on.
Fredrickson refers to this as the “broaden and build” theory because positive emotions
broaden your sense of possibilities and open your mind, which in turn allows you to
build new skills and resources that can provide value in other areas of your life.
As we discussed earlier, negative emotions do the opposite. Why?
Because building skills for future use is irrelevant when there is
immediate threat or danger (like the tiger on the path).
All of this research begs the most important question of all: if
positive thinking is so useful for developing valuable skills and
appreciating the Big Picture of life, how do you actually get yourself
to be positive?
How to Increase Positive Thinking in Your Life
What you can do to increase positive emotions and take advantage of the “broaden and build” theory in your life?
Well, anything that sparks feelings of joy, contentment, and love
will do the trick. You probably know what things work well for you.
Maybe it’s playing the guitar. Maybe it’s spending time with a certain
person. Maybe it’s carving tiny wooden lawn gnomes.
That said, here are three ideas for you to consider…
1. Meditation —
Recent research
by Fredrickson and her colleagues has revealed that people who meditate
daily display more positive emotions that those who do not. As
expected, people who meditated also built valuable long–term skills. For
example, three months after the experiment was over, the people who
meditated daily continued to display increased mindfulness, purpose in
life, social support, and decreased illness symptoms.
Note: If you’re looking for an easy way to start meditation, here is a
10–minute guided meditation that was recently sent to me. Just close your eyes, breathe, and follow along.
2. Writing —
this study, published in the
Journal of Research in Personality,
examined a group of 90 undergraduate students who were split into two
groups. The first group wrote about an intensely positive experience
each day for three consecutive days. The second group wrote about a
control topic.
Three months later, the students who wrote about positive experiences
had better mood levels, fewer visits to the health center, and
experienced fewer illnesses. (This blew me away. Better health after
just three days of writing about positive things!)
Note: I used to be very erratic with my writing, but now I publish a
new article every Monday and Thursday. I’ve written about my writing
process and how you can stick to any goal in a more consistent manner in
the articles
here,
here and
here.
3. Play — schedule time to play into your life. We
schedule meetings, conference calls, weekly events, and other
responsibilities into our daily calendars … why not schedule time to
play?
When was the last time you blocked out an hour on your calendar just
to explore and experiment? When was the last time you intentionally
carved out time to have fun? You can’t tell me that being happy is less
important than your Wednesday meeting, and yet, we act like it is
because we never give it a time and space to live on our calendars.
Give yourself permission to smile and enjoy the benefits of positive
emotion. Schedule time for play and adventure so that you can experience
contentment and joy, and explore and build new skills.
Note: for more ideas on the importance of play,
read this article on how one man cured his anxiety.
Happiness vs. Success (Which Comes First?)
There’s no doubt that happiness is the result of achievement. Winning
a championship, landing a better job, finding someone you love — these
things will bring joy and contentment to your life. But so often, we
wrongly assume that this means happiness always follows success.
How often have you thought,
“If I just get ___, then I’ll be set.”
Or,
“Once I achieve ___, I’ll be satisfied.”
I know I’m guilty of putting off happiness until I achieve some
arbitrary goal. But as Fredrickson’s “broaden and build” theory proves,
happiness is essential to building the skills that allow for success.
In other words,
happiness is both the precursor to success and the result of it.
In fact, researchers have often noticed a compounding effect or an
“upward spiral” that occurs with happy people. They are happy, so they
develop new skills, those skills lead to new success, which results in
more happiness, and the process repeats itself.
Where to Go From Here
Positive thinking isn’t just a soft and fluffy feel–good term. Yes,
it’s great to simply “be happy,” but those moments of happiness are also
critical for opening your mind to explore and build the skills that
become so valuable in other areas of your life.
Finding ways to build happiness and positive emotions into your life —
whether it is through meditation, writing, playing a pickup basketball
game, or anything else — provides more than just a momentary decrease in
stress and a few smiles.
Periods of positive emotion and unhindered exploration are when you
see the possibilities for how your past experiences fit into your future
life, when you begin to develop skills that blossom into useful talents
later on, and when you spark the urge for further exploration and
adventure.
To put it simply: seek joy, play often, and pursue adventure. Your brain will do the rest.
