Negativity Rewires Your Brain
Negativity Rewires Your Brain
January 4, 2021
Negativity is a downward spiral, meaning that the more you focus on problems instead of solutions, the more you eventually start to see the negative side of everything in your life.
While bouts of negative thinking occur on and off, it’s essential to let yourself vent, but then quickly move on to finding solutions.
And it’s worth doing; for one, negativity physically damages your brain. …people who regularly experience chronic stress—especially acute, even traumatic stress—release the hormone cortisol, which erodes, almost like an acid bath, the hippocampus, a part of the brain heavily involved in visual-spatial memory as well as memory for context and setting,” explains Rick Hanson, Ph.D., a psychologist and Senior Fellow of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley (2).
Plus, negative thinking reinforces neuropathways associated with that emotion, eventually making it an automatic reaction (3). The same can be said of any repetitive thought or action.
However, this also allows you to change your brain!
How To Stay Positive
You can train your brain to do almost anything, including shaping your outlook. The more you work hard to find the positivity in every situation, the more it becomes automatic (4).
Eventually, you’ll work hard to see the negative!
Here are a few steps to retrain your brain:
Be grateful: Find something to be thankful for every day. If you keep a journal, write down three things you are thankful for every morning and every night.
If you start to feel anxious or pessimistic, pause a minute and write them down again. If it’s too hard, write down five or even ten new things you’re grateful for. By the end of the exercise, you’ll feel much happier and fulfilled.
Catch yourself: Don’t wait for your friends or family to tell you you’re complaining, pay attention to your thoughts and words.
If you’re complaining, quickly shift your energy to find solutions and lessons to be learned. Afterwards, treat yourself with a nice cup of tea for the effort!
Change your mood: If you feel overwhelmed and negative, remove yourself from whatever you’re doing and shift your state of mind. If you’re home, sit down with your favorite book and cook up a tasty treat. If you’re at work, go to the washroom or break room for a few minutes and listen to your favorite song.
Breathe deeply and close your eyes, paying attention to every word. Hold onto that relaxing feeling and carry it with you throughout the day.
Practice Wise effort: Wise effort is the practice of letting go of anything that doesn’t serve you. If your worry won’t improve your situation or teach you a lesson, let it go and move on.
This is much easier said than done, of course, but if you write it out, ask friends for advice, and take some time to think it through constructively, it really can be done.
If you still feel stuck, here are five other practices worth trying:
Let them – https://a.co/d/4CwcuYF
Stop Overthinking – https://a.co/d/garrnJS
Don’t Believe Everything You Think – https://a.co/d/hVdnDK3
“How Complaining Physically Rewires Your Brain To Be Anxious And Depressed”
https://dailyhealthpost.com/complaining-brain-negativity/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=SocialWarfare&fbclid=IwAR3lK2ocsOuL3t6xGrO4ai0w20vVy6Kb_nYPc38d1eS-oWqzoGDzvaUh4ZQ)
The article said that the three most common types of complainers were these:
Venters: Venters vent… they are people who want to be listened to. They typically look for someone to listen to their complaints, but are quick to shut down solutions, even when it’s good advice.
Sympathy Seekers: These kinds of complainers always want to one-up your misery. They always, always have it worse than you do, and they are quick to find fault in people and in situations.
Chronic Complainers: These kinds of complainers do something researchers call “ruminating” (a cow “ruminates” by chewing its cud, swallowing it, and then bringing it back up to chew it again), which means they obsessively think and complain about a problem. But, instead of feeling relaxed after complaining, they become worried and anxious because of the act of complaining.
These kinds of complainers remind me of a song I once heard long ago on a TV program called “HeeHaw”: Gloom, despair and agony on me. Deep dark depression, excessive misery. If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all. Gloom, despair and agony on me.”
That’s what complainers do: they see life as one long series of events filled with despair and agony… and bad luck. And the article at Daily Health Post goes on to say: BE CAREFUL! Because a complaining spirit is destructive. Negativity physically destroys your brain. People who routinely experience chronic stress—particularly acute, even traumatic stress—release the hormone cortisol, which eats away, almost like an acid bath, at the hippocampus. (As if you didn’t have enough to worry about!)
In addition, Negative thinking reinforces neuropathways associated with that emotion, eventually making it an automatic reaction. In other words, whatever you repetitively do (such as negative thinking) becomes easier to do the more you do it. The paths you allow your mind to travel determine where your mind will naturally go after that.
Neuroscience Reveals: Gratitude Literally Rewires Your Brain to be Happier
by Daily Health Post Editorial October 10, 2020
When you say “thank you”, do you mean it or is it just politeness to which you give little attention? Neuroscientists have found that if you feel it when you say it, you’ll be happier and healthier. The regular practice of expressing gratitude is not a New Age fad; it’s a fundamental aspect of the human condition that yields genuine benefits to those who genuinely mean it.
Psychologists Dr. Robert Emmons of the University of California, Davis, and Dr. Michael McCullough of the University of Miami published a study in 2015 that examined the physical effects of practicing gratitude.
One third of the subjects in the study were asked to keep a daily journal of things that happened during the week for which they were grateful. Another third was asked to write down daily irritations or events that had displeased them. The last third of the group was asked to write down daily situations and events with no emphasis on either positive or negative emotional attachment. At the end of the 10-week study, each group was asked to record their physical and general feelings about life.
The gratitude group reported feeling more optimistic about their lives than the other groups. In addition, the gratitude group was more physically active and reported fewer doctor visits than those who wrote only about their negative experiences. (1)
Better Physical Health
Other research into the physical effects of gratitude reports even more tangible results. Focusing on the positive and feeling grateful can improve your sleep quality and reduce feelings of anxiety and depression. (2) Furthermore, levels of gratitude correlate to better moods and less fatigue and inflammation, reducing the risk of heart failure, even for those who are susceptible. (3)
Gratitude and Your Brain
The reasons why gratitude has such a profound impact on health and well-being begin in the brain. In a neurological experiment conducted by researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles, brain activity was measured using magnetic resonance imaging as subjects were induced to feel gratitude by receiving gifts. The areas of the brain showing increased activity were the anterior cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex—those associated with moral and social cognition, reward, empathy, and value judgment. This led to the conclusion that the emotion of gratitude supports a positive and supportive attitude toward others and a feeling of relief from stressors. (4)
Gratitude activates the hypothalamus as well, with downstream effects on metabolism, stress, and various behaviors. (5) The hypothalamus is located at the base of the brain and regulates hormones responsible for many critical functions, such as body temperature, emotional responses, and survival functions like appetite and sleep. One of the neurochemicals associated with the parts of the brain affected by gratitude is dopamine, a pleasure hormone.
The positive influence of gratitude on mental health continues past a particular event if the emotion is relived:
“…a simple gratitude writing intervention was associated with significantly greater and lasting neural sensitivity to gratitude–subjects who participated in gratitude letter writing showed both behavioral increases in gratitude and significantly greater neural modulation by gratitude in the medial prefrontal cortex three months later.” (6)
In fact, this lasting effect is psychologically protective. In adolescents, feelings of gratitude have shown an inverse correlation with bullying victimization and suicide risk. (7) Gratitude affects brain function on a chemical level and its practice promotes feelings of self-worth and compassion for others.
We can perceive and experience gratitude and its various characteristics across a broad spectrum. (8) Openness and willingness to experience gratitude affect not only the individual but also their interpersonal relationships; a common strain in relationships is caused by repeated negative feedback from one or both partners without offsetting gratitude. (9)
3 Steps to Becoming More Grateful
In times of hardship or stress, it might seem challenging to be grateful. But if you really think about it, we all have something to be grateful for. If you engage in only one prayer, let it be simply a heartfelt “thank you”. Here are three easy ways to put yourself in the mindfulness of gratitude.
- Keep a daily journal of things you are grateful for—list at least three. The best times for writing in your journal are in the morning, as your day begins, or at night before bed.
- Make it a point to tell people in your life what you appreciate about them daily.
- When you look in the mirror, give yourself a moment to think about a quality you like about yourself or something you have recently accomplished.
Through the power of gratitude, you can train your brain to be more optimistic and compassionate, ultimately leading to a sense of well-being. The more you look, the more you can find to be grateful for. This positivity can extend to those around you, creating a virtuous cycle. (10)