Your Low-Stress Guide to Leveling-Up Your Bedtime Routine
Are You Burnt Out or Depressed?
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Youre out on a walk.
Until, wait a secondis that a piece of trash?
What is negativity bias?
Negative stimuli can be anything from a political attack ad to a bit of constructive criticism.
Those stimuli attract our attention and cause us to ruminate more than positive messaging or a pile of compliments.
psychologist and author ofThe Abstinence MythandUnhooked
Its not as if you only pay attention to the negative, says psychologist and authorAdi Jaffe, PhD.
Why do we have a negativity bias?
Granted, it serves an evolutionary purpose.
Heres how our response to negative stimuli compares to positive stimuli in our brains, according to Jaffe.
Attuning to something pleasurable releases dopamine, while registering a threat releases the stress response neurotransmitter and hormone norepinephrine.
While a dopamine release can feel good, our body responds more dramatically to norepinephrine.
It triggers the sympathetic nervous system, AKA ourfight-or-flight response.
Unfortunately, the stressful things we face today arent necessarily existential threats.
But our attention still gives more weight to things going wrong than things going right.
psychologist and author ofThe Abstinence MythandUnhooked
How can negativity bias affect our well-being?
Letting our negativity bias run amok can impact our day-to-day lives.
This can affect our relationships by having an ungenerous, jaded perspective about how people relate to each other.
It can also make us fearful about our environment and even prevent us from leaving the house.
In more extreme cases, this can lead to isolation and loneliness.
Even trying to cope with negativity spirals can take a toll on our health.
That is not adaptive, not helping us.
However, doing so consistently over a matter of weeks and months pays off with real change.
Its not that different from going to the gym, Jaffe says.
it’s possible for you to train your brain.
Consider whether you should probably keep getting updates and information from them.
Puppies and babies, here you come!
Harrison suggests asking yourself, Right now, what is going right?
Noticing these moments of goodness can also be called savoring or looking forglimmers.
Start a gratitude practice
Jaffe is a big believer in the power of agratitude journal.
Our daily experience is heavily influenced by our habits, Jaffe says.
It creates a positivity bias to counter your innate negativity bias, Jaffe says.
While repetition is expected, Jaffe says to give a shot to find three different things every day.
That means dont just focus on the big things.
Health and family are great, but what about how comfortable your favorite pair of slippers is?
Talk back to negative self-talk
Negativity bias often means were turning those gloomy glasses on ourselves.
Practice affirmations to tell yourself a different story, says Jaffe.
Moving your body can help send energy to your brain and get some good neurotransmitters flowing.
Figuring that out might take some effort though.
Take stock: Are you seeing your loved ones?
Are negative moods persisting for a long time?
The magnification of all the bad youre noticing might be just that: a distortion of reality.
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