The amount of negativity we allow in our minds is what makes the difference between us being optimists or pessimists. Negativity is a poison to the mind which causes a lot of mental strain and makes every problem seem bigger by the minute.
It is something which affects us on every scale possible. It affects whole societies and even when things become better, we are still under the influence of the negativity which made things turbulent in the first place.
Negative thoughts are prevalent in our minds which, driven by our instinct to survive, are built to focus more on the negative. However, all that negativity makes us feel incapable of coping with the situation and contribute to the misery of being.
Social psychologist Alison Ledgerwood has analyzed why our brains tend to gravitate toward the negative more than on the positive and how we can shift that tendency to the positive side.
As she says in her TED talk, “our view of the world has a fundamental tendency to tilt toward the negative.” We seem to get stuck in the negative thoughts that have been caused by a certain event, and we often forget to notice if things are that negative or if they are changing for the better.
This habit is not uncommon. In fact, research has shown that people cannot help but feel more negative when negativity is introduced opposed to feeling happier when positivity is introduced.
Alison concludes: becoming aware of the positive is the first step to feeling happier. We need to train our brains into taking the positive into consideration more than the negative, and we need to learn to be grateful for the blessings we receive every day.
The path to happiness starts in your mind, and the best way to achieve it is by becoming more aware of the positivity that surrounds your reality.
Watch her TED talk below and don’t forget to share!
A professional writer with over a decade of incessant writing skills. Her topics of interest and expertise range from health, nutrition and psychology.
