The negativity bias, neuroplasticity and how to rewire the anxious brain #LewisPsychology

Negative events actually have a greater impact on your brain than positive ones. Neuro psychologists refer to this as the negativity bias, and it can have a powerful effect on your behaviour, thought processes and emotions. In this video I’m going to discuss the negativity bias, neuroplasticity and how we can rewire the anxious brain.

Thousands of years ago our ancestors were living in caves. They had predators and rival hunter gather tribes so it was important they were alert to danger as it was literally a matter of life or death. It was those who were most attuned to danger that were more likely to survive. From an evolutionary perspective its understood that the tendency to dwell on the negative more than the positive is simply one way the brain tries to keep us safe. Because we inherited the genes that predispose us to give special attention to the negative, our brain still performs this function, even though real dangers to our lives are rare.

The neuropsychologist Dr Rick Hanson famously said that the brain is “like velcro for negative experiences but teflon for positive ones”. According to Dr. Hansen, the amygdala, which is the brains alarm bell uses about two-thirds of its neurons to look for bad news.

The negativity bias can take a toll on your mental health. It can cause you to dwell on negative thoughts and make it difficult to maintain an optimistic outlook on life. Fortunately, Dr Rick Hanson says that we can work to counter the negativity bias and one way of doing that its by taking in the good. This means that when you experience something good, savour it for at least 20–30 seconds and quite literally, let yourself feel good about it. This could be the taste of good food, getting an unexpected compliment or admiring a beautiful sunset. Research have shown, the longer that something is held in awareness and the more emotionally stimulating it is, the more neurons that fire in the brain and the stronger the trace in memory. The brain is the organ that learns, so it is designed to be changed by your experiences. Whatever we repeatedly sense, feel and think, is slowly but surely sculpting neural structure in the brain.This is called “experience-dependent neuroplasticity” For example London taxi drivers have to memorize the spagetthi like city’s streets in an exam called ‘The Knowledge’. Brain scans show that London taxi drivers have thickened neural layers in their hippocampus, the region responsible for visual spatial navigation. Just like building muscles at the gym, these drivers worked a part of their brain and grew thicker denser brain tissue.

This has also been found in meditators. People that mediate on a regular basis have increased grey matter in three key regions: prefrontal areas behind the forehead that control attention; the insula, which we use for tuning into ourselves and others; and the hippocampus.

The brain takes its shape from what the mind rests upon. If you keep resting your mind on negative self talk, problems at work, hurts, and stress, then your brain will be shaped into greater reactivity. On the other hand, if you keep resting your mind on good events, pleasant feelings and physical pleasures then over time your brain will take a different shape, one with strength and resilience hard-wired into it, so learning how to use your mind to shape the wiring of your brain is a profound way to support your mental health. Looking back over the past week or so, where has your mind been mainly resting?

🔵 ABOUT TERESA LEWIS

Teresa Lewis is the founder and Director of Lewis Psychology and a Senior Accredited psychotherapist with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP Snr. Accred). Qualified in 1995, Teresa has been providing counselling and psychotherapy treatment for nearly 30 years. Teresa holds a masters degree in counselling and psychotherapy and is a qualified EMDR Practitioner having completed training accredited with EMDR Europe. Teresa is also a qualified adult educator and an accredited Mindfulness teacher As a recognised expert in her field Teresa is frequently asked to conduct editorial reviews and endorse counselling and psychotherapy books for international publishing houses.

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[suzanneairey]

Good explanation of why focusing on positive/pleasant experiences is more than just 'positive thinking' ..

[bhatkat]

Sad thing being that the news media in particular makes a living servicing our negativity biases, all the horror stories and the hourly body count on the radio. Not advocating we just shut it all down but have some control over it and how we intake this information. One thing that has worked well for me is just putting a timer on the radio that shuts off the 5 minutes of hourly news. Just look at the eternal popularity of dytopian stories and the absence of utopian ones. They would be simply tediously boring to us.

[GoldenDelicious]

Thank you for your very good explanation on this matter ❤

[KarenGray-lv]

I work in the field of addiction and recovery. This is a great simple and understandable video I can use with groups. Thank you

[hensnesthomestead]

Fascinating! You describe this so well. I love it.

[AndyB]

Well done Teresa. Great video, and educational!

[chloe]

I'm wondering after watching your video, if you have a negative memory with someone, then should you focus on the positive memory with them instead? What will that do? Thank you.