Our brain is programmed to perceive dangers and risks more than positive. According to research, around 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts are processed in the human brain every day. However, research also says that 80% of the thoughts that go through our heads are either negative or repeat.
Even if 397 things go well a day, it is often this one thing that did not go perfectly, a mistake that is an embarrassing statement that is particularly noticeable and remember.
In the scientific literature, this distorting power is operated by the negative under several terms: negativity bias, negativity dominance or simply negativity effect. Whatever you want to call it is a general human tendency to be influenced more by negative events and emotions than of positive ones.
Why do we have so many negative thoughts?
This tendency to pay more attention to bad news is probably an evolutionary adaptation to protect ourselves from damage because we have to be able to quickly identify threat signals in order to avoid it. Only, in our reality, nowadays, there is no lion around the corner that wants to attack us.
How do you deal with it?
We can compensate for the tendency of the negativity by concentrating on the positive in order to obtain a more balanced perspective. Due to the disproportionate weight that our brain suggests negative events, this balance does not mean a ratio of 50 to 50. John Gottman and Robert Levenson tried to find out what the "magical relationship" is. And you found it out! The magical relationship is five to one. This means that we have to make sure that we have five times more small, frequent positive experiences than negative to achieve balance.
One more possibility would be: stay busy!
Holding our mind is a great way to combat negative emotions. In addition, we manage to be constantly active and keep our plans going. We remain positive, hopeful and motivated. When we keep our minds, we also have no time to deal with bad feelings such as worries, sadness, loneliness, anger or jealousy. It's like in a tunnel. As long as you go on, you get closer to the light.
