Overcoming our negativity bias

April 19, 2023

Human brains evolved a default setting of worry, apprehensiveness, unease, unsettledness, vigilance, tension, anxiety, negativity, and fear in order to keep safe and aware of predators, threats, risks, and dangers.

From: One way to calm an anxious mind: Notice when you're doing OK (on ideas.ted.com)

By: Rick Hanson (Sep 29, 2020)

(Excerpted from his book The Anxiety First Aid Kit: Quick Tools for Extreme, Uncertain Times)

Human History (Evolution)

To keep our ancestors alive, our brains evolved an ongoing internal trickle of unease. It's the little whisper of worry that keeps you scanning your inner and outer worlds for signs of trouble.
This background of unsettledness and watchfulness is so automatic to most people that we can forget it's there.

Then and Now (Brain Defaults)

While the brain's default setting of apprehensiveness is a great way to keep a monkey aware of predators, it's a crummy way for humans to live.
It wears down our well-being, feeds anxiety and depression and makes us turn away from the things that matter to us. And it's based on a lie.
In effect, that uneasiness in the background is continually whispering in your mental ear: "You're not safe, you're surrounded by threats, you can never afford to lower your guard."

Look Closely (You're OK)

But take a close look at this moment, right now — probably, you are basically all right. No one is attacking you, you are not sick, there is no crisis where you sit.
Things may be far from perfect, but you're OK.

The Present Moment (Right Now)

By "right now", I mean this moment. When our mind goes into the future, we worry and plan. When our mind goes into the past, we resent and regret. Threads of fear are woven into the mental tapestries of past and future.
Look again at this thin slice of time that is the present. In this moment, are you basically OK? Are you breathing? Is your heart beating? Is your mind working?

Always Present (Accessible)

In daily life, it's possible to access this fundamental sense of all-rightness even while you're getting things done. You're not ignoring real threats or issues or pretending that everything is perfect — it's not.

But in the middle of everything, you can usually see that you're actually all right, right now.

Letting Your Guard Down (Unfounded Fears)

The fear that bad things will happen if you let yourself feel OK is unfounded; let this sink in. You do not need to fear feeling alright.

Setbacks and Resets (Ride Out The Storm)

Sometimes, of course, you're really not all right. Maybe something terrible has happened, or your body is very disturbed, or your mind is very upset. Do what you can at these times to ride out the storm.

But as soon as possible, notice that the core of your being is OK, like the quiet place 50 feet underwater, beneath a hurricane howling above the sea.

It's not a veil — it's a fact

Noticing that you're actually all right, right now is not laying a positive attitude over your life like a pretty veil. Instead, you are knowing a simple but profound fact: “In this moment, I am all right.”

You are sensing the truth in your body — deeper than fear — that it is breathing and living and OK. You are recognizing that your mind is functioning fine, no matter how nutty and not-fine the contents swirling through it are.

Practice

Settling into this basic sense of okayness is a powerful way to build well-being and resources in your brain and being, and it's a way of taking a stand for the truth.