Our brains are wired to survive, they are always searching for problems and how to fix them. Due to something called the reticular activating system, we hardwire what we regularly focus on and as a result, our world is often perceived through a glass-half-empty perspective.
We often fail to notice what’s not-broken and get caught up in not-enough stories: not enough money, time, support, love…
There could be up to 2 000 000 bits of data needing to be processed at any time. Our brain can process only so much at a time, so the Reticular Activating System filter lets only things through that it thinks are important. So how does our brain decide what is important? By what you FOCUS ON MOST!
Attention and intention are the foundations of mindful living.
Instead of catastrophizing, bring your attention to what’s in front of you; notice and wire in what’s not broken.
Ask better questions. By design, our neurology is about asking questions and answering them. Instead of: Why is this happening to me? Try: What can I learn from this? Instead of: Why am I so bad at this? Try How can I get better at this?
Rather than perceiving challenges as threats, mine them for opportunities to learn, to grow and to see things from a more hopeful perspective. This is the birthplace of living life above the resilience baseline and accessing higher cognitive functions of clarity, focus, and creativity instead of being trapped in the survival mode bellow the line.
There is so much that is enough in our lives. We can choose to pay attention and deliberately focus on small wins; moments of joy, connection, and beauty that occur daily.
In his book Peace is every step, Thich Nhat Hanh talks about noticing these small moments:
“The foundation of happiness is mindfulness. The basic condition for being happy is our consciousness of being happy. If we are not aware that we are happy, then we are not really happy. When we have a toothache, we know that not having a toothache is a wonderful thing. But when we do not have a toothache, we are still not happy. Non-toothache is very pleasant. There are so many things that are enjoyable, but when we don’t practice mindfulness, we don’t appreciate them.”
4 steps for creating a more positive outlook:
1. Notice what’s not broken
When you notice your mind ruminating and overthinking, pause and for a few moments, then deliberately re-focus your attention on things that you are grateful right now. You may want to write this down.
2. Wire it in
There is good scientific evidence that we can wire our brains for the better. As we deliberately collect more neutral and positive data rather than fixating on negative thoughts and perceptions, our outlook changes and we become happier, more resilient and agile, and more able to embrace change and work creatively with the challenges that it brings. The key is to become intentional about this – you could try using the pleasant events calendar:
3. Create forward movement.
When our minds ruminate and fixate on problems, it's easy to become overwhelmed. It’s also exhausting. You get stuck in your limbic brain which is governed by fight/flight stress response.
Disrupt this by creating forward movement – this activates your prefrontal cortex. Choose one simple task and train your neural circuitry to complete it. On hard days, this may be something as simple as making your bed first thing – creating order in chaos is about small, consistent wins.
4. Repeat - start small and be consistent
You can find more about this in my previous blog post 1% better