Isn’t it funny how our minds tend to hold onto negative thoughts so easily? Okay, maybe it’s not funny but it feels like our mind is Velcro - holding tightly to the negative thoughts. And that is completely normal.

Neuroscientists have a name for this habit of the brain: “negativity bias.” It’s an adaptive trait of human psychology that served us well when we were hunting with spears. It helped us avoid our prey from eating us. OUCH! But that was 120,000 years ago.

Today when someone doesn’t respond to your text immediately, or wish you a happy birthday by 9 am on your birthday, it might not feel good but it will not result in a life-threatening situation like being eaten alive. It does however activate a cascade of stress hominids and leaves us fixated on potential threats, unable to see the bigger picture.

Neuroscientist Rick Hanson has a great analogy for this unique quality of the mind. “Your brain is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones.”

Velcro for negative experiences.
Teflon for positive experiences.

When something unpleasant happens, then Velcro seems to hold on to those negative thoughts. We obsess over those daily disappointments. When something good happens, those positive feelings and thoughts slide away like if your mind was made of Teflon. So how can we reverse this hard-wired habit of the mind?

Three little words. Notice - Appreciate - Hold. This simple technique was discovered by Jose Silva in the 1960’s. The last 30 years of Neuroscience research has discovered that “neurons that fire together, wire together”, eloquently coined by neuroscientist Donald Hebb. It tells us that the brain isn’t fixed, instead it’s like Play-Doh, strong enough to resist an occasional push but pliable enough to change in response to repeated effort.

By taking a moment, only 30 seconds is required, to bring our attention to this practice of noticing a negative thought we can create a habit of re-framing our mindset when we notice this downward spiral of negativity.

The practice is easy.

1. Notice your negativity bias.
Take a moment each day, morning, noon or evening, and bring your mind to any negative thought you have had during the day.

2. Appreciate.
Focus your attention on something you can appreciate. It can be about your pet, a friend or something in your direct line of sight. Focus on it.

3. Hold & Rewire.
Once you have that focus of appreciation, stay in this mindset for 15 seconds. Science shows it takes 15 seconds for those firing neurons to encode this positive feeling deep into the fabric of your mind.

This practice of Notice - Appreciate - Hold turns your Teflon positive mind into a Velcro positive mind. It strengthens the connections of the positive aspects of your life in this 15 seconds. The more you practice, the more your brain becomes wired for positive thoughts and thinking.

One of the great things about this is that it is efficient, effective, powerful and portable. All it takes is just 30 seconds [or hold longer for more enhanced effects] and lasts a lifetime. The more often you practice it the deeper the stronger your positive Velcro will become.

The moment you make this shift, everything changes. You will remember your purpose and you will look forward to what’s coming. Your life will be full of renewed optimism.

Try it once a day for a week, and see what happens. Then let me know. My email is better@silvamethod.ca

Wishing you Abundance, Joy and Ease
Stephen Dobos