How to Free Yourself from the Negativity Trap

Does your mind get stuck and you feel depressed when something negative happens to you?

Are you a “glass-half-empty” type of person?

Does “misery” really love “company”?  (The answer to this is YES.)

I just listened to a TED talk by Alison Ledgerwood on how our minds tend to view the negative—longer than we view the positive.

So, let’s do a little test:   Please answer these two questions

• What were 3 low points in your day yesterday?
• What were 3 good things that happened to you yesterday?

Based on experiments and focus groups, you can probably name the negative things right away, whereas it will take you longer to remember the positive things.

And yes, you can program your mind to think of the positive things FIRST.

• Write down the positive events/grateful things you experienced each day.
• Try to train your mind to look at the bright side of something negative that happened to you.
• Instead of complaining how awful your day was, share the good things that happened instead.

If you have those negative people around you, don’t get caught in the negativity trap – bring up something that is positive instead.