Have you ever been enjoying a relatively good day and then one tiny thing goes wrong and... Boom! Boom and gloom, boom and gloom... If you're naturally 'human', your mind will seize upon the one thing that went wrong and 'worry' at it like a dog trying to get marrow from a bone.

In a book I've had recommended to me but haven't yet read, "Buddha's Brain," by Rick Hanson, he says that our thoughts stick like Velcro to the negative interpretation of events, and work like Teflon when it comes to the positive stuff. Bad thoughts stick. Good thoughts slip away and have no staying power.

Phew! All of a sudden, I don't feel so alone – nor do I feel so weird. After all, it's only human to have what is called a 'negative bias'.

That said, what on earth can we do about it? Is there hope?

Traffic lights!

Red – Amber – Green

Red – stop the sticky negative thinking with a challenge, "Stop! In the name of hope! I know you're the natural way to think but STOP IT!"

Amber – like the golden Sun – shift your attention to something full of light: gratitude. Find three things to be grateful for – especially tiny things. Be as quick as changing traffic lights. (You can have a quick go now: three things you're grateful for.)

Green – break your programming! Go against Nature!! Swim upstream!!! Evolve consciously!!!! To do this, you purposefully and deliberately programme in a Positive Bias. It won't feel natural because it isn't natural, but it is entirely possible – and may just be the greatest achievement of the human race. With the new programming – 'You 2.0' – you intentionally force your focus onto the positive in every situation.

Your first thought becomes, what is positive about this? What can I learn from this? What can I gain from this? How can this serve me?

If you persevere long enough, you will transform your experience of life's events – positive and negative. You will amplify the positive until it sticks like Velcro, and you will coat the negative in Teflon until it slips away from you like the proverbial water off a duck's back. If that doesn't work... hit it with the frying pan!

Quackers, I know, but worth a go!

Lex

A Moodscope member.

[Velcro and Teflon are, of course, Registered Trademarks – used here with respect!]