What's going right?

The question that thwarts negativity bias

The last few weeks have been tough for a lot of people in a lot of ways. That may seem self-evident, but sometimes even the self-evident bears repeating.

In my own personal case, I’ve been dealing with a partial ceiling collapse caused by a roofing accident on Election Day. I just heard from an elderly friend that his wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s while she was in rehab and they’ve both came down with Covid. Stop any ten people on the street and you’ll ten similar stories.

Of course, anyone who looks at the news will find a whole lot more, about which there’s no need to go into detail.

Photo by Luis Cortés on Unsplash

Here in the US, we’re about to have Thanksgiving. It’s really easy right now to wonder just what the heck we have to be thankful about when it seems the world is falling down around us—for some of us a little more literally than others.

Most of the time, that’s because we forget that the human brain has a well documented negativity bias. Neuropsychologist Rick Hanson calls this effect “velcro for the bad and teflon for the good.” It evolved in us to protect us—dwelling on the good stuff back in those famous prehistoric days wasn’t likely to protect us from an attack by the proverbial sabertooth tiger, while keeping an eye out for trouble dramatically increased our chances of survival.

Unfortunately, these days that negativity bias just makes rough times seem rougher, and fills those pesky social media feeds with enough depressing stuff to make us all wonder why the heck we bother to get out of bed in the morning.

Here’s my Thanksgiving week gift to you, then, which will help get you into a spirit of appreciation: Start asking yourself what’s going right.

My first five, just off the top of my head:

1. The sun came up this morning. (With credit to my 4th grade teacher, who always used to respond this way to our “What if?” questions)

2. It rained here last week for the first time in about three months.

3. We’re halfway through the first cohort of Make Bad Art and I’m just blown away by the folks in the program and how they’re running with what we’ve been doing in class.

4. I get to see The Best Nephews In The Universe this week, and

5. I get to take them to see Moana 2.

I could keep going, but even those first five are a really good start!

I’ll bet the first five things on your own list will make you feel better about what’s going on around you and in the world at large, too. Why not give it a try? It’s a gift to yourself, and the effects will ripple out into the world around you, too.

Photo by Linus Nylund on Unsplash

If you’d like to share, we’d love to read your first five in a comment below!