be aware of your

negativity bias

Did you know humans are prone to negativity? This is because bad experiences tend to have a stronger impact on our brains.¹ Rarely are we aware of how great it is to have a functioning body, but the moment we get a headache, all we can focus on is the pain. If we lose $10, the potency of feeling is much stronger than gaining $10, and if we experience a negative first impression, that feeling tends to stick for a long time.² This is what psychologists refer to as the negativity bias. Being aware of our negativity bias will enable us to better understand whether a situation truly is as bad as we think it is, or if we’re simply giving it more weight than it deserves.

self-fulfill your

prophecy

As French philosopher René Descartes once said, “I think, therefore I am”. In a famous study called “Pygmalion in the classroom”, teachers were told which students had unusual potential for intelligence and which students would be average based on their Harvard Test of Inflected Acquisition results. Even though these attributes were assigned randomly, the teachers gave more attention to the students “with potential” resulting in self-fulfilling prophecies. The group "with potential" saw significant improvements in IQ compared to the “average” students because not only did the teachers act on their beliefs, the students also internalized what was expected of them.³ Be selective of whose opinions you take seriously, and remember, your thought patterns have the power to change your behavior.

express gratitude

Psychologists from the University of California and the University of Miami conducted a study where they asked one group to write about what they were grateful for, the second group to write about daily annoyances, and the third to write about events that affected them (without focusing on either positive or negative aspects). The results showed those who had expressed gratitude had improved well-being, exercised more and visited the physicians less than those who journaled irritations.⁴ By writing down grateful thoughts, our memories of the good moments in life will serve as proof that there’s always something to look forward to.