What Happy People Do Every Day To Trick Their Brains Into Being More Positive, According To A Hypnosis Practitioner
While we can all suffer from negativity bias, it's possible to train our brains to focus on the good moments in life instead of the negative.
Ground Picture | Shutterstock It can be easy to fall into the trap of a negative mindset and pessimism. Despite how much we all yearn to look at the bright side of life, it isn't always easy. Sometimes, our brains seem to conjure up all the things that stress us out instead of the things that bring us joy and peace.
Thankfully, a brain training specialist and hypnosis practitioner named Emilie Leyes shared that her life completely changed after she learned what was possible from doing a simple brain trick. She shared that you can easily leave those negative thoughts behind and welcome happiness back into your mindset if you follow her advice.
A hypnosis practitioner shared what happy people do to trick their brains into being more positive.
"The human brain has something called a negativity bias, which basically means that our brains are primed to prioritize negative experiences over positive ones. This is why you're more likely to remember the one person who doesn't text you 'happy birthday' over all the people who do," Leyes began in her TikTok video.
Neuroscientists have found that our emotional response to a negative event is two to two-and-a-half times stronger than our emotional response to a positive equivalent. Because of this, it's really not our fault when our brains automatically go into a negative state. While that was used to support us through the beginning of human evolution, it doesn't necessarily need to be as important now.
"The good news is that you can actually counteract this negativity bias and change the way your brain functions. There's an amazing little tool, brain trick, whatever you want to call it, called installation," Leyes continued. "It was developed by psychologist Dr. Rick Hanson, which is amplifying the positive experiences when they come. Because, remember, the positive experiences are less intense than the negative ones."
The hypnosis practitioner encouraged people to focus more intensely on the positive moments than they normally would.
She provided some examples, like when you have a delicious meal, or maybe you're having the last bite of a particularly delectable chocolate cake. You should savor it.
Emilie insisted that you want to enjoy these good moments for as long as they last and really sit in them.
It might mean chewing that last bite of chocolate cake a bit slower and really focusing on the amazing texture and flavor.
You could even do a little happy dance as you're eating it to really soak it all up and savor the moment. Emilie pointed out that by doing that, you're training your brain and growing your emotional response to that positive moment, which can help balance out the negativity bias over time.
"As you move throughout your day, you savor, stay with, and grow your positive experiences and your emotions around it," she said. "It's actually priming the brain to take in more good experiences as they come."
It's better to focus on positive moments that have happened during previous times in your life.
Hanson advised that we create our own positive experiences by thinking about things we’re grateful for or remembering a time we stood up to someone or had genuine compassion for someone in pain.
"Then, once you’ve got that good experience going, really enjoy it: taking 5, 10, or more seconds to protect and stay with it, and open to it in your body," he wrote.
"The longer and more intensely those neurons fire together, the more they’ll be wiring this inner strength into your brain."
Of course, this doesn't mean that we should only be focusing on the positives without at least holding space for the negatives, but it's also about balance.
Especially in the times that we're living in right now, we could all use a little bit of positivity and memorable moments to hold on to.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.