Tag Archives: negativity bias

10 Jul

Get Out of Your Head???

I’ve heard different people use the phrase “Get out of your head”, from personal trainers to drama coaches to fellow musicians to college friends who would rather see you dominate on the beer pong team than pass your biochemistry finals.  Usually this irritating cliche evokes fleeting thoughts which are not consistent with Gandhian non-violence or my wellness coaching reputation.

gandhi-angry-duke

In any case, the basic ideas (two) behind the dictum have merit.  Nike (“just do it”) and other popularizers don’t necessarily legitimize it, but they’re onto something which is fundamentally attractive and maybe elusive for us.  Here are the two ideas:

  • Stop thinking and procrastinating and get on with it.  Stop dipping your toe in the water and just jump in; the water’s fine.
  • Less discursive thinking and more feeling.  Let go of the mental replaying and the forecasting and pay attention to what’s right in front of you, without over-thinking it.

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04 Jul

Mindfulness, Negativity Bias and Wellness Change — Part Two

Part one of this blog looked at negativity bias, our built-in tendency to accentuate the negative and de-emphasize the positive.superman-kryptonite-flipped

This evolutionary relic is kryptonite to wellness change (badly needed, given the  national obesity rate of 35% in 2014 among other things), creating built-in resistance of which you might not be aware.  This post summarizes how mindfulness can mitigate negativity bias impacts. But first, some key points on it from the first post:

  • Fear helped keep our ancestors alive.  Perceived threats make a bigger mental imprint than do positive opportunities.
  • Negativity bias creates inertia for wellness change by crippling healthy decision-making with a fear-based foundation.
  • It’s a “low-level” cognitive activity that can happen quickly and powerfully influence choices and behavior.
  • It’s built into our animal brain.  No escaping it, but mindfulness can tame it (see below).

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18 Jun

Mindfulness, Negativity Bias and Wellness Change — Part One

Most of us have heard the word mindfulness.  It’s made the cover of Time magazine, it’s now being practiced by the NFL (if you’re a pro running back, you can now be mauled by a calm and present linebacker) , everyone who follows Oprah or Dr. Oz, the US Marines (semper om), meditating_marineapparently a very small minority in Congress,  and countless Hollywood celebs.  This last list includes (I’m not kidding) Angelina, Giselle, Demi, and Arnold. Please get on board, Lindsay.  Guys with serenity-soaked names like Deepak Chopra (Oprah should marry him; think about it…) and Jon Kabat-Zinn have made it popular and accessible  to people like my mother, who can now use it to be more aware of my faults.  That’s right, mine, not hers.  Just kidding, Mom.

This post (part one) will focus on negativity bias, a basic, root-cause impediment to wellness change.  The next post (part two) will cover how mindfulness can help address negativity bias and clear the path to wellness change.

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