Negativity only arises when we dwell on a situation repeatedly without any true intention to learn, solve things or move forward. Rumination ends up feeling more like just punishing ourselves.

We wish things were different and we beat ourselves up about it. Like holding the weight of the glass for too long, rumination can end up causing us agonising inner pain and hold us back from being our best selves and living our best lives.

We all have a voice in our heads. It talks to us all day long in the form of constant thoughts. Sometimes this voice is helpful. Alerting us to things that we can do to achieve our goals or solve problems.

But often, this inner voice is our own worst enemy. Constantly putting us down, telling us we are not enough. That self-critical voice raises doubts, points out our flaws and questions the way we are living our lives.

Most of us would never speak to someone else the way we speak to ourselves. Our inner critic can be incredibly harsh and mean. When we make a mistake or have a setback, it often goes into overdrive. Bringing even more suffering to an already difficult time.

All this negative self-talk and self-criticism can crush our confidence, shatter our self-esteem and make us feel unworthy and unhappy. Sometimes, we can feel so debilitated by these feelings we become depressed or even suicidal.

Sometimes self-criticism can be disguised as self-improvement. This path leads to burnout and emptiness eventually. The path to feeling true self-worth is through releasing those thoughts that tell you are deficient and need to prove yourself. By doing this, you can learn to feel whole and live an authentic and meaningful life right where you are.

Our attention becomes fixated on, and often exaggerates, the difficult or unpleasant aspects of situations, people and events. For example, you may have a wonderful family, food to eat, a great job and a safe and cosy home.

All week you are frustrated, angry and depressed because of the car. You allow the situation with the car to dominate your thinking and negative emotions arise as a result. Forgetting about all the great things you love about your life. Zeroing in and dwelling on unpleasant situations make us feel greater levels of stress, unhappiness, frustration, anxiety and negativity in daily life.

Say you do a presentation at work and everyone in your team has to give you feedback. Which one might keep you up at night ruminating? It gets highlighted in your mind because of the negativity bias. This bias has been hard-wired into the human brain through evolution.

In early times, the world was a dangerous place. It was important for us to learn from negative experiences so that we could outwit predators and avoid threats around us. Your brain registers negative experiences very quickly, highlighting and storing them in memory. But our brains still operate the same way.

The problem with the negativity bias for us these days is that over the long term we can develop a growing tendency to be pessimistic, stressed and negative. We can train our minds to adopt more empowering and uplifting thinking patterns.

People are often at a loss with how to stop negative thoughts from occurring. And this is part of the problem. They often try many different ineffective ways to get rid of their negative thoughts. Research shows that while struggling or arguing with, trying to drown out or push away negative thoughts may give short term relief; it only amplifies them over the long term.

And actually, makes things worse. Hence the saying, what we resist persists. If we could do that, everyone would be okay. Overcoming negativity is about changing the way that we relate to our thoughts, as well as being able to steer our focus in more helpful ways.

Once you understand what causes negative thinking and learn to apply the four following mental skills, you can start to shift from mental struggle to mental strength and transform the quality of your life from the inside out. We tend to take thoughts very, very seriously.

We believe them. We buy into them. And we will often play them out. No, of course not! However, if you believe that thought, then guess what you will probably have?

If you get fused to a thought like that, it will probably generate negative feelings like grumpiness, bitterness or resentment. The problem is not that we have negative thoughts.

The problem comes when we get hooked by our thoughts and believe our thoughts are true. Cognitive defusion allows us to see thoughts as simply that — thoughts. Merely snippets of sound and language.

Mental events moving through the mind all the time. Just like the weather passes through the sky. If we find them valuable or helpful, we might pay attention to them or act on them. We begin to shift our whole relationship with thoughts.

Holding them lightly means we are not so thrown around or affected by them. Instead of buying into that thought, you simply observe it. As you can see, the ability to recognise unhelpful thinking and step back from it is incredibly liberating!

It can change the quality of your whole day and indeed your whole life. It has mine. It was developed by author and psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Siegel to help us untangle from thoughts without struggling with them.

You can even bring in a little bit of humour and have fun with this. So, after we mentally note, we let it go. Instead, shift your mind back to what is happening in the present moment and give that your focus. Tune into your sense perceptions, what you can feel, see, or smell.

If you like to geek out on neuroscience , the act of naming thoughts kicks in the smartest part of the brain, the frontal cortex. The frontal cortex is reflective and helps you zoom out with greater perspective.

This helps you to soothe your nervous system and invite compassion and resilience into that moment instead of aggression or struggle. We are gently training it into new neural pathways of peace and ease. This brings feelings of calm, ease and comfort. Just beneath the waves of our thoughts, emotions and conditioning, there is a deep ocean of awareness in each one of us.

A source of calm, wisdom, compassion and incredible inner strength. It is always available to us as a place of refuge. Mindfulness is the practice of cultivating that awareness.

Through mindfulness, we build our capacity to stay grounded in that greater awareness, instead of being so caught up in, and tossed around by, the surface waves of thoughts and emotion. Regular mindfulness meditation is the best way to build the muscle of mindfulness. When you go home, why not reflect on what just happened and turn the savoring skill into a habit?

Negativity bias can be studied using a variety of different subjective and psychophysiological tests. Rozin and Royzman conducted one of the best-known early studies on the phenomenon. In it, they unpack the concept and four ways in which it manifests:. Imagine a day in which five good things happen to you, but then you step in a puddle and ruin your shoes.

If you were to consider your day ruined — negativity bias — this would be an example of negativity dominance. You can read their influential paper here. We know that negativity bias impacts our impressions of other people, our decision-making, and our attention. As such, it can impact our relationships with others in several ways.

Recognizing how the negativity bias works is the first step to overcoming its potential negative impacts on our relationships. Through self-awareness and excellent communication, we can start looking for the positive in our interactions and the people around us. Download 3 Free Positive Psychology Exercises PDF Enhance wellbeing with these free, science-based exercises that draw on the latest insights from positive psychology.

Some of the effects of negative bias can include increased heart rates during fear perception and higher startle responses, both stress responses that are associated with anxiety Williams et al. With this in mind, taking steps to overcome your negativity bias can be a positive move forward for your mental health and wellbeing.

This bias can particularly impact us at work through its influence on decision-making and the impressions we form of others. In a rapidly changing, volatile, and often ambiguous competitive environment, this can impact competitive advantage significantly. Effective collaboration, teamwork, and continued professional development all rely on our ability to get along with others and interact in a positive way to achieve shared goals.

By causing us to attend to and dwell on negative entities, negativity bias can make it harder for us to accept constructive feedback, encourage others, and build trust with coworkers. To boost team performance and lead others more effectively, in other words, a good ratio to aim for is Try it!

Are you more of a video person? These TED talks are a super way to learn more about negativity bias and how you can overcome it. Professor Alison Ledgerwood is a social psychologist and behavioral scientist at UC Davis.

Her TEDx talk A Simple Trick to Improve Positive Thinking is about how we can reframe the way we communicate to develop a more positive outlook. University of Delaware psychology professor Peter Mende-Siedlecki has written a considerable deal of literature on negativity bias topics: social judgments, impression formation, and contextual sensitivity, to name a few.

We all face rejection, sadness, fear, and unhappiness. When we find ourselves getting stuck on the negative aspects of our lives, however, it helps to be aware of why we might be doing so.

With an understanding of negativity bias, we can start to interact with adverse events, trauma, and so forth more adaptively. So, what helps you overcome negativity bias? Do you have any tips for your fellow readers? If so, please share them in the comments below. We hope you enjoyed reading this article.

About the author Catherine Moore has a BSc in Psychology from the University of Melbourne. She enjoys researching and using her HR knowledge to write about Positive and Organizational psychology. How useful was this article to you?

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Positive Psychology. What Is Negativity Bias and How Can It Be Overcome? Scientifically reviewed by Maike Neuhaus Ph. This Article Contains: What Is Negativity Bias? The Bias in Relationships Its Role in Anxiety Negativity Bias in the Workplace 3 TED Talks on the Topic A Take-Home Message References.

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The inevitability of future suffering: The role of depressive predictive certainty in depression. Social Cognition, 8 2 , — Bryant, F.

Savoring: A new model of positive experience. Psychology Press. Cacioppo, J. The affect system: Architecture and operating characteristics. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8 5 , — Carretié, L.

International Journal of Psychophysiology, 41 1 , 75— Notice your natural tendency to move toward happiness and well-being. And remind yourself that everyone is built the same way.

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Notice the Good Write down one positive characteristic of yourself and one positive characteristic of someone you regularly interact with. Express Gratitude Regularly Pay attention to times you say "thank you.

Compliment Other People Regularly Keep an eye out for opportunities to do so, such as a job well done at work, a beautiful garden a neighbor created, or even a stranger's gorgeous coat.

Notice Your Breath Mindfulness can weaken the chain of associations that keep us obsessing about and even wallowing in a setback, and can produce emotional balance. Cultivate Compassion Practice simple compassion meditation, which can help you be less negative.

Bounce Back from Challenges Try re-arranging your environment to speed recovery from adversity. Work with Negative Emotions To decrease negative emotions, try a variant of "exposure therapy," which consists of progressively more direct exposure to cues that produce negative emotions but in a safe context and when you are relaxing.

Practice Mindfulness of the Body This form of mindfulness meditation strengthens your awareness of sensations and trains you to observe them non-judgmentally. Explore Our Common Tendency to Be Happy and Avoid Suffering Notice that many of our actions and those of others are intended to relieve suffering or bring happiness.

This list originally appeared on the Huffington Post www. Don't miss an update. Related Articles Cultivate Attention and Focus Through Breath Counting.