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Your Brain Is A Pessimist (but you don’t have to be!)
by the late Bill Harris, Founder of Centerpointe Research Institute
Did you know that your brain is wired to be negative?
This phenomenon started in your youth, while the two hemispheres of your brain were developing.
Your right hemisphere is more involved with emotions, sensory experiences and pattern recognition…
…while the left hemisphere deals with language, logic, and problem solving.
Your right hemisphere developed first, which is more negative than the left (when it comes to emotions).
As a result, negative experiences early in life often have a long-lasting effect on self-perception, personality, and your experience of the world.
How Memory Works
To make matters worse, your memory is also wired for negativity. To put it simply, you have two types of memory:
Implicit: Experiential memories that can’t be consciously recalled or easily explained. How to ride a bike, how to balance, how to steer.
Explicit: Memories that can be intentionally and consciously recalled. “I rode my bike. I fell down. I skinned my knee.”
Implicit memory is nonverbal. Consider walking: it’s a complex action you know how to do, but you couldn’t put it into words. Your implicit memory system is based in the amygdala and exists primarily to remember–and help you avoid life-threatening dangers.
Because these memories are tied to survival, your amygdala holds on to them tightly.
Explicit memory, on the other hand, is verbal: You remember your mother’s name, or the multiplication table, or a famous quote.
The explicit memory system lives in the hippocampus. It doesn’t hold on to memories as tightly, allowing you to learn new, important information and forget what isn’t useful.
Your explicit memory is “plastic”…it changes (which is very good news). Your implicit memory, for the most part, doesn’t.
Like the left hemisphere, your explicit memory takes longer to develop. As a result, young people store intense, negative memories in the amygdala, forever.
These negative memories color later experiences, causing you to perceive danger where there is none. This can have a huge negative effect on your function, your relationships…
…and just about everything else in your life.
(Sorry if this is getting you down – I promise there is light at the end of the tunnel!)
How to Conquer Negativity
There are many effective methods for conquering negativity. These are recommended by Dr. Joseph Annibali, chief psychiatrist of the Amen Clinics, in his groundbreaking book:
“Reclaim Your Brain: How to Calm Your Thoughts, Heal Your Mind, and Bring Your Life Back Under Control.”
- Distract yourself. Invest yourself in a productive or enjoyable activity. When you become absorbed in an activity, your limbic system has a chance to calm.
- Laugh. Find the humor in your negativity. Often, negative thoughts are irrational. Laugh at them (and yourself) for believing–but do so gently.
- Take the ‘glass half full’ approach. All negatives – without exception – have a positive, or the seed of something positive. Challenge yourself to find that positive, whatever it may be.
- Be grateful. Write three things you are grateful for. According to Annibali, studies have shown that writing things which you are grateful for changes the brain.
You may have tried some of these before, possibly without success. If these methods haven’t worked for you, the most likely explanation is…
…your brain isn’t working properly.
Really? But didn’t you know? There’s a war going on between two major parts of your brain!
The War Inside Your Brain
What parts of the brain am I referring to?
Your limbic system, the source of the fight or flight stress response and the “I’m going to do this/buy this/eat this/say this now, and the heck with the consequences” response.
Your prefrontal cortex, the source of executive function, creativity, learning from mistakes, planning, rational thinking, and more.
If either of these is overactive or underactive, you could be experiencing many challenges or problems, or sabotaging yourself from developing the personal qualities you need in order to be happy and successful.
Unfortunately, these two parts of the brain ARE either overactive or underactive for about 98% of people!
The emotional turmoil you feel (negativity) is caused by an overactive limbic system. When your limbic system is overactive and in control, the problems of life are much more difficult.
The Solution to this Problem
The first, most powerful steps toward conquering negativity is calming the limbic system and enhancing the prefrontal cortex.
Here are some effective methods:
Use Supplements
for instance:
- 5-HTP: Increases serotonin levels (low serotonin is associated with obsessive-compulsive behavior, depression, and anxiety)
- L-theanine: Calming supplement; Increases alpha waves in the brain
- Glycine: Calms brain activity in several areas of the limbic system
- St. John’s Wort: Increases serotonin in the brain
- GABA: Calms activity in the limbic system
Other Helpful Methods
- Breathing: Slow and deep breathing calms the limbic system
- Exercise: Research shows that short 1-4 minute bursts followed by a rest period, repeated several times, are more effective than longer periods of less intense exercise
- Nutrition: Diets high in protein, low in carbs, and high in “good fat” (coconut oil, avocados, butter, omega 3s, extra virgin olive oil) help keep the limbic system calm
- Sleep: 7-8 hours of sleep a night helps keep the limbic system calm
- Meditation: Countless studies show that meditation calms the limbic system AND enhances the prefrontal cortex
The Problem with Meditation
The problem with meditation is that few people actually are willing to do it! Meditation is perceived as being hard to learn, and it takes a long time to see significant results.
Thankfully, it’s now possible to create the same brain changes as traditional methods, in a fraction of the time, using a technological approach.
Centerpointe’s Holosync® technology does exactly that.
Using combinations of pure sine wave audio tones delivered to the brain through stereo headphones, Holosync® creates the brainwave patterns of an experienced 30-year meditator.
Holosync is THE easiest way to meditate (all you do is listen, no effort, no learning curve.)
You can learn more about Holosync® below.
And, as Dr. Annibali says, calm your thoughts, heal your mind, and bring your life back under control.
About Centerpointe Research institute
Centerpointe Research Institute was founded by the late Bill Harris in 1989. The Institute produces as it’s flagship a product called ‘Holosync®,’ an audio program formulated to recreate the brain wave patterns of experienced meditators. If you use this program daily, you can achieve the same results in 8 times the time it takes for traditional meditation.
If you would like to get a free e-book called ‘The New Science Of Super Awareness’ by Bill Harris, please visit this web site.
When you sign up, you will also be able to get the audiobook version for free, as well as a free demo of Holosync®.