Is negative thinking bad for your brain?
Scientists seem to think that it is. Researchers at King’s College London found that repetitive negative thinking may increase your risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Remember, at this time there is no cure for Alzheimer’s, so this deserves your attention.
The study found that a habit of prolonged negative thinking diminishes your brain’s ability to think, reason, and form memories. Essentially draining your brain’s resources.
Another study reported in the journal American Academy of Neurology found that cynical thinking also produces a greater dementia risk.
When you change your thinking, your life changes
Remember, brains get good at what they do. Negative thoughts create ‘channels’ in your brain. This way of thinking can become your default. If you do a lot of negative thinking, you wire your brain to be good at producing negative thoughts. Your brain also gets good at seeing things to think negatively about.
One of the many byproducts of negative thinking is stress, which then leads to more negative thinking. Here’s a suggestion: When negative thoughts come, and they will, don’t just ignore them. Instead:
Pay attention. Stop what you are doing. Close your eyes if you need to. Replace the negative thought with a positive thought. Hold the positive thought in your brain for a full minute, or more. When you do this, neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections – starts to work in your favour.
The two keys are attention density – the amount of attention paid to a particular mental experience over a specific time – and holding the thought long enough for your brain to begin to create new ‘channels.’
You become a sculptor of your own brain. How cool is that?
Changing your habits of mind can change your life.
A good book to read on self-directed neuroplasticity is You Are Not Your Brain, by Jeffrey Schwartz.
A sure-fire stress buster
Go for a whole week without complaining. Not even once. Log it. If you relapse, start your week over. Back to day one. Go for a week without complaining…and watch the people around you change.
Such is the power of mirror neurons. These neurons fire when we act in a certain way and also when we observe the same action being performed by someone else. Your behaviour – positive or negative – can influence how others behave.
They don’t judge their abilities like others do
Since they prefer creating and doing instead of studying and/or working, creatives don’t do very well in school or “normal” jobs. This is because they are passionate about their creative practices- which is something that cannot be squashed.
As a creative, you may find that it’s hard to perform tasks that are monotonous. A creative thrives on the excitement that comes with learning/doing something unique and trying your hands at something completely different than you’re used to.
Of course, creatives do participate in school and go to work like everyone else in the world because they have to. However, they will often take a job that is less-than-ideal unless they find something that grabs their interest.
They’re a bit more emotional
For creatives, the world is brighter and louder. This isn’t because they have heightened senses, per se. It’s simply because they pay more attention to the world around them. A creative is often an introvert- but truthfully, they look around on the outside just as much as they do on the inside.
They pay closer attention to the little things in life, allowing them to result in a greater emotional response that the not-so-creative people around them.
If you are a creative, the world has more meaning. For most people, the world is just a blur as they go flying through. However, for creatives, the world is everything. Of course, these people often end up losing themselves in their journey. Life isn’t easy for anyone- but it does seem to be more challenging for those who are creative.
Conclusion
Creatives are often labeled as “weird” or “quirky”. Everyone is a bit different than the person next to them- some more so than others. Most people attempt to blend in, but to creatives, this is a bad thing.