More Positivity, More Often.

Yes, negativity is louder than positivity. And as parents, you can take that literally and figuratively.

Both our child and our inner critic can be yelling and that is the only thing we will hear or remember from our day. Our brains are wired to remember the bad so we can grow, learn and keep from repeating mistakes. But that bias towards negativity also keeps us from noticing and then remembering the good moments too.

So in order to counter the effects of our negativity bias, we need to be relentless. We must bring mindfulness and positivity to the forefront of our minds, to rewire and teach our brains to notice these things too. So you may ask - do I need to get really happy? Like just go crazy with happiness and gratitude?

No. Actually, it’s much simpler than that — studies show that the intensity of our positive emotions is not as important as the frequency.

“Mild positive emotions frequently that seems to be the strongest predictor of life satisfaction…being able to have the skills to self generate mild positive emotions frequently turns out to be a great contributor to happiness” - Barbara Fredrickson, leading scholar within social psychology.

Noticing the good in our lives is a simple way to add more positive moments. We can look for beauty in our everyday surroundings, we let ourselves get excited about what’s to come even if it’s just school pick up, and we can try to genuinely love the present moment. All of these little moments contribute to a more satisfactory life. 

We can boost the volume up on the positive moments and reduce the loudness of the negative one tiny positive moment at a time. Want to start today? Give a daily gratitude practice a try and let me know how you are feeling in 2 weeks. :)