Block Negative Thoughts to Make Room for Happier Ones

You know the old saying, “Practice makes perfect”? You know the one – your mother probably said this as you sat down at the piano or as your father tossed you a basketball.  Well, there’s actually science to back it up.  The more time you spend on learning or doing something, the better you become.  Yup, you already know this.  But did you know that this same principle holds true for negative things?  That means that if you spend a lot of time regurgitating thoughts about retaliating against someone or stagnating on a depressing thought, you actually become better at it and your brain puts more into building those neural connections than doing more positive things.

This reminds me of the old adage: Misery loves company.  When people feel unhappy, they want to wallow in it with friends who are experiencing the same pain.  It’s a natural tendency.  But what researchers are finding today is that in order to pull yourself out of these miserable conditions, you need to make room in your brain to develop happier or positive thoughts.  So you need to shut off the negative influences so you can practice more productive behaviors.  This is not just a psychological step but a neurological path to happiness and productivity.

You know how you feel when you wake up after a good night’s sleep?  If you’re like me, you feel energized.  The problems you were stressed about the night before now seem easy to solve. It’s like your dreams cleared the clutter in your mind that built up over the whole day and gave you a fresh start in the morning.  So when you’re trying to break old habits or make new healthy ones, you need more room in your brain to establish these new neurological pathways.  Get a good night’s sleep, choose positive things to do and to think about, and shut out negative thoughts and people so you can create a healthy mind.