Reframing Thought

Changing Negative Thinking Patterns into Positive Thoughts

The average human has approximately 80,000 thoughts in a day. 90% of those are reoccurring thoughts and 80% of those thoughts are negative. If you've ever wondered how are thoughts created? Why is it that negative thoughts are the prominent component of our thought stream and mindset? Why does it seem as though we are hard wired to think negatively? Why should we bother with reframing thought? What are the benefits of positive thinking? The goal of this blog is to seek answers those exact questions - so buckle up, we are going to begin our journey to positive self talk, positive affirmations and optimism!

Thought

Before jumping straight into thought, it's important to establish some ground work regarding the nervous system as these units are responsible for many of the actions that occur; such as thought, movement, coordination, and sensation. The units that may up the nervous system are called neurons. Neurons are the primary working units of the nervous system, and these units are found in both the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS). One of the theories behind thought is the electrical and chemical actions that occur from a neuron.

Neurons - The Possible Connection

The electrical impulses occur in the neuron itself, as the neuron becomes excited (due to sodium channels opening), the neuron will eventually reach an action potential. Once an action potential occurs neurons release chemicals, called neurotransmitters. The release of the neurotransmitters allow neighboring neurons to receive the message and the process of electrical and chemical reactions occurs again and again until the message is no longer needed.

Our external environment can affect the way the neurons fire. I'm going to challenge you to think of a novel experience you had and then had the chance to repeat that experience again and again. I'm going to use the example of surfing - and I'm going to ask you to bear with me for a moment, we will come out on the other side of this understanding how neuron patterns are learned.

My first surfing experience was indeed unique, I had no idea how to carry a board, how to put on a leash and since my previous experience of watching surfers such as Kelly Slater and others on the Pro Tour was a far cry from what I would be experiencing that day, I had very limited idea of what to do. Anyway, I had enough fun to get out there and surf again.

That next day everything became felt a bit "easier". While I still had pretty much limited idea of what I was should be doing, the actions that day felt more smooth than those taken the previous day. This is due to the body learning a new pattern of neuronal firing.

So, the reason I went down the rabbit hole of surfing was to explain how our body learns a new pattern. In summary, each time we learn a new pattern, whether external or internal, the response will be similar and reinforced to what occurred previously. This is the exact reason people tend to react the same way to similar situations and why people can associate an environment in a positive or negative fashion based off of previous experiences.

Negative Events

While positive experiences can certainly impact an individual's psychological state, it's been demonstrated that negative events have a greater effect (1,2,3). This is known as the negativity bias (4), and the negativity effect. In other words, if two events of equal weight are taken into account, the one that had a negative emotion tied to it will have a greater impact on one's psychological state and processes than the neutral or positive event.

It's been suggested that negativity bias is a learned rather than an innate trait. In the early 1980s it was demonstrated that when an infant receives positive information about a novel, ambiguous event from an adult, they will react positively to the event whereas if they receive negative information, they will react negatively to the event (5). As infants become more mobile, meaning they are able to walk, there will be an increased interest in distal objects. You'll likely notice that children are often "checking back" with parent or caregiver to ensure the behavior is OK. This behavior is called social referencing and children do this as they are attempting to use others' perceptions and interpretations of the events to form their own interpretations of those events (6, 7, 8). This innate ability to read others behaviors allows them to explore the world around them, while remaining safe.

Interestingly, the child's exploration will decrease if they regularly receive negative messages from an adult. On the other hand, the child will explore more novel stimuli if they had received positive messages from an adult (9,10). As you can see the way the adult, parent, or caregiver reacts to a given situation, could directly shape the child's behavior in response to a stimuli (9, 10).

Safety First

Our brains are hardwired to think "safety first" whenever it encounters a stressor. Whether that stress is a mountain lion, a work deadline or sitting traffic our body processes these things as stress - and thus a chain of events starts. First the amygdala, the area of the brain responsible for emotions, processes the stress - positive emotional experiences could result in a non-stressful response, whereas a negative experience will likely result in the alarms going off. Once the alarms are rung, the hypothalamus will be summoned and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) will begin to respond to the threat. The activation of the SNS is commonly known as the "fight or flight mode". Once the "fight or flight mode" is activated a series of autonomic responses will occur such as, increased heart rate, increased respiration, dilation of pupils and much more. These responses are designed to help combat this stressor. In addition, the hypothalamus will activate 2 other systems, pituitary and adrenals, and these together are known as the HPA axis. This activation will cause the release of coristol from the adrenals, to help your body to stay wired and alert, during and after the stress. Eventually the hormones that triggered the adrenals to release cortisol will return toward their baseline. Once that threshold is reached, cortisol will also eventually return to baseline and homestasis will be reached. The need for hormones to reach a threshold before "turning off" explains why you will perceive the stress even long after the stress has passed.

Not all stress is bad, in fact some stress does make you stronger. Let's use the example of lifting weights; if an individual lifts a barbell, this will promote a stress on the body. With proper rest and recovery this individual will become stronger. This was first explained by Hans Selye, a medical physician and researcher who used the General Adaptation Syndrome, called GAS theory, to explain how the body copes with stress. There are three phases of this theory, the alarm, resistance and exhaustion.

Alarm Phase occurs when the body perceives the stress; as previously discussed, the body creates a hormonal response to trigger the SNS. During the Resistance Phase the body begins to repair itself as well as make itself stronger for the "next time" it comes across this stress. The last phase, Exhaustion, is only reached when there is too much stress and not enough recovery. During the exhaustion phase there could be a myriad of adverse health outcomes that could negatively impact both physical and mental health. Long story short, it's the chronic, excessive, prolonged or inadequate regulation of the stress that needs to be avoided.

Stress Impacts Our Positive Outlook

Chronic stress impacts both our physical and mental health. When it comes to the physical, chronic stress can suppress the immune system, shorten telomeres, the "end caps" of our DNA, which causes the aging process to accelerate. In addition, chronic stress increases the risk of high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, digestive issues and much more. When it comes to our mental health, whether the stress and worry is hypothetical or real the amygdala will perceive the stress the same. As a result the body will trigger the hypothalamus and then the SNS, resulting in the "fight or flight" response.

Elevated stress levels have been demonstrated to interfere with a person's ability to encode memories and retrieve information (11, 12). It is important to note that, stress hormones such as cortisol can benefit immediate memory recall, but will negatively impact long-term memory. The benefit is due to the fact that cortisol and other stress hormones impact the amygdala, hippocampus and other areas of the brain that help to "keep you alive" in times of stress, such as a black bear and her cubs approaching you. Unless you are a National Park Ranger, you likely don't come across a black bear and her cubs daily. In this case, the excess levels of cortisol and other glucocorticoids released due to chronic stress can impair the ability of the hippocampus to encode and recall memories (12). Since glucocorticoids such as cortisol are released primarily during "stressful" times, the more often you experience stressful moments, the more difficult it can become to encode new positive memories, thoughts as well as impact the ability to recall those more positive moments.

An early neuroscientist Donald Hebb said, "neurons that fire together, wire together." Today this idea is known as the Hebbian Theory. The theory is summarized below,

"Let us assume that the persistence or repetition of a reverberatory activity (or "trace") tends to induce lasting cellular changes that add to its stability. ... When an axon of cell A is near enough to excite a cell B and repeatedly or persistently takes part in firing it, some growth process or metabolic change takes place in one or both cells such that A's efficiency, as one of the cells firing B, is increased." (13)

The Hebbian theory could be one of the explanations into neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change, remap, reorganize, and grow. The brain is not like plaster, it is not fixed - it has the ability to reshape thought and ultimately organize, remap and grow. Therefore, the brain has the ability to shift out of a negativity bias and think positivity. This will not happen over night, it will require you spending some time on your physical and mental health. Most importantly don't worry too much, the goal is to reduce stress and work slowly toward shifting the negativity bias to a positive outlook.

Reframing the Negativity Bias

The first step to reframing the negativity bias is to become aware of when negative self talk or negative thoughts are occurring. By spending time flagging negative self talk, you'll begin to understand the areas of your life that are causing negative thought in the first place. Once awareness has occured, it's onto the next step Acknowledge and Release. It's important to note that this phase can vary from person to person.

When I acknowledge and release, I first acknowledge the negative thought and then I ask myself the how or why did this thought arise. Once I answer those questions, I perform a few rounds of 4-7-8 breathing to activate the parasympathetic nervous system. I've found that this really works for me, but remember everyone is unique - do what is best for you.

If you're interested in learning more about the breathwork be sure to check out a previous blog post of using breath to reduce stress.

The last step is feed positivity. Creating a positive atmosphere in your mind allows you promote neuroplasticity surrounding those positive events. This allows your body and mind to organize, remap, and grow to a more positive mindset. By spending time feeding positivity, you'll begin to reshape your present and future.

Practice Makes Perfect

Now that we understand the power of positivity, it's time to put it all together. While it is possible that you'll come across a black bear and her cubs, it's more likely that you'll face stressors that affect today's modern society. Our negativity bias that is "handed down" from parents, caregivers and adults will help us remain safe, but could also create an environment where our bias isn't rational and thus creates excess stress. The"safety first" response from the amygdala helps us stay safe during times of negative stressors, but this same response can react to stressors that might not need to trigger the stress response in the first place.

Examples of these modern stressors are sitting in traffic, constant connection to work, social media, and news outlets and taking on too much. While it may not be possible to avoid all of these modern stressors - it is possible to control how you react to them. By learning to reframe the negativity bias, your brain and neural system will have the opportunity to undergo neuroplasticity and in turn allow you to begin to think more positively. This week I challenge you to spend time remapping negative thinking patterns to positive thoughts. It's time to throw the old adage, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks", right out the window. Dispositional optimism is right around the next corner - hope to see you there!

References:

1)Baumeister, Roy F.; Finkenauer, Catrin; Vohs, Kathleen D. (2001). "Bad is stronger than good" (PDF). Review of General Psychology. 5 (4): 323–370.

2) Lewicka, Maria; Czapinski, Janusz; Peeters, Guido (1992). "Positive-negative asymmetry or "When the heart needs a reason"". European Journal of Social Psychology. 22 (5): 425–434.

3) Rozin, Paul; Royzman, Edward B. (2001). "Negativity bias, negativity dominance, and contagion". Personality and Social Psychology Review. 5 (4): 296–320.

4) Kanouse, D. E., & Hanson, L. (1972). Negativity in evaluations. In E. E. Jones, D. E. Kanouse, S. Valins, H. H. Kelley, R. E. Nisbett, & B. Weiner (Eds.), Attribution: Perceiving the causes of behavior. Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press.

5) Campos JJ, Stenberg CR. Perception, appraisal, and emotion: The onset of social referencing. In: Lamb M, Sherrod L, editors. Infant social cognition. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum; 1981. pp. 273–314.

6) Campos JJ, Stenberg CR. Perception, appraisal, and emotion: The onset of social referencing. In: Lamb M, Sherrod L, editors. Infant social cognition. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum; 1981. pp. 273–314.

7) Feinman S. Social referencing in infancy. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly. 1982;29:467–471.

8) Baldwin DA, Moses LM. The ontogeny of social information gathering. Child Development. 1996;67:1915–1939. 

9) Camras LA, Sachs VB. Social referencing and caretaker expressive behavior in a day care setting. Infant Behavior and Development. 1991;14:27–36.

10) Walden TA, Ogan TA. The development of social referencing. Child Development. 1988;59:1230–1240.

11) de Quervain et al., Stress and glucocorticoids impair retrieval of long-term spatial memory. Nature, 394, 787-790 (1998)

12) Kuhlmann, S., Piel, M., & Wolf, O. T. (2005). Impaired memory retrieval after psychosocial stress in healthy young men. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 25(11), 2977–2982.

13) Hebb, D.O. (1949). The Organization of Behavior. New York: Wiley & Sons.