The Little Blue Book

CREATING ‘THE HABIT’ OF POSITIVE THINKING One benefit of this amazing adaptable brain we have, is that we can train it. We can train it, and ourselves, to “think” in certain ways. It’s the habits in thinking – our ‘attentional biases’ – that influence our emotional responses to things happening around us. If we’re in the habit of focusing on the negatives, we can set up a loop of cognitive distortions (errors in thinking) that amplify or exaggerate the negatives in life experiences. 1 But we can also ‘re-program’ our thinking to look for and focus on the positives. Our brain is like plasticine. Right through our lives, it is moulded and shaped and reshaped. And, like our bodies, our brains respond to exercise. If we spend a few minutes each day practicing positive thinking, and focusing on positive emotions – like love, gratitude, learning, compassion, connection – we can shift our attentional biases to the positives in life’s experiences, and see them as opportunities for enrichment. 22 Towards Resilience - The Power of Positivity