How to get rid of negative thoughts with a simple trick that can retrain your brain
Get ready for an attitude adjustment.
Being a “negative person” or a “positive person” isn’t set in stone — and using a really simple trick that anyone can learn could change your mood, your perspective and even your whole life, according to a brain training specialist.
It was certainly a game-changer for Emilie Leyes, who shared how she turns to an “installation” habit to nip negative thoughts on TikTok.
“My life completely changed and my mind was completely blown when I learned that it was possible to use this little brain trick to stop my mind from thinking so negatively all the time,” said Leyes, who is also a certified hypnotherapist.
To understand why it works, it’s first important to know that humans have a negativity bias, meaning they’re more likely to put greater weight and focus on negative things than positive ones.
That should make perfect sense to anyone who’s ever fixated on one nugget of criticism in an otherwise positive review at work, or can’t stop replaying an embarrassing moment in their head despite countless non-embarrassing interactions since.
From an evolutionary standpoint, focusing on the negative seems logical — that’s how we learned how to avoid dangers. But in the modern world, it often means outsized reactions to small discomforts, which can lead to pessimism and general unhappiness.
“If you find yourself thinking negatively, it’s not your fault — your brain is wired that way,” said Leyes. “The good news is, you can actually counteract this negativity bias and change the way your brain functions.”
Her go-to trick is called “installation” and was developed by neuropsychologist Rick Hanson, Ph.D.
According to Dr. Hanson, there are two stages of the learning process: activation and installation. During activation, we’re experiencing something, whether it be good or bad. Then there’s the installation stage, where we install the memory of that experience into our brains.
“Without this installation — without the transfer of the experience from short-term memory buffers to long-term storage — beneficial experiences such as feeling cared about are momentarily pleasant but have no lasting value,” Hanson explained. “There is no learning, no growth, no change for the better.”
Meanwhile, those negative experiences are getting “installed” automatically thanks to evolution— so if you want to install the positive ones, you have to work at it.
You can do that by really amplifying those positive experiences, properly savoring them when they happen. First, pause to take note of what’s good about the experience in the moment, whether that’s the taste of a delicious food, the calm feeling of taking a walk on a nice day, or the joy of laughing with a friend.
Hanson says to take five to 10 seconds — or more — to stay with the good feelings of that experience.
“The longer and more intensely those neurons fire together, the more they’ll be wiring this inner strength into your brain,” he said.
When you do that, you’re not just soaking up more positivity at that moment in time — with practice, you’re teaching your brain to focus more on the positives in the future.
“You’re actually growing that emotional response to that positive experience, which over time can balance out that negativity bias,” Leyes said on TikTok. “And it’s actually priming the brain to take in more good experiences as they come.”
