Whats wrong attention (negative bias)

If you’e been around these parts for a while you’ll know I'm a purveyor of the practice of 'taking in the good'

This seemingly simple habit can be so potent and important to our health and growth often because feeling the ‘good’ isn't always somewhere we naturally hang out - it can take a little bit of ‘work’

If you've ever spent time at the end of the day journalling about what went well and what didn't, then you know how easy it is to come up with a millions things you could have done better and only a handful of things you feel good about.

The good, comfortable, easeful parts of the day tend to pass us by without notice. This is because of our attention to ‘whats wrong’…

Whats Wrong Attention (a definition from Steve Hoskinson

"The tendency of the brain to focus on whats wrong due to negativity bias. The unconscious way our brain is captured by whats wrong. Our attention is over focused on whats wrong and under focused on all the things that make us feel calm, relaxed, connected and able to enjoy life"

Our body systems are designed to detect safety and threat and want to keep us alive, this means they are often hyper focused on ‘whats wrong’

There's nothing bad about this, its a biological resource. But sometimes that attention to ‘whats wrong’ can get hyper vigilant and become so loud that it feels almost impossible to find what feels good or safe, calming or comforting.

The outcome of constantly focusing on what's wrong, of this over activation, is that the brain begins to direct more and more attention towards it - so we end up in a vicious cycle.

The brain is more sensitive to detecting it, so we see it more, so the brain becomes more sensitive to it, and on and on.

So whats the antidote for ‘what’s wrong'?

Allowing yourself to FEEL what feels good, to pay attention to it when it arises and to build a relationship with it.

This isn't to be confused with seeing the bright side, polyanna-ing or toxic positivity - that’s like fake goodness.

But really sitting with what feels good and soaking it in for a moment, allowing it to be a full body experience, locating in your body how you know you're experiencing something good beyond just thinking it.

Over time simple practices like this help to re-wire our what's wrong attention and calm down the brain & nervous systems hypersensitivity. So that we're not constantly misinterpreting our experience as wrong or bad and whats good is available to us as a true resource.

If you’d like to try a short meditation all about ‘taking in the good’ look below in the resources section ❤️