If you ever turn on TV to the news, what do you see being broadcast? “Freaking negative after negative after negative.” There is so much negative in the news that you may think the world is going to hell. Is that the reality? Do you see shootings and crime daily in your neighborhood?
Go out your front door and tell me what you see. How bad is it really? Or… is it actually pretty peaceful? I realize not every single neighborhood is going to be like yours. Some will be worse off and others will be better off. Now, here is the kicker… go back to over 100 years ago. They had it really bad compared to us today. Even when I was with the LAPD 35 years ago it was worse regarding crime. Folks, you have a pretty decent life right now.
It is time to unleash a more positive viewpoint. I love it when Gary Vaynerchuk talked about how most people tend to default to a negative mindset, even if most of their day is surrounded with positives. It’s time to default to positive. Turn off the news. Media only creates sensationalism and uses negative messages to draw in their audience. You don’t have to be a part of it.
If you’ve defaulted to your negative emotions on a regular basis, then you may need some help.
Recently, I discovered what is known as the “SHIFT Method” by Dr. Alan Watkins of Complete Coherence. Let me paraphrase this for you and it is great to go from negative to positive quickly.
S – Step back from any negative emotion, including anger and anxiety. You may notice a feeling coming up in your body that leads to the expression of the negative emotion. If you do, step back at that time.
H – Heart-filled breathing. What you want to do is to breathe from the heart rhythmically. To do this, inhale through the nose for a count of 4, hold, exhale through the mouth for a count of 6, hold and repeat as many times as necessary to create a coherent pulse.
I – Induce a positive emotion. It could be happy or anything on the positive side of emotions.
F – Feel the positive emotion being broadcast from your heart and throughout your body. Expand that emotion until you feel it being expressed in your face too.
T – Turn your brain back on with the positive feelings and attitude. Then engage into whatever activity you were doing.
No longer will you default to the negative. Stay away from as much as possible from negatives, especially the news. Read more. Watch TED Talks. Associate with positive people. And work towards a personal mission. Let me add that mindfulness really helps to rewire the brain in a way that activates the positive side of your brain (which is the left prefrontal cortex).
Bob is a Peak Performance Coach, Trainer, Public Speaker, Writer, and Fitness Coach at Robert L. Choat & Associates.
He lives in Granada Hills, CA.
