Change your brain - change your Outlook and your life

Years ago, my gurus took the form of grunge rock heroes and handsome movie stars. Cue compiling video tapes of Eddie Vedder, the Singles movie, and all other Seattle scene heroes - posters plastered on my wall and stereo blasting. This was my happy place.

These days, however, I find myself enamored with those I’d call my true rock star gurus. Researchers and innovative thinkers in the wellness space - the ones who dedicate their lives to learning why we do what we do, how to do it better, and how to live a more positive and enriching life.

One such hero is Dr Richard Davidson.

He's amazing. Full stop.

According to his bio, he’s the ‘William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry and Founder and Director of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin–Madison”. He has extensive experience and education in Psychology and Psychophysiology, hangs out with the Dalai Lama, and spends his time researching emotion, emotional style, and practices like meditation and contemplation.

I’ve been delighting my way through one of his co-authored books recently, ‘The Emotional Life of Your Brain’, and I wanted to share a taste of it with you.

After decades of research into emotion, he has narrowed down 6 traits that make up our emotional style, and we all fall along the continuum of each of them, therefore making a unique blueprint which forms our own style.

The 6 styles are:

• Resilience

• Outlook

• Social Intuition

• Self-Awareness

• Sensitivity to Context

• Attention.

This is interesting for us to know because, once we are aware of our personal trait compilation, we might bring more awareness to our interactions with others and how we respond to them. We may also gain greater empathy and understanding in our relationships.

If you manage a team where, for example, you have a colleague with a healthy positive Outlook, but very little Sensitivity to Context, you may find them eagerly blurting out comments at inappropriate times, sometimes causing disruption to your team dynamics. If you were the manager of this person, you could approach the matter more delicately with an understanding of these 6 traits, and you may even be able to coach this person into a greater Sensitivity to Context.

In this post, I’m going to unpack the trait of Outlook a little and give you some tips on how to create a more positive outlook.

(Please note though, some people can consider decreasing their positivity if it is too high, as it may lead to issues in and of itself).

So what is Outlook?

Outlook is basically whether you view life from a positive or negative point of view in general. This spectrum measures how long a positive or negative feeling hangs around - that is, how long you can sustain a positive emotion once it occurs.

Think of those times when someone unexpectedly pays you a compliment. For most people, there is a rush of pleasure as happy neurochemicals are excreted into your system. The question is, how long does that good feeling remain? And how good do you feel about things in your life in general?

Dr Davidson and his colleagues arrived at the 6 traits through many years of research, including neuro-imaging and psychological testing. For the reader though, Davidson helps you to get a sense of where you sit on the Outlook continuum with a series of questions that you simply answer with True or False.

Here is an example from the Outlook question set:

“When evaluating a coworker, I focus on details about which areas he needs to improve rather than on his positive overall performance”.

While it is impossible to know without doing the test yourself, I’d like to ask you, do you think your Outlook is more positive or negative in general?

How do you feel when you wake up in the morning?

When something good happens, does the good feeling hang around or get swallowed up in pessimism or worry?

In general, most people probably want to increase their positivity score on the spectrum, but let’s start on the other side of the spectrum.

There are some people who tend to score extremely well on the positivity side and there are drawbacks to this.

—> People who have an excessively positive outlook are often unable to delay gratification, so they are unable to resist immediate temptations for their own greater good. They are also unable to see the potential downsides of doing something, meaning they have trouble sizing things up realistically. This can sometimes get them into trouble. Someone who is excessively positive can also be quite naive and ignore clear threats, putting them in risky situations.

How about the people who tend to have a more negative Outlook?

—> An overly negative outlook often means a person will hold back and doubt the outcome of a situation. They are more likely to give up easily, before they even try. This can often mean they don't invest themselves in their job, a relationship, etc, assuming it is doomed before it even begins.

A person with a less positive Outlook is also less likely to see the innate goodness in others - this might affect their ability to form lasting positive relationships.

What can you do about it?

There are a number of research-backed ways to create a more positive Outlook.

Dr Davidson has found that even simple practices of Loving Kindness or Compassion meditation can alter the brain circuitry underlying the Outlook trait.

In a 2013 study, Davidson and his team found that after two weeks of secular-based compassion training - as compared to the control group who received cognitive reappraisal training, a form of cognitive therapy - the brain circuits in the experimental group were strengthened, and this also predicted kind and helpful behaviour.

Loving Kindness Meditation and Compassion Meditation are both simple practices that are easy to learn. Research demonstrates that these practices change the brain in a good way and can lead to an improved mood and increased empathy - these are things we all want a little more of, right?

Tips to change your Outlook:

• Plan ahead: People who get a low or negative Outlook score would benefit from strengthening the connections between their prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum (the parts of the brain involved with executive decisions and planning, and pleasure or rewards). If that's you, using your prefrontal cortex to plan helps to build that muscle. For example, if you do some baking, let the muffins sit on the bench and only eat one. With the others, look at them and envision bringing them to your family for dessert after dinner. Really bring the picture to your mind of your family enjoying those muffins (positive future).

• Focus on the rewards of doing or not doing something you would normally be really tempted to do. Example, if you would love to go on a wild shopping spree this weekend, focus on what you can do with all the money you save - like plan a big holiday.

• Another way to enhance your positive Outlook - focus on these three 'wellbeing therapies':

  • Write one positive characteristic of yourself and one positive characteristic of someone you're regularly in contact with (do this 3 times daily for a week and try to write different things each time).

  • Gratitude - practise it regularly. Keep a gratitude journal. Pay attention to how often you say a genuine thank you to another person.

  • Compliment other people and look out for opportunities to compliment regularly. When you give a compliment, look directly into the other person's eyes to really connect with them.

After doing these activities for a week or so, take some time to reflect on your Outlook in general and see if there have been any changes in general.

How did you go?

Can you guess where you might fall on the Outlook continuum?

If you’d like to explore your entire Emotional Style, take the University of Wisconsin quiz here.

To open up an interesting conversation with your work team or family, have all members take the quiz and share their results.

To discuss your results with an expert who can help you shape a Workplace Wellbeing program that is as unique as your team’s Emotional Style, contact us today, for a free 30 minute consultation of your workplace needs.

Source:

Davidson, R. and Begley, S. (2012) The Emotional Life of Your Brain, Penguin Publishing.