Our Brain's Reaction in These Troubled Times

Global news has been quite grim lately. It is not unusual to hear of new terrorist attacks, mass shootings and other horrific events. How does our brain assimilate this information and allow us to move forward?

Well, this phenomenon has been researched. Result: Our brain has the capacity to assimilate negative information. We have to fight our first reaction of trying to avoid this bad news. If you choose to fight thinking about these events, you will suffer some serious consequences:

· Negativity settles in your stomach, chest and shoulders

· It clutters your thoughts and distracts you from working on the task at hand

· And, you will experience chronic stress and all the physical ailments that accompany it (tense muscles, digestive problems, lethargy)

· Negative stress will exhaust you

The fact is – your brain is able to handle all of this negativity. Researchers found that through repetition, negative words begin to lose their power over a person’s mind, reducing effects on mood and cognition.

There is a proper way to process bad news. Instead of reading a headline and getting upset, keep on reading the entire article so that you repeatedly expose yourself to the negative information. This process allows your brain to digest and understand the information so that it can move on to other concerns in your life.

A center of balance must be achieved here. Your brain can be affected with overexposure to bad news, but underexposure is also damaging. Unfortunately, these negative incidents are a part of out new-normal life. We need to learn how to process this information so that we can move forward with our day.

Reference:

Bundrant,M. (December 12, 2013). Simple trick unleashes your brain’s capacity to handle negativity and bad news (based on research). Retrieved December 3, 2015 from http://www.naturalnews.com/z043215_negativity_bad_news_brain_function.html