According to social psychology, positive reframing starts with the small decisions we make throughout the day.
When something goes wrong at work, it is normal to take that negative experience and hold onto it for the rest of the day. Or maybe even for the whole week. That tendency is a product of how our brains are wired. Our view of the world has a fundamental tendency to tilt toward the negative. There is a lot of research that shows we literally have to work harder to see the upside of things.
Focuses on finding psychological tools that allow people to change that, and reframe their experiences. They have found that when it comes to optimistic thinking, the tools to turn our negative situations into positive ones are in our own hands.
Our minds may be built to look for negative information and to hold onto it, but we can also retrain our minds if we put some effort into it and start to see that the glass may be a little fuller than we initially thought.
Here are a few ways you can train your mind to reframe your failures, let go of negativity, and focus on the good:
Practice “gain framing”
The “framing effect” is a psychological concept that is all about how you frame your stories to others, recalling your own experiences can alter the way you see them. There is a lot of research in the social sciences showing that depending on how you describe a glass to people, it changes how they feel about it. If you describe the glass as half-full, this is called a ‘gain frame,’ because you are focusing on what is gained. But if you describe the same glass as half-empty, it is a loss frame. When we use gain framing to describe our experiences to others, we start to see the given situation in a positive light. It is about learning to rehearse good news and share it with others.
Acknowledge one good thing
Reframing a negative experience is not always easy. When you are upset, it can help to focus on a different experience entirely one that you feel good about. While it is easy to assume that venting will help get rid of your negative emotions, dwelling instead on one good thing that happened that day can prompt your brain to switch directions which is ultimately more helpful.
For optimal practice, it is suggested to take pen to paper even if it feels difficult at the moment. You have to work to see the upside. There is just writing for a few minutes each day about things you are grateful for can dramatically boost your happiness and well-being.
Respond counterintuitively
How we react in the moment can make a significant difference, too. What if the next time somebody snapped at you, you forgave them? Or what if the next time you had a really grumpy waitress, you left her an extra-large tip? By responding counterintuitively, and offering ourselves time to reframe, we can stop our brains from the cycle of dwelling on the negative, and then spreading it. One mean comment can stick with somebody all day… and that tends to propagate itself. How we respond can determine how our minds see the experience in retrospect.
