Your Brain Is Wired to Expect the Worst, But You Can Rewire It

If you've ever caught yourself bracing for a disaster that never actually happened, it turns out your brain was just doing its job. Evolution gifted us with a negativity bias, a brain designed to prioritise threats over sunsets. That might have saved our ancestors from sabre-toothed debates. These days, it just messes with your Monday.

More worryingly, research shows that repetitive negative thinking can weaken the frontal lobes, the brain’s control centre for focus, planning, and decisions. Those areas can slow down, making your inner task manager feel more like a distracted intern. One study found that higher negativity bias is linked to poorer cognitive regulation and emotional instability in anxiety disorders, backed up with neuroimaging evidence.

Thankfully, neuroscience offers an approachable fix: positivity bias training. It’s not about affirmations or moonlit vision boards. Researchers have studied a simple exercise, write three good things that went well each day, and found its effects can last for months.

Pair that with a morning intention such as “Today is going to be a good day”, and you’re gently nudging your brain to scan the world for what’s working, not what’s about to crash and burn.

This isn’t mystical “manifestation.” It's basic brain mechanics. Your reticular activating system, the brain’s filter, doesn’t care about your vibe. It just notices what you tell it to. If you signal “danger everywhere,” it finds it. If you signal “here’s what’s going well,” it finds that instead. It is almost like its acting like google, search for something and it gives you a list that match.

The takeaway? Your brain learns the reps you give it. Negative reps deep-train your worry circuits. Positive reps, over time, wire your brain toward problem solving and resilience, its simply doing what it thinks you are looking for.

It is not magic. It’s mechanics. And it works better than a productivity app, because all you need is two short sentences each day. And maybe, eventually, a slightly less cranky brain.