I recently watched this fascinating TEDxTalk given by Alison Ledgerwood. In 10 minutes, she describes how easy it is for our minds to get stuck in the negative. Makes sense to me, because we've survived as a species because our brains our awesome at sensing danger!  Danger in the past (and present) was/is equated with something negative. Our fight/Flight centers of our brains fire up when negative stuff happens, getting our bodies ready to act--either fight or run like the dickens (or freeze...but I'm not sure if you can freeze like the dickens...Heck I'm not even sure what "the dickens" is!) 

However, Alison gives some super fascinating statistics in her talk  about her research in how our minds get stuck in the negative.  If you have a chance (10 minutes only!), check it out below. She also makes a good case for beginning a gratitude practice as a way of retraining our minds to get out of the negative. So, What are you grateful for you today?

Alison Ledgerwood joined the Department of Psychology at UC Davis in 2008 after completing her PhD in social psychology at New York University. She is interested in understanding how people think, and how they can think better. Her research, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, investigates how certain ways of thinking about an issue tend to stick in people's heads.