Previously, Bored Panda reached out to Vasia Toxavidi, a counselor and accredited member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), to find out about ways of dealing with mishaps and developing psychological resilience.

According to Vasia, even the smallest mishaps like “throwing our morning coffee on us or even getting a text or an email we don’t like can affect the rest of our day.” A typical reaction is “Oh, great start to the day!” but according to the counselor, the negative bias can directly affect the course of events.

Scientists say that the reason we are all wired for ‘negatively biased’ thinking is because negative events and emotions have a greater impact in our brains than the positive ones. Even the smallest things that generate negative reactions can snowball into the forecast for the rest of the day, or even the week.

According to Vasia, we end up creating a self-fulfilling prophecy because we look at the world through lenses triggered by anger, fear, or the expectation that something will go wrong. And in that sense, the reality is only how we perceive it.

So as humans, we tend to not only forecast things to go badly because of otherwise meaningless mishaps, we tend to fixate on virtually any negative moments. Whether it’s recalling insults better than praise, reacting more strongly to negative stimuli than to positive, thinking about negative things more frequently than positive, it all contributes to our behavior.

This bias toward the negative leads you to pay much more attention to the bad things that happen, making them seem much more important than they really are.

It is thought that the negative bias comes from our ancestors who’d pay attention to bad, dangerous, and negative threats in the world. It was literally a matter of life and death. Those who were more attuned to danger had higher chances of survival.

But that doesn’t mean that we cannot escape the negative bias trap. On the contrary, once you are aware this is how your brain works, you can make a conscious effort to stop it.

For example, a great start is cutting down on negative self-talk, which we all secretly are into. Instead of fixating on your past mistakes, consider what you have learned and ways to apply your newly acquired knowledge. In this way, you approach the same situation from a positive outlook.

Secondly, make sure you catch yourself drifting into negativity. At this moment, you may want to go for a walk, do other things that make you happy, and listen to your favorite song. In this way, newly established patterns will not let you fixate on negative emotions.

In a previous interview with Vasia Toxavidi, a counselor and accredited member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), we found out that psychological resilience is also key in dealing with negativity. 

“Although there has been a debate whether resilience, mental and emotional, is innate or something that can be developed, for me, it’s an innate condition that all humans have but needs to be developed and modeled well for it to come to the surface," she explained.

“All humans are wired for survival, so resilience must be an innate trait for everyone for this to happen, but if it’s never developed, then it may not come out as a trait for someone."

She added that humor can help us reframe problems that we would otherwise interpret as "overwhelming and damaging." Not only that. Toxavidi told Bored Panda that humor can loosen you up, energize your thinking, help you take hardships less seriously, and manage disappointment better.

"Another important key to resilience is to be part of a community and have external support from family, friends and others. As humans, we’re social animals so without having a strong sense of belonging, we cannot thrive or be resilient," she concluded.