So, these changes are happening all the time. The problem is we have a brain that evolved to help our ancestors do one thing – live to see the sunrise – passed on genes that passed on genes. Rule one in the wild is eat lunch today, don't be a lunch today. So, we have a brain that's evolved what scientists call a negativity bias.
It's very good at learning from bad experiences, but not so good, relatively bad at learning from good experiences, even though learning from good experiences, of beneficial states of mind, beneficial thoughts, beneficial body sensations, beneficial emotions, beneficial desires, like mindfulness, compassion, gratitude, self-worth, resilience, grit, determination, commitment to others, lovingness, feeling loved and so forth, these are good experiences.
And learning from these good experiences, which is to say helping them sink into our nervous system for lasting benefits, weaving these ordinary jewels of daily life into the fabric of our nervous system rather than letting them drip through our hands, that's the fundamental process of personal development, personal growth, steepening your learning curve over life. And the problems is we have a brain that's like Velcro for bad experiences, but Teflon for good experiences, even though internalizing good experiences is the primary way to grow the good stuff inside ourselves.
So, to sum up here, my recent interest have been very focused on, in effect, breaking the bottleneck of the negativity bias, and gradually developing a brain that's more like Velcro for the good and Teflon for the bad.
Erik: Rick, that's really interesting. And I think one of the things that many people can relate with is that perhaps sometimes in mental illness, for example, even when the environment doesn't seem particularly stressful or dangerous, people can experience stress in their bodies. Is that what you are talking about in terms of Velcro, or through the bad?
Dr. Hanson: Yeah, that's well-said. There's a term...gosh I'm racing to remember who developed it. It's called allostatic load, and it's this idea that when we go through a stressful episode, we accumulate some wear and tear from it. Now, the body is designed to recover and repair that wear and tear if it's relatively mild to moderate and brief. As Robert Sapolsky wrote in his wonderful book about stress and the impacts of stress – why zebras don't get ulcers – most experiences or episodes of stress in the wild end quickly, one way or another.
It's very good at learning from bad experiences, but not so good, relatively bad at learning from good experiences, even though learning from good experiences, of beneficial states of mind, beneficial thoughts, beneficial body sensations, beneficial emotions, beneficial desires, like mindfulness, compassion, gratitude, self-worth, resilience, grit, determination, commitment to others, lovingness, feeling loved and so forth, these are good experiences.
And learning from these good experiences, which is to say helping them sink into our nervous system for lasting benefits, weaving these ordinary jewels of daily life into the fabric of our nervous system rather than letting them drip through our hands, that's the fundamental process of personal development, personal growth, steepening your learning curve over life. And the problems is we have a brain that's like Velcro for bad experiences, but Teflon for good experiences, even though internalizing good experiences is the primary way to grow the good stuff inside ourselves.
So, to sum up here, my recent interest have been very focused on, in effect, breaking the bottleneck of the negativity bias, and gradually developing a brain that's more like Velcro for the good and Teflon for the bad.
Erik: Rick, that's really interesting. And I think one of the things that many people can relate with is that perhaps sometimes in mental illness, for example, even when the environment doesn't seem particularly stressful or dangerous, people can experience stress in their bodies. Is that what you are talking about in terms of Velcro, or through the bad?
Dr. Hanson: Yeah, that's well-said. There's a term...gosh I'm racing to remember who developed it. It's called allostatic load, and it's this idea that when we go through a stressful episode, we accumulate some wear and tear from it. Now, the body is designed to recover and repair that wear and tear if it's relatively mild to moderate and brief. As Robert Sapolsky wrote in his wonderful book about stress and the impacts of stress – why zebras don't get ulcers – most experiences or episodes of stress in the wild end quickly, one way or another.
