During ice age, the extremely low temperatures throughout the planet’s surface were causing continental ice and glaciers to cover substantial forage of the terrain. Only species that were always cautious, preparing to survive got naturally selected to live on. A positive or hopeful thought like “It is a beautiful day today. I bet it will be beautiful tomorrow” got crushed by the deadly ice while a distressed thought like, “I am going to die!” actually helped survive. Unfortunately humanity has faced such tragic occurrences time and again which has lent strength to beliefs like “Pessimism is essential for survival. It prepares you for the worst case scenarios”. Pessimism is a way to fix the bad and anything that could possibly go wrong. This mentality, although great for survival, stops us from flourishing and building a beautiful life above and beyond.

Are we tuned to be bad weather brains?

As humans we are wired to have bad weather brains. If you notice that it has been raining and the weather is really bad out there, there is a high chance that this situation will create a sense of urgency in us and we will take the necessary precautions to ensure that we and our loved ones are safe. We will call up our loved ones to check on them, seek updates, arrange for enough food in case things shut down. The sense of urgency triggers our anxieties, worries and apprehensions. We might also end up ruminating over our negative thoughts. At the end of the day, all our efforts, anxieties, and apprehensions send a message to our mind that, “It was a big deal and the entire day was so miserable”. But it is simply because a lot of time and efforts were dedicated to the negative news. The entire day turned out to be about that event. 

Of course, it was necessary to take precautions but what did we miss? We did not notice even a single good thing that happened during the day. 

How about we try to be positive?

Now, on the other hand, imagine that the sun is shining brightly and we notice that it is good weather. We may hardly do anything about it or dedicate any efforts to enjoy the good weather. Positivity does not generate a sense of urgency in us and we continue to go about our days simply because attending to the positive does not seem important. We pay less attention to it, do little about it and then end up feeling that there is nothing good about our life.

We have the option of making this positivity in our lives a big deal. How? By simply noticing and acting on it. A small action like cooking our favorite meal, sipping on our tea on the terrace, sitting in the sun to enjoy the sunlight, going for a walk with friends, counting our blessings are ways in which we can make this positivity a big deal.

It is all about changing our bad weather brains to good weather brains in order to celebrate everything that life has to offer to us.