CBM Positivity Training – Could It Work for You?

Whether you’re a glass is half full or a half empty kind of person, everyone could use a bit more positivity in this sometimes bleak world in which we live. CBM positivity training could make the difference in your life.

Do you ever find that you open the newspaper and only read the negative articles? Do you focus on things that went wrong in your day, the driver who honked at you, or that negative comment in the meeting? CBM, or cognitive bias modification, works to train you to look for the positives.

Mr. Rogers famously advised children that when something awful happens like 9/11 or the Boston Bombings, always look for the helpers. Picasso painted the terrible Guernica bombings, but also put a flower in the center to symbolize hope. Focusing too long on the negatives of life can cause numerous problems. Pessimistic people tend to remember the negative things, and dwelling on the negative can lead to extreme pessimism, depression, stress and anxiety.

Some of the programs CBM offers allow people to practice focusing on the positives. One experiment features a grid of faces. For a specified time, participants stare at sea of mostly negative expressions on people’s faces until they can spot the person whose face appears to have a happy or positive expression. Click on that image, and then a new grid of the same people appears, scrambled. Once again the grid features a slew of negative expressions and one positive person.

Participants continue with this exercise for several minutes and the idea is that with practice, they’ll train themselves to look for the person with the positive expression as quickly as possible, ignoring the negatives. The idea is that this can translate to thinking more positively and focusing less on all negativity in life.

This could help in many areas. Are you a creative person who frequently encounters rejection? This exercise will help you focus on the positives in your life and the people who do appreciate your work. Are you in a job search? This will help you focus on the positives — the fact that you have an interview rather than the fear of flubbing it. Even for people simply new in town who literally need practice in finding a friendly face, whether at school or work or a place of worship, this exercise can help.

Studies show that focusing on positives and shifting negative biases can help people better cope with stress. Finding ways to cope with stress can lower rates of depression, improve health, give you greater resistance to the common cold, give you a better psychological and physical wellbeing, improve overall outlook, give better coping skills during hardships and times of stress, and reduce the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. It can also help with weight loss.

So whether you’re a full-on pessimist or simply someone who occasionally focuses on that negative comment at work rather than the scores of other positives that happened throughout the day, CBM positivity training might make a big difference in your life.