I was having an interesting chat with my friend last week about how she was finding lockdown and how working from home was working in her company. I was intrigued to see if others were experiencing it the way as I was. She said something that fascinated me –
“I think that the biggest problem with everyone working 100% virtually, is the lack of human interaction. It means people forget their social niceties. The hello’s, the goodbyes, the how are you’s when you meet someone”
The result of that she believed was that people’s brains were operating from a much more negative position. Well obviously, anyone who’s read any of my blogs will know that peaked my interest, so this week – I thought we’d explore that…
I think most of us would have grown up with the saying:
Well a more accurate one would be:
To see, scientifically, the effects of negative and positive words, I love this experiment done many times over now, where 2 plants are kept in identical environments, one has positive phrases said to it, the other negatives ones and they track how it reacts over 30 days. It’s a really neat visual representation of what is happening inside our brains. This one is a IKEA and a school in the UAE but all result in similar outcomes.
So we know that positive and negative things said to us makes a difference. That feels instinctively right doesn’t it – we know how someone smiling or saying hi on the tube can lift your day, how someone whinging near you can bring you down.. but what is actually happening inside the brain (yes that’s right it’s science time)
What is going on in the brain when one produces positive or negative thoughts in response to positive and negative influences?
Every thought releases some type of chemical. When positive thoughts are generated, when you’re feeling happy, or optimistic, cortisol (the stress hormone) decreases and the brain produces serotonin (the happy hormone), creating a feeling of well-being. The review is therefore true when a negative thought is generated, serotonin decreases and cortisol increases.
Positive Feeling as a response:
The brain heightens prefrontal activity and positivity resulting in enhanced mental functions such as creative thinking, cognitive flexibility, and even faster processing. Positive emotions actually widen our span of attention and it also change our perception and focus on more on the “we” instead of the “me”.
I think this is what my friend was talking about. A lack of social niceties reduces the positive response and therefore we’re stuck more on “me” and not “we”…
Taking a look at the prefrontal cortex, when happy thoughts occur, there is brain growth through the reinforcement and generation of new synapses. The prefrontal cortex is where all mind/brain functions conjugate and then are disbursed to various parts of the brain or transmitted to other parts of the body. The prefrontal cortex is the switching station that regulates the signals from the neurons as well as allows you to reflect and think about what you are doing at the time.
Negative Feelings as a response:
The brain draws precious metabolic energy away from the prefrontal cortex. Negative thoughts impact the brains ability to perform at high or even normal capacity. When stressed it’s difficult to take in and process new material, yet alone think creatively.
Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) brain imaging studies have shown that negative thoughts also reduce activity in the cerebellum, which controls coordination, balance, working relationships with others as well as speed of thought.
Social pain (or the lack of social niceties) is believed to be hardwired into the brain in a way that physical pain is not, hence we can re-live it over and over in our minds. It explains why the emotional tone of a boss delivering criticism to an employee will have a greater effect on the individual than the actual statements themselves.
The frontal lobe, particularly the prefrontal cortex, decides the amount of attention to pay to something based on its importance and how you feel about it. The more you focus on negativity, the more synapses and neurons you brain will create – supporting your negative thought process. Negative thoughts slow down the brain’s ability to function and it impedes cognition.
Glass Half-full or Half-empty?
Behavioural scientists have also observed some interesting differences between optimists and pessimists. Besides the fact that optimists are more preserving and successful in life, they also tend to have better physical health.
Conclusion:
The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that helps to control emotions and behaviours and stay focused. Thinking positive thoughts, enhances higher-order thinking skills as well as analysing and controlling cognitive processes, especially when actively engaged in learning.
These changes can be temporary or long lasting. In terms of temporary changes, the flow of the different neurochemicals in the brain will vary at different times. For instance, when people hear positive comments, practice gratitude, or laugh they are likely getting higher flows of reward-related neurotransmitters, like serotonin, but level reduce when the stimulus ends.
However the mind can also change the brain in lasting ways. What flows through the mind sculpts the brain. As the mind flows through the brain, as neurons fire together in particularly patterned ways based on the information they are representing, those patterns of neural activity change neural structure. So busy regions of the brain start stitching new connections with each other. Existing synapses - the connections between neurons that are very busy - get stronger, they get more sensitive, they start building out more receptors. New synapses form as well.
That highlights an important point that I think is a major takeaway in this territory: Experience really matters. It doesn’t only matter in our moment-to-moment well-being—how it feels to be me right now - but it really matters in the lasting residues that it leaves behind, woven into our very being.
So as we can see the science shows us that it’s important to get positive inputs regularly and consistently. If we are as a result of social lockdown and working virtual getting a reduction in those inputs, that are not being replaced by the same types in different ways, then it is eminently possible that our brains and minds are now geared to be more negative – and all the things that come with that – less attention, less creativity, less health.
I certainly know that I try to start my meetings a little aspect of social niceties, even if I am so very very British and it’s usually about the weather.
There is another whole aspect to this that interests me, whether engaging via a screen changes things? Does the lack of energy exchange affect the impact of the words.. But that’s for another time maybe.
For not though, I just want to ask you to please be cognisant of how much positive and negative spin you are putting onto your communication, and please try to remember:
“The Great People I’ve met, always have time for the niceties” – Mercedes McCambridge
And not:
“He didn’t have to observe the niceties of etiquette when talking to a computer” Robert Silverberg
Until next time...
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