Overcoming Negativity Bias

Overcoming Negativity Bias

            Random acts of kindness entail the unpremeditated and inconsistent actions done by an individual without expecting the same in return. These actions can either be spontaneous or planned with the intent of benefiting others in different ways. The self-reflection elaborates on the various aspects and outcomes from conducting random acts of kindness to the doer.

Random Acts of Kindness

The primary purpose of engaging me in these random acts of kindness was to help others feel appreciated and comfortable in their environments. The first act of kindness I did was to head to the hospital and donate blood for patients. I chose this activity because helping others by promoting their health outcomes is essential for their wellbeing and that of their families. After the act, I had a self-worth feeling and relieved through slowed and regular heartbeat rate. Secondly, I offered to pay lunch to one of the students seated in the dining hall without eating. I chose to do so because I have experience in how missing a meal affects someone, and by doing so, I wanted to make him feel cared for and loved. Physically, I felt relaxed to have helped another student, while my emotional response was being trustful and accepted. Finally, I carried doughnuts and coffee for my group members during an afternoon discussion. I did the act because I wanted to motivate them and make them happy in a conducive discussion environment. The primary purpose of engaging me in these random acts of kindness was to help others feel appreciated and comfortable in their settings, while I physically and emotionally developed my internal and external wellbeing.e.

Summary of the Acts

For the first act, the physical experience was before I was feeling shaky and sweating, my accelerated heartbeat during the action, and finally, I had a regular heartbeat rate and relieved after the experience. For the second act, I felt relaxed before the act, typical during the act, and energetic to have helped. Finally, for the third act, I felt tired and exhausted before the action, sufficiently active during the act, and very relaxed and relieved afterward. Emotionally, I felt fear and nervous before the act, a sense of calmness during the act, and self-worth after the first act. For the second act, I felt happy before the act, excitement during the action, and a trustful feeling after the act. Finally, I was eager before the act, happy during the action, and joyous and, at the same time, surprised after the act.

Interpretation of experiences and Brain’s Negativity Bias

Different experiences differ in feelings before and after conducting them. There is always an aspect of anxiety when volunteering to perform various acts for others. For example, the first act portrays an anxious feeling because volunteering to donate blood does not have an assurance of positive outcome guaranteed. The sense of the experiences clearly shows that I value the wellbeing of others more than mine, which explains my reliability and commitment to ensuring that I fulfill my values. Also, compassion and positivity towards positive acts for others is the right way for both your personal physical and emotional development.

The experiences from the activities done overcame the entire negative bias I was unsure or had experienced earlier. By showing affection and love towards others, I was able to overcome the negative emotions I was experiencing. For example, I had a negative feeling when heading to buy the doughnuts, asking my fellow students to buy him lunch, and heading to the hospital for blood donation. However, conducting heartful acts alters the negativity bias, and replaces them with positive feelings of doing good to others.

Social norms entail unwritten but accepted conduct or behavior that people are expected to conform to towards others in a particular group. Therefore, kindness is an act of being considerate and generous to others, which can be classified as a social norm. Parents and other cultural elders encourage young ones to practice kindness during their development.

Relationship between Negativity bias and kindness

Negativity bias and kindness are highly related to a person’s wellbeing. Negativity bias is associated with focusing more on the less harmful events than non-negative events. Kindness influences create a positive impact in overcoming negativity bias in life. For example, the positive emotions and physical outcomes such as happiness, self-worth, and trustful of the experiment made me completely forget about the negative feelings such as anxiety and being nervous before some experiments.  With the high rating of emotional intelligence of 3.58, which is higher than the average score of 3.44 for women, I can overcome the negativity bias using the kindness to promote emotions.

According to Meyers DeWall (2017), there are different mixed emotions, both negative and positive, which determine the outcome of negativity bias. Because negativity bias develops during human evolution, the more acts of kindness done bring a positive impact on altering the negativity. Thus, to reduce the negativity bias, practicing positive experiences, and absorbing them frequently helps to overrun the negativity experiences, which in turn promote energetic wellbeing (Hanson, 2013). Thus, taking in the good through portraying of kindness for long install the emotions in the body and mind of the person, promoting their psychological experiences. Therefore, the reduction of negativity bias is highly dependent on the kindness one shows others, and how they can absorb the feelings for positivity.

References

Hanson, R. (2013). Taking in the Good.

Myers, David G., and DeWall, C. Nathan (2017). Psychology in Everyday Life. New York, NY: Worth Publishers. ISBN- 13: 978-1319013738