Every now and again it is inevitable that we will take stock or our lives and assess “how we are doing”. When this happens, is it your tendency to focus on what’s working well in your life or are you more likely to dwell on things that are not going well?

Do you often find yourself worrying about the future?

Have you noticed that the satisfaction that comes from achieving a goal does not last long?

Human beings, for some reason, generally seem to default to the negative. It seems that our attention is disproportionately drawn toward potential threats, risks, and things that could go wrong.

Perhaps this tendency developed as part of a primal survival mechanism. However, it interferes with our happiness and well-being because it constantly draws our attention to what is wrong or lacking, rather than what is right and working.

For example, we hear scary statistics about disease risk and often think they apply to us.

The reality and good new is that generally we are doing better than we think. For example, a study in the journal Circulation showed that following five healthy lifestyle behaviors:

• maintaining a healthy weight
• getting enough exercise
• not smoking
• not drinking excessively
• eating a healthy diet

… increases lifespan by an average of 13 years!

You may be thinking, “I do (at least some of) these things". PLUS what if in addition to these healthy behaviors, you’re also getting enough sleep, spending time outside, and maybe even mixing in some intermittent fasting or other “biohacks”?

Your lifespan is likely to be even longer. Go you!

Why don’t we dwell on these good things? Why don’t we celebrate what we’re doing right?

Sure, there may be room to improve, but we should recognize that our efforts have brought us far ahead of the curve!

Exciting discoveries in the field of neuroplasticity, have proven that turning our focus to what is going well—rather than simply dwelling on what’s not—is important for our mental health, but it also improves our physical health.

So, the next time you find yourself worrying about the latest fearmongering health headline, remember, you’re doing better than you think!