Why can our brain conjure random negative scenarios in our head but doesn’t make accidental random positive scenarios except when doing that voluntarily?
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Evolutionary biology. Hopefully I can explain this simply enough.
Negative experiences are more memorable and it has to do with evolutionary biology. If you naturally knew all the good things that helped you, you’d be focused on and spending too much time not thinking about hazards and dangers, and you’d be more likely to walk into a situation that will cause you harm or worse, death.
Negative experiences leave a lasting impact because we naturally want to survive and live and procreate. Understanding what gets in the way of this in a detrimental way allows us to actually focus our lives on surviving, living and procreating.
Your brain is an amazing organ, and a really important role it serves is to try and keep you safe. You can think of this part of the brain’s function like a guard dog. It’s always on the lookout for danger, because if there was a moment it wasn’t alert then you could be left vulnerable to that danger, which it doesn’t want. Because of this, it’s really great at spotting potential threats and warning you about them.
When your brain does spot something it thinks might be a potential threat (even if it sometimes gets it wrong and sees a threat where there isn’t one) it tries to prepare you by coming up with all sorts of scenarios that threat could lead to. Since it’s impossible to know *which* scenario will happen, it’s better to be prepared for lots, right? This way, no matter what does happen, you will be able to react quickly and safely. So, when you hear a noise in the dark and immediately think it might be something scary – that’s your brain being cautious and protective.
What about the other side, then? Why doesn’t our brain conjure random positive scenarios like it does with negative ones? Well, the simple answer is that the situations we associate with positivity are those that we *want* to engage with (like finding a treasure chest, having fun with your friends, or just eating a really good ice cream) and aren’t going to set off alarm bells for the guard dog in your brain. Since it’s not as crucial for your immediate safety, our brain, rather than try to prepare us for these types of positive scenarios instead lets us enjoy them as they come and saves its attention for the much riskier ones. It may seem a bit sad that so many negative scenarios can enter our head at any time, but our brains are wired this way so that we can actually enjoy the positive experiences of the world for longer <3
From an evolutionary perspective this over-protectiveness has helped us survive. That’s not to say you can’t train your brain to think positively about things, too, just that it takes a big more effort because its primary job is to keep you safe. Because its when you’re safe that you’ll have more time and freedom to enjoy the best things in life.
Because positive scenarios tend to result in continued survival or benefits, which you don’t really need to be prepared for. Your mind going to the possible negative outcomes is good because you’re able to reason what to do if they were to happen.
When you are dead it’s over. So your mind is constantly reminding you all the ways you could be dead.
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