How the mind gears itself for its environment, she thought. And she recalled a Bene Gesserit axiom: “The mind can go either direction under stress — toward positive or toward negative: on or off. Think of it as a spectrum whose extremes are unconsciousness at the negative end and hyperconsciousness at the positive end. The way the mind will lean under stress is strongly influenced by training.

A positive mind finds a way it can be done. A negative mind looks for all the ways it can’t be done.

A positive mind is like a powerful stream of water that is gathering volume and force from hundreds of tributaries all along its course. The further on it goes the greater its power, until when it reaches its goal, that power is simply immense. A negative mind, however, would be something like a stream, that the further it flows the more divisions it makes, until, when it reaches its goal, instead of being one powerful stream, it has become a hundred, small, weak, shallow streams.

Be more intentional about the direction we allow our minds to go. Meaning, when you catch yourself thinking negatively, STOP. REDIRECT to something positive.

Simple mindset shifts:

– I'm not hurt, I'm healing.
– I'm not losing, I'm learning.
– I was not rejected, I was redirected.

Negative things happen. Negative mindsets make them harder.

Unfortunately, while we’re no longer running from saber-toothed tigers, our modern multitasking, racing about, and frequent stresses keep pushing us into the red zone. Then it’s hard to leave due to what researchers call the brain’s negativity bias.

Our heads are round so thought can change direction

Instead of worrying about what could go wrong, change your thoughts to what could go right. When you change the negative thought into a positive one, it eliminates the negative one.

Discipline Your Mind to Think Positively: Discipline your mind to see the good in every situation and look on the best side of every event.

TURNING YOUR MIND toward the dharma does not bring security or confirmation. Turning your mind toward the dharma does not bring any ground to stand on. In fact, when your mind turns toward the dharma, you fearlessly acknowledge impermanence and change and begin to get the knack of hopelessness.

The two directions of thinking are the outward direction toward your material equipment which gives you your resources, and the inward direction toward your mental equipment, which gives you your resourcefulness.

So in the fixed mindset, both positive and negative labels can mess with your mind. When you’re given a positive label, you’re afraid of losing it, and when you’re hit with a negative label, you’re afraid of deserving it.

Research shows that 65% of our thoughts are negative and staying positive in today's world is almost a full-time job. You just have to turn on the TV, or open a news app on your smartphone, and you are confronted with fear-inducing messages instantly. We hear that the economy is bad, people are killed and that companies go bust. The general tone of the news is negative, which I understand.

Your brain is programmed to seek out the negative — dwindling resources, destructive weather, whatever’s out to hurt you. So when you switch on that radio on the way to work and get bombarded with all those reports about robberies, fires, attacks, the tanking economy, your brain lights up — it now will spend all day chewing