stress well for schools 3.1 pathways exercise

STRESS WELLby

Nicola Morgan

www.nicolamorgan.com

3.1Pathways –

Negative thoughts

“Negative intrusive thoughts”

Sometimes a worry, fear or negative thought goes over and over in our mind

How did you learn all that?

• Your brain contains billions of nerve cells called “neurons”

• When you learn something new, you grow pathways between them

Thoughts

• A thought is just an electrical signal in your brain

• The signal follows a path between brain cells

• Each time you have that thought, that path becomes stronger

Learning a fact

What is the capital of France?

© andersphoto

Learning a fact

• You’ve had that thought lots of times, so the pathway is strong

• You’ve seen pictures of the Eiffel Tower too, so you have pathways for that

• When you learn a new fact, the pathway is weak. You make it strong with practice

Negative thoughts

• But the brain learns negative thoughts, too• Each time we have the negative thought, that

pathway gets stronger• So we are more likely to have the thought

again

This is a steep hill going down

Let me show you

Imagine you come to this place in the path. You have to choose a way down.

Imagine you choose this path the first day

Next day, you will PROBABLY choose the same path. It will be easier. And harder to choose a different one.

Each day, that path will be more obvious and easier to follow.

Soon, it will be the only path you bother to try. It will be a habit.

BUT WAIT! STOP!

You COULD choose another path. It wouldn’t be easy at first. But you could. You could choose to think a POSITIVE thought.

The more you have the positive thought, the stronger that new path would become and it would be easier each time

Soon, it would be the easier path to follow and the old negative one would fade away and become weak.

The old path won’t completely disappear. You might have that thought again, but you’ll be able to find the positive one more easily. You did it once – you can do it again.

STRESS WELLby

Nicola Morgan

www.nicolamorgan.com

3.1Pathways –

Negative thoughts