stress well for schools 3.1 pathways exercise
TRANSCRIPT
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