Your Brain is Not Here to Make You Happy...

The first thing to understand about your brain is that it’s here to keep you alive, not to make you happy. That’s why “what ifs” and potential threats always seem so loud. Your brain is wired to detect threats, avoid danger and conserve energy for survival.

The Caveperson Brain

Imagine you’re a caveman (or woman.) In front of you are 99 zebras grazing peacefully, but in the distance, there’s one animal that might be a lion. Where does your brain focus? Not on the 99 harmless zebras, but on the possible lion - because if it is a lion, paying attention could save your life. This is called negativity bias: our brain’s tendency to naturally focus on the negative over the positive.

Negativity Bias Today

Our co-workers: A room full of lions and zebras

Fast-forward to the modern world. The zebras and lions have been replaced by emails, deadlines, and social situations. Imagine giving a presentation at work... Ninety-nine of your colleagues smile, nod, and tell you it was great. One person makes a negative comment. Do you go home celebrating the 99 compliments? Or do you replay that one criticism over and over in your head? That’s negativity bias at work.

Why We Overreact

Your brain is deeply wired to overreact because, in the past, overreacting kept you safe. Missing a lion could cost you your life; missing a zebra grazing meant nothing. The trouble is, in today’s world, this bias often holds us back. We’re no longer fighting for daily survival — but our brain still acts like we are. We were built to survive, but now we need to learn how to thrive.

Your Brain is Here to Help you Survive. Hypnotherapy Can Help you Thrive.

The good news is, you can train your brain to balance out this bias and override our instinctual negativity bias with positive reframing.

1. Reframe the “what ifs”

   • Survival brain: “What if this goes wrong?”

   • Thriving brain: “What if this goes right?”

2. Three Good Things

   • At the end of each day, write down three small things that went well. This helps your brain notice zebras, not just lions.

3. Breathing to reset

   • When you feel caught in overthinking, try slow 4–7–8 breathing (inhale 4, hold 7, exhale 8). It tells your nervous system: you’re safe.

4. Mindful pause

   • When you catch yourself spiralling on one criticism, pause and ask: “What else is true here?”

     
     

Final Thought

Your brain’s first job is to protect you, not to make you happy. Booking a personalised Hypnotherapy session gets to the root cause of your beliefs and re-codes them, so you can start to thrive. With awareness and practice, you can gently retrain it to stop scanning for lions that aren’t really there - and start enjoying the zebras all around you.