The more often we note to ourselves some little things that please us, we feel better there. Proven fact.
I’m sitting at the computer and at first glance doing nonsense. Photos of people with different facial expressions appear on the screen. Most of them are gloomy or just focused, but one smiling face is lost among them. My task is to find a face with a smile as quickly as possible and click on the photo with the mouse. Then I will get bonus points and the next portion of faces. The number of images is growing, but gradually I get so carried away that finding a smiling face becomes not at all difficult.
Why am I wasting my time on a primitive toy? In fact, this game is one of the ancillary treatments for depression and anxiety disorders, known as Cognitive Bias Modification. The fact is that people suffering from depression and anxiety tend to fixate on negative stimuli and events. If they are shown many faces with different emotions and asked to choose any five, they are more likely to choose people with a gloomy, sad, or judgmental expression*.
It is for such patients that cognitive distortion correction techniques have been developed to help overcome cognitive “bias”. There are many different versions of these programs. The simplest option – the one I tested – suggests constantly choosing a smiling face from many gloomy ones. Another option is to alternate different images on the screen, some of which are tilted to the right, and some to the left. The instruction asks: use the joystick to zoom in on images with a left tilt and zoom out on images with a right tilt. And only after a while you notice that you bring pictures of pleasant content closer to you and move away disturbing or gloomy images.
Despite the apparent simplicity of the method, studies show that if a person uses it for 15–20 minutes daily for a month, then he increasingly pays attention to positive aspects and his mood changes significantly and steadily**.
Does this only apply to patients with clinical problems? Of course not. Who among us has not noticed that vacationers in the same hotel leave radically different reviews? All of us are somewhat prone to the habit of seeing only the bad. But you can try to change your view of the world. For this, it is not necessary to use the described method or undergo psychotherapy. Try to systematically (!) note the little things that make you happy: someone held the door in front of you or smiled, you heard your favorite song or noticed a piece of blue sky. Of course, this experience will not change you completely. But it will be an important step towards change.
* Behavioral Neuroscience, 2013, vol. 14.
** See mindhabits.com for more details