In part 1 of this post we asked the question in regards to what can we do about it even if we are prone to be more negative and is it possible that we could we be suffering physically and mentally as a result of these negative thoughts, but not be consciously aware of it?

A place that is looking into this is at The Media Lab in Boston Massachusetts where Professor Ros Picard has built an emotion device. It looks like a over sized bracelet that acts like a wearable microscope that lets you look inside the body and read the emotions that we either cannot express, or do not even know we are experiencing which can often offer a lot of surprises.

It works by monitoring emotional states by detecting minute changes in the electrical conductivity of the skin which is driven by the autonomic nervous system which affects heart rate, digestion, respiratory rate, salivation, perspiration, papillary dilation, micturition (urination), and sexual arousal.

Most autonomous functions are involuntary but a number of ANS actions can work alongside some degree of conscious control.

Everyday examples include breathing, swallowing, and sexual arousal, and in some cases functions such as heart rate.

The reason this system works better than questionnaires is that people say anything, or they don’t really know how they feel. Even though we think we are happy it can often reveal that at an autonomic level we are not as we say or would wish to think.

The body often displays that there is a change in our state well before our mind recognises that state.

So even if you are trying to be truthful in a questionnaire usually our awareness of what’s really going on or how we feel lags quite a long way behind.

What scientists are interested in is which side of the brain and body shows most activity in individuals and what this means about there personality.

For example Molesy from the Horizon programme, who is right handed, showed from the data from the right bracelet, that his right side of the brain showed more activity which would suggest, because of the connection with the Amygdala that he is partially socially phobic – which although he didn’t think he felt nervous is characteristic of Molesy.

This is something that although unconscious to us, is never the less still very stressful and tiring for the autonomic nervous which can become evident both mentally and physically in an individual.

The interesting thing is that Molesy before and during the interview did not acknowledge that he was nervous. In fact he believed that Ros Picard would be the one that would be likely to feel under pressure which clearly, according to the results was not the case.

If this is all going on under the radar, and it is effecting our health can we change it or are predisposed to live with it?

The University of Essex, Neuroscientist Elaine Fox and her team are studying a form of brain training called Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM)

The idea is that if the orientation of your brain is  genetically and conditionally more biased towards negative thoughts then by a simple process we can begin to change our brains to interpret things more positively.

The premise of the exercise is simple. Lots of faces appear in a grid on a computer screen. Some are happy and some sad or angry. All you have to do is search out the smiling faces and click on them.

The idea is that by training your brain to look for positive images it becomes more condition to look for positives traits in the world.

This system is proving to work with such conditions as anxiety.

Molesy remained skeptical that something so simple could change anything regarding his own issues with anxiety caused by his tendency for self-absorption and catastrophising. Instead of being in the present he is off worrying about the past or stressing about the future which inevitable makes him miserable and in a negative ruminating rut.

In Part 3 of this blog you can find out a second technique being used to change our pessimistic outlooks and how science is proving that it really is possible to change our minds.