Week 2: Feedback Thoughts

(The Human Brain, new.schoolsdo.org)

 The first article about feedback that I read was How to Tame Your Inner Critic: A Simple Habit to Rewire Your Brain, by Joel Almeida.  I thought this article suggested an excellent strategy for dealing with daily negative self-talk.  The typical understanding is that we should just "stop beating yourself up," or some advice along those lines, a suggestion to remove those thoughts from our brains.  But Almeida offers a better solution: to truly free our brain from self-criticism, we also need to replace our internal monologue with positive, encouraging thoughts about the progress we make.  It seems like a simple idea, but the more I think about it, the more profound it becomes, and I think it would be beneficial in my life to try that strategy.  Self-criticism has a time and place, but I'd like positivity to be my default mindset.

The second article that I read for this assignment was How to Get Past Negativity Bias in Order to Hardwire Positive Experiences, by Katrina Schwartz.  This article was similar in concept to Almeida's article, although it was a bit more scientific.  Schwartz brings up how our brains are made to remember the negative experiences in our lives more than the positive ones, as that has helped our survival in the past.  She recommends the HEAL strategy as a way to combat our fixation on the negative.  I thought this idea was very original, but I'm not sure it will be very applicable to my own life.  The article mentions that this strategy might not be the best for people dealing with some negative mindsets, and I find myself sometimes falling into that category (for example, thinking that I haven't done enough homework to go to sleep, etc.).  But Schwartz's article doesn't really offer a good solution for people who probably shouldn't associate positive memories with slightly negative thoughts, and I wish she had offered an alternative stepping stone for people like me who aren't quite ready for the final step in the strategy.

Overall, I think this topic about feedback is very relevant to me as a student.  I definitely remember harsh critiques from my professors and peers more frequently than I recall the encouragement that they've given.  I'm interested to continue thinking about the connection between feedback and the brain!