I was on the phone with a friend a couple months ago and he was lamenting the fact that he lost a big work contract for the fall, leaving a “hole” in his income and schedule.

My immediate thought was – oh, an opening for something new, maybe more fun, perhaps higher paying.

A hole is the same as an opening.

An opening for a whole new opportunity.

I’ve always been a pretty positive person, but in my early 20s I began to really train myself to have a pragmatic positivity bias.

To genuinely and automatically see the positive side of situations, without having to…

• Talk myself into it.
• Practice toxic positivity. 
• Lie to myself. 
• Fake it or feel cheesy.

The truth is that losing something, like a project or job, objectively creates space for something else…

… but it’s hard to see that if you’re wallowing in the loss of what was never meant to be.

You wind up using your energy to feel bad rather than channeling it toward new possibilities.

Without a pragmatic positivity basis, in moments of “loss” you build up tension that could repel new opportunities.

With food, after eating something viewed as “bad” lots of people feel guilty and try to “make up for it.”

They see it as a negative choice rather than viewing it through the lens of pragmatic positivity.

When we label food as good or bad we keep ourselves on a constant rollercoaster of reward and punishment.

Let’s take french fries as an example.

A lot of people would view them as a “bad” food that they need to “burn off” or offset with a “calorie deficit.”

What if you saw them as a fun moment of pleasure that nourished your soul, and included some traditional nutrients too?

What if you saw them as no big deal in the context of a week, vs one day?

Immediately, your nervous system would relax and you would digest those fries better, because you wouldn’t be stressing out over them.

Better digestion = less bloating, higher energy, better focus, and a balanced weight.

Mental stress over food can be way more detrimental than any food itself.

When the stress response is engaged, it’s much more difficult to digest and absorb nutrients.

If you have a pragmatic positivity bias toward food, your health and mindset are likely to improve.

How do you develop a pragmatic positivity bias toward all foods? 

1. Practice seeing all foods as neutral. Food is not a moral issue. 
2. Notice how different foods make you feel without labeling them good or bad. 
3. Remember that food is supposed to be pleasurable – it’s not just calories in, calories out.
4. Get back to your roots. Food is culture and connection – it’s not just fuel. 
5. Prioritize relaxing your nervous system. Stress is more toxic than any food will ever be. 
6. Chew, chew, chew your food, so you can actually appreciate how it tastes, and notice how it feels in your body.
7. Slow way down at meals, so you have more time to enjoy your food and register when you’re full or still hungry. 

When you release all the tension of “good” and “bad,” you clear the static surrounding your intuition, and you can hear what your body is asking for at the next meal or snack.

After something like a burger and fries, a balanced body usually craves vegetables, fish, fruits, and water – nourishment and hydration.

By seeing the positive where most people see the negative, you can hear your food intuition more clearly, and attract more of what you want in your life.

Rather than dwelling in the tension of striving-achievement-gain-loss, you can choose to see everything as neutral information, and to remember that everything is adding up in the direction of your destiny – what’s truly meant for you.

Letting go of good-bad tension also clears confusion in the body and resets food cravings.

This keeps your energy light and magnetic, which allows for the natural order of things to flow.

When you notice negativity, simply observe yourself, then reroute toward the pragmatic positive side.

In the best case scenario, what could this “loss” be setting you up for?

How could that “bad” food actually be serving you?

Practice rerouting toward pragmatic positivity over and over, and it will become a habit.

Meditation, such as vedic meditation, also helps greatly when you’re looking to develop more pragmatic positivity.

It supports the development of new neural pathways – thought patterns – and allows you to respond from a grounded place in difficult moments, rather than reacting.

Most of us have heard…

“Don’t get too big for your britches.”
“Just wait for the other shoe to drop.” 
“That’s too good to be true.”

… dozens of times, from a young, highly impressionable age.

So there’s no shame if you’ve realized that you tend to see the negative in situations – most of us learned this as a protection mechanism.

The good news?

Science shows we can rewire our thought patterns and develop new neural pathways at any age.

Do you notice that your brain naturally goes toward the negative, in life and with food, or have you already developed a pragmatic positivity bias?

I’d love to hear where you could use support, and what’s already worked for you in the comments below!

XO,
Lula

Photo: Rodolfo De Jesus David