Do you know why our brains can replay our most embarrassing moments from years ago in high resolution, but struggle to remember a compliment from last week? The reason is our brains’ tendency to hold onto negative thoughts more tightly than positive ones, referred to as the negativity bias. And this cognitive bias is often amplified by another co-occurring phenomenon researchers call the negative sentiment override.

If you have experienced this too, you can take comfort in knowing that it’s not a unique personality quirk, but a phenomenon that’s been recorded and studied in evolutionary psychology for decades. This means that the mistake or past humiliation you keep reliving is, in all probability, really not that deep. This bias is a built-in feature of human wiring, shaped by evolution and reinforced by modern stress. And understanding why this happens can help you break the cycle and regain control of your mental narrative.

Here are the three main reasons your brain gravitates toward negativity and what you can do about it.

Long before smartphones, deadlines or social media existed, humans had one job: to survive. And that meant paying extremely close

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