I tried a 2-week negativity fast. Here’s how it went

Whether you turn on the news or attempt to unwind with a Netflix series, a lot of the messages in today’s world are negative. It’s easy to become immune to the heaviness, and you may not realize how much its constant drum beat impacts you. That’s because the human brain is wired to focus on the negative. It’s tied to survival.

“Our seven dominant emotions are anger, contempt, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness, and surprise,” says Anthony Iannarino, author of The Negativity Fast: Proven Techniques to Increase Positivity, Reduce Fear, and Boost Success. “Five dominant emotions are negative, with happiness the only positive one, unless the surprise happens to be positive.”

Iannarino didn’t realize how negativity impacted his life until a mentor told him, “You know, you’re really angry. All these things that you’re worried about? You can’t do anything about them. The best thing you can do is just let all this go and try to take care of your family.”

How to Go on a Negativity Fast

Positivity is a choice, and it’s possible to spend more time in a positive state versus a negative one, says Iannarino. While it took six months, he finally took his mentor’s advice, deciding to remove all the negative sources in his life for 30 days.

“I got rid of every single magazine, newspaper, and book,” he recalls. “I started to remove some people in my life that I felt were causing me to be more negative than positive. I started looking around at everything that was negative.”

At the end of 30 days, Iannarino liked the results so much that he did another 30 days and then another. During his third 30-day negativity fast, he only consumed positive information, such as reading content by Stephen Covey, Brian Tracy, and Les Brown. “I was blasting out all the negative that I had put into my mind for many, many years, and it worked really well for me,” he says.

Iannarino also leaned on the work of Albert Ellis, founder of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. Ellis taught the ABC theory, which includes an activating event, your belief about what it means, and the consequences of how you react to it.

“If somebody cuts you off in traffic, for example, you can believe that they have road rage and they’re a terrible person or reckless, or you can believe that they could be rushing home because somebody was sick or they are under some sort of duress,” says Iannarino. “If you can change the belief, then you won’t be triggered anymore. It’s one of the more powerful things that you can do when you’re on a negativity fast.”

Another tool that helped Iannarino purge negativity was to look at his mortality. The average lifespan in the United States is 78.2 years, which boils down to 4,108 weeks. Iannarino uses a countdown app that tells him how many weeks he has left.

“I’m close to about 1,300,” he says. “People often think that’s morbid. Well, I’m here for a short time. You should do everything that you want to do and try to make the best contribution that you can while you’re here.”

My Negativity Fast

Positivity sounds, well, positive, so I decided to tip the daily scale in its favor for a week to see what would happen. I started with the news. I noticed that the morning news shows I watched while enjoying my coffee were focused on fear-mongering. And at night, I usually watch ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir on weekday evenings. While the broadcast always ends with an upbeat story, the reporting in the first 25 minutes is mostly concerning.

I switched out the morning news with a walk and an uplifting podcast, such as Happier with Gretchen Rubin or The Moth Radio Hour. I also learned I could visit World News Tonight’s website and watch their positive news segments without having to sit through the bad first.

When I wanted a news fix, I did a quick scan of the headlines on neutral sources like NPR and Associated Press. Iannarino told me not to worry about missing anything important.

“This is the one concern that people have when I suggest getting rid of the things you watch,” he says. “They wonder, ‘How am I going to know what’s going on?’ I promise, everybody’s going to be talking about it, and they’re going to share it with you. They’ll still try to help you understand that there are bad things happening in the world.”

While I didn’t consider myself a negative person, I also realized I am a regular complainer, especially low-grade things like finding fault or comparing. I’m not alone, says Iannarino.

“Humans complain a lot and often don’t recognize they’re doing it,” he says. “It makes you more anxious and stressed. It can cause you to have other mental problems like depression. The antidote is gratitude.”

Iannarino recommended that I adopt the “three blessings” exercise by Martin Seligman, who is often called the father of positive psychology. Each day, write down three things that went well for you.

“Seligman’s research said it’s more powerful than pharmaceuticals and can keep you from being anxious, stressed, and depressed for as long as six months,” says Iannarino. “When you start looking back at what you wrote, you start to realize a lot of good things happen to you all the time.”

I did my negativity fast before Christmas, and the stress I usually feel about getting everything done didn’t arise this year. The three blessings practice helped me realize I have much to be thankful for, which made me more patient with others. The ABC Theory helped me avoid jumping to conclusions.

By the end of the first week, I felt calmer, so I kept it going for another week. I was surprised at how just two weeks of avoiding negativity changed what I want to consume. For example, a friend recommended watching The Bear. When I tuned into the Hulu series, I found the family arguments and drama overwhelming. The dialogue and violence felt like an assault on me, so I decided to turn it off.

Iannarino has been on a negativity fast for more than two decades. I am keeping it going, too, being more mindful of what I consume. Iannarino told me that a lot of people choose to continue.

“Going on a negativity fast will help you be a lot less angry, stressed, and anxious,” he says. “You’ll feel like you have greater control of what’s going on in your life.”