A short excerpt from a YouTube interview (Broken Brain 2 docu-series) where Sachin Patel argues that people frame health as disease prevention but should instead focus on actively creating health. He uses analogies (marriage, business, computer coding, 'don't think of a white rhinoceros') to illustrate that the brain responds better to positive goals than negation.
Chapters
Most people, when it comes to their health, they're living a lifestyle to prevent a disease. And the brain can't think in negatives because how many different diseases are you going to eat to try to prevent? Right? How many different diets are you going to go on? We want to focus on creating health instead of preventing disease. How do I create health? Think about it this way. You don't get married to prevent a divorce. You don't start a business and operate it to prevent bankruptcy. You go into that engagement, or you go into that relationship, or you go into that business to actually create something. So the best way to actually create your best health is to focus on health instead of preventing disease, because the brain can't think in negatives. If I tell you to not think about a white rhinoceros, that's the only thing that you can think about. Think of your brain like a computer. If I want the computer to show a blue dot on the screen, that's the thing that I have to code into it.