We have heard it many times – “try to relax!” Most of the time it does not really make a difference because whatever is causing us to not be relaxed won’t just simply disappear because we wish so. However, even though sometimes we do finish the task, resolve the conflict or get rid of the source of our feelings of stress, the actual feeling of stress, disappointment or whatever we might feel is not going away. I wonder what makes it still lurk around … You could say that ignoring what is really going on around us and creating our own version of reality is quite the superpower!

Yay! I wonder why this is a superpower. Let’s say that even though you managed to finish a difficult task and you sent it in on time, you still don’t feel entirely content with yourself. This is your free time to enjoy, to lay back after finishing a task, but your brain is making you think about how the result probably won’t be that good.

This means that you won’t be feeling relief after finish the task, but you might be feeling stressed because others finished it faster than you, they thought it was very easy and this all probably means that your work was bad and so will be your grade. See how easy the scenario shifted? Instead, what did really happen? You finished your task on time. Period. What will be is for us all to find out. Predictions are for witches.

Our next superpower is our ability to remember only the bad things and focus on those. If your entire presentation went flawlessly but then right at the end you suddenly can’t remember how to pronounce a word, you stutter and you feel your heart beating faster already. Which part do you think you’ll be remembering after the presentation?

Something makes me think you’ll be focusing on that one error that happened and you’ll be ignoring the rest of the wonderful things you said during the presentation. It’s our brain’s great superpower to send these thoughts to us. It’s very important that you catch them in time and shut them down. Yes, you stuttered and struggled to read a word. Period. The rest of the presentation went great. Period.

Next time you find yourself focusing on the bad things that happened, focus on what is to learn from this experience and embrace it. You stuttered, so the natural lesson to take away from this is to practice your speech a bit more next time.

Luckily, it has other, USEFUL, superpowers too! Can you name a few?