For use with the Stress Well for Schools resource available at www.nicolamorgan.com/teaching-materials/stress-well/

1. STRESS WELL
by
Nicola Morgan
www.nicolamorgan.com
3.1
Pathways –
Negative
thoughts

2. “Negative intrusive thoughts”
Sometimes a worry, fear or negative thought
goes over and over in our mind

3. How did you learn all that?
• Your brain contains
billions of nerve cells
called “neurons”
• When you learn
something new, you grow
pathways between them

5. Thoughts
• A thought is just an
electrical signal in your
brain
• The signal follows a path
between brain cells
• Each time you have that
thought, that path becomes
stronger

6. Learning a fact
What is the capital of France?
© andersphoto

7. Learning a fact
• You’ve had that thought lots of times, so
the pathway is strong
• You’ve seen pictures of the Eiffel Tower too, so
you have pathways for that
• When you learn a new fact, the pathway is
weak. You make it strong with practice

8. Negative thoughts 
• But the brain learns negative thoughts, too
• Each time we have the negative thought, that
pathway gets stronger
• So we are more likely to have the thought
again

9. This is a steep hill going down
Let me show you

10. Imagine you come to this place
in the path. You have to choose
a way down.

11. Imagine you choose this path the
first day

12. Next day, you will PROBABLY choose the same path. It will be easier. And
harder to choose a different one.

13. Each day, that path will be more obvious and easier to follow.

14. Soon, it will be the only path you bother to try. It will be a habit.

15. BUT WAIT! STOP!

16. You COULD choose another path. It wouldn’t be easy at first. But
you could. You could choose to think a POSITIVE thought.

17. The more you have the positive thought, the
stronger that new path would become and it
would be easier each time

18. Soon, it would be the easier path to follow and the old
negative one would fade away and become weak.

19. The old path won’t completely disappear. You might have that thought
again, but you’ll be able to find the positive one more easily. You did it
once – you can do it again.

20. STRESS WELL
by
Nicola Morgan
www.nicolamorgan.com
3.1
Pathways –
Negative
thoughts