Positive Thinking and Brain Circuits

Hello, everyone!

Are you guys having a good time? Because I’m having a brilliant time.

Put your hands together for every performance before mine, because I think all of you were amazing! So great, clap. [clap]

My talk today is called, A Wonderful Place of Positive Thinkers.

And...I realized afterwards, today where we’re living is not actually considered a place for positive thinkers.

It's just a dream Not a reality.

So, hopefully after the end of this talk you will share that same dream that I have.

OK? So, the theme for this year is, Yes, the youth can be change. Or, you specifically can be the change.

But if you ask yourself, what exactly do we want to change?

In other words, what is holding us back as a nation?

Why is that Sudan today in the twenty-first century still remains developing country?

The answer to it is: Is it the increasing inflation rates in the country?

Is it the lack of proper health systems? The lack of educational systems? Is it the water shortage, or the electricity cuts?

I have asked myself this question for a long time now and I realize the answer is much simpler.

But it's also much harder to solve.

Because the answer is negative thinking. (clap)

You see, as a nation I believe that our problems that we have is negative attitude that prevents us from doing what we are supposed to do.

But before I came to TEDx and I tell you, "this is my idea, this is what I believe," I decided to do something really small.

I carried out a really simple survey.

I asked 42 youth between the ages of 17 to 25.

I picked those youth based upon a specific criterion.

That they can be male and female.

They all have to be Sudanese in nationality.

And they have to come from different backgrounds.

So, part of the youth lived their entire lives in Sudan.

Some of them came from the UAE.

Others are from Europe.

Others had come from Canada and America.

All of them had to fill out a really simple questionnaire. It takes about a minute to fill out this questionnaire.

The first thing I wanted to know is: Are you male or female?

The second thing is: I want you to pick for me three words out of eight that best define Sudan for you.

Now, if you read those words, they are either easy or difficult, as in Sudan is easy or difficult.

This is the land of opportunity or is it a very unpromising place?

You are excited to be here or you’re stressed out.

You’re hopeful for the future or are you just tired?

So, as you can see, four of these words are optimistic or positive in nature, four pessimistic or negative in nature.

You can only pick three, but you must pick three.

The next question I asked is: If you’re given a chance as a youth…you have the full opportunity to do whatever you want what would you do?

Would you stay in Sudan and live here permanently? Going outside just for a holiday, only for conferences and all that jazz, or would go out and never come back to Sudan?

Or, you are going to go out and come back in a few years’ time?

And then anyone can say, come back in a few years as you wish. Like in five years after you’ve done a Master’s degree and a PhD. Or, in 25 years to retire.

The results were really astonishing!!!

Because ...31 people said it’s a difficult place.

29 said it’s stressful.

27 said it’s unpromising.

The use of the word "promising" is a really big word!

5 said there were some opportunities.

5 said they were excited.

7 were hopeful for the future.

And only one person said that it was easy

And the rest were just tired.

That shows clearly that people tend to be negative on first impulse.

But how can I define it more?

So, what I did is I said that every single vote is an entity in itself.

We had 42 youth and each person had 3 votes. That gives us a total 126 votes.

So, I took all of the negatives together and I found the percentage. And all the positives together and found the percentage of the total.

So, in general, in this room, as a Sudanese nation 85.7, or 86% of us, are negative about Sudan and the way we view it.

Only 14% see any sort of positive life.

So, that was not really good.

I will move on to the next part.

So, how many people want to stay in Sudan?

Surprisingly, 38% of youth if given the chance will leave Sudan and will never come back.

57% are going to go and come back.

And, most of those said they will return to retire.

That is, they will start their families outside, get married, let their children grow up, go to university, and after that they will think about coming back to Sudan.

And only 5% of all those people will ever stay here permanently.

They will only go out for a holiday.

And I really want you to know that those 5% are women!

Not a single male or Sudanese youth male was willing to stay in Sudan, if given the chance.

Thank you.

So, one particular really enthusiastic candidate; I gave him the questionnaire and he was so frustrated by the options that he was really agitated and tore it into small pieces and threw it on the floor.

I gave him a second one but he did not answer that.

Another person, a girl I know personally wrote a small message on the back of the paper.

I wanted to share it with you. “I love Sudan, and I want to be part of the change. But if people don't want to change There is nothing one person can do. Now [clap]

This short message almost broke my heart. Because that same girl has been first in her class for four consecutive years.

Wherever she goes she’s going to be the top her field in medicine. She’s going to bring a lot to that country.

So, it’s a real pity that that particular girl thinks this about our country.

Do you think it’s a problem? I think it's a problem.

But why is it a problem? Why will this indicate a negative future?

One simple word…neuroplasticity.

Now, I’m a medical student so I tend to study the brain and what not.

I'll take you back to 1890 when one man, Thomas James, was studying the human brain in a field called neuroscience.

He was looking at how the brain functions and how it works.

Before that time, people thought that the brain, when you’re born, has a certain number of cells and they remain like that for the rest of your life.

He proved that this is not the case. Actually, the brain is ever changing and it’s dynamic.

So, your cells are not hard-wired from the very start when you are born.

It means that when we think about something, we actually alter how our brains function.

And we begin to create new cells and new circuits.

Does that apply to us? Yes, it does.

Because when...[clap] you see…if we think positively about something as in I wake up tomorrow morning and I think "It’s a brilliant day!"

Even if it’s not, but I say it to myself, “It's a brilliant day,” and I get up, and go and I walk out and smiling and I laugh with the first person I meet; then I laugh with the next person.

What I actually do for myself is that I'm building circuits in my brain.

And those circuits are actually positive.

So, cell by cell by cell I get a positive circuit.

That means I become a positive person.

I have an aura of positivity around me, and I’m optimistic for the future.

It means that when I see a really small window of opportunity really far away, I go for it.

It’s a window but that window becomes a door and it opens a better life for myself. Now...[clap]

In the same way if I’m a negative person, if I set my mind on resentment and self-reproach.

If I keep telling myself I can't do this and can’t do that, and what's the point of doing this?

We live in a country that’s never going to go forward, I begin to build negative circuits in my brain.

I begin to exert an aura of negativity, which means that if see the window of opportunity I won't be able to see it.  I become blind and I don’t go for it.

And then my life gets worse.

The more my life gets worse, the more I blame other people.

I just enter this cycle, this vicious circle disappointment and helplessness and depression. [clap]

It means as a Sudanese nation we begin to create our own problems.

You hear it everywhere since I came back to Sudan.

I hear people joking about how we are lazy nation.

They love it, they always talking about that we are lazy.

“Excuse me,” as I interrupt them, “there is nothing to be proud of when we say we are lazy!” [clap]

We blame our sun as the reason we lay at home every single day.

We blame our diet. We eat beans, our favorite food diet, and make it the reason that after every meal we should rest for two hours…and we can’t do things.

We begin to adopt this method of I can't do this and I can't do that.

And the more we say that, the more we won’t be able to do anything for ourselves.

It means that when I show you this image of a Sudanese child or children that are dirty, sick and hungry…not going to school, you can relate to it.

We relate to it if we are thinking negatively.

We let these images define us.

We look at these and say, “that kind of looks like what Sudanese people look like.”

“These are our people…yeah…yeah…”

We don’t actually give ourselves a chance to repel it and say, “I don't want this to represent our Sudanese children.”

No, in fact, we allow it to become who we are.

It means that when I give a questionnaire to youth living in Sudan, some cheeky person is going to write at the very end of the paper I will leave and never go back. “Come back to what?”

This is their first impulse.

It means when I show you this image of a Sudanese woman on a brochure for a HIV campaign who is sick; who has the look of despair on her face; and is used as the image is used to bring donations into our country.

We let this define us.

This image of misfortune is who we are.

You know, I’ve worked with NGO for two years now…almost two years.

I know the dedication that people from outside the country have.

They come here and they are so enthusiastic for the future.

They really want to lift our people outside and off the poverty line.

And as much as I appreciate it, and I celebrate it, what's the point in us receiving international aid when our own people are lying down and not doing anything to change their futures? [clap]

You know, one thing that I came across, and I think a lot of girls can relate to, you’re walking down the street minding your own business, and it’s early morning, and then you suddenly you see a group of guys sitting in the corner huddled together drinking their sweet mint tea and laughing.

You think, "Oh my God, no, why?"

Then you have to walk really quickly and you pass them. And then you come back again in a couple of hours, or maybe at the end of the day, and they are still there!

They’re still drinking their sweet mint tea, and they’re still making the same jokes.

Were those same guys youth our age? They're in their twenties – 25, 26, 27.

They are graduates from university. They studied at universities for 3 years for diplomas, or, 4 or 5 years for a Bachelor’s degree.

What they do is they take these degrees and hang them on the wall and they keep their certificates over there.

At the same time, they wait for that emergency aid to come into the country. As if it’s our given right to be given aid.

As if hardship is a concrete part of our lives, and poverty is genetically predetermined

What can we do?

To those 38% who will never return to Sudan and those 57% who will come back to retire, 5% can't build a country, and 5% can't build a nation! [clap]

Especially, and to be honest I’m more of a feminist at heart, but especially when those 5% tend to be women.

The reason is that in our Sudanese culture we believe or feel that so much of a woman's energy should be channeled and drained into motherhood.

And that's a brilliant thing, but if those 5% are women how can you expect them to both raise a family, build a home, and build a country? [clap]

So, ladies and gentlemen of the jury I'm here to say that Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Neither was any great empire or ancient kingdom, or world superpower.

But what they had was dedication, and a lot of hard work.

And most importantly, positive thinking. Because positive thinking gives you a very strong sense of self and who you are, and what you can achieve for the future.

We need change.

We need to start thinking positively.

We need to start appreciating our culture.

We need to replace those images with more beautiful ones from our own photographers. Photos from our Sudanese photographers.

And I want you to put your hands together for our photographer today [clap]

I want you to look at his image and see a beautiful sun.

Not heat, but a glorious sun that people from around the world wish and die for.

We have desert plains that have seen the passing of time.

We have land, that if irrigated, would not only feed our own people but perhaps the rest of Africa. [clap]

I love this image; we have a beautiful Nile.

And our men, our men, are the best of men. [clap]

And our children, the most beautiful children.

So, I’m going to leave you here today, and hopefully we can start that positive thinking.

I wrote a little poem on behalf of all Sudan. To the rest of the world, and it says:

Paint us with the rich hues of a wondrous summer day.

Let us run on clouds lined by silver trails.

Watch as we rise to greatest of heights.

Rise. We rise to the epic callings of the day.