this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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I think it’s natural to have a stronger reaction to bad things more than good things. There’s something called Negativity Bias and it’s kinda why rage-baiting and (bad news) articles is so prevalent is because we inherently feel a stronger reaction to those than the positive counterparts
It’s really hard to hold onto those good feelings from an accomplishment they fade quickly. But the negative ones, even minor, can stick around a long time!
This is why therapists often highly recommend gratitude journaling. I've never been a fan of the 'gratitudec name of it, but the basic idea is you make a habit of writing down (and thus deliberately paying attention to) the positive and nice things in your life, and that counteracts negativity bias and makes you notice the good things more. Even when your current situation is awful, you can still find stuff, like a nice sunny day, or a friend giving you a compliment, or a cool fact you learned, or a tasty scone and suchlike. After a while it becomes a habit to pay more attention to positives even when you're not writing it down.