Day 94: What sticks, what doesn’t, and putting things in perspective

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned in previous posts, certain things we experience seem to stick more than others.

To put it simply: The negative sticks, more than the positive does.

To re-state that, with more detail: Negative thoughts, feelings,  people, memories, encounters, and words tend to take on more importance, become bigger, and hang on in the mind — more than positive thoughts, feelings, people, memories, encounters and words do.

That’s been my experience, and also the experience of most people I encounter.

In a previous post, which I wrote (when?  I can’t find it) (oh, well), I described a half-assed theory of mine about why that is, having to do with our ancient ancestors and survival.

Who knows, maybe that theory is more than half-assed. Maybe it’s three-quarters-assed.  No matter how fully assed my reasoning is, there are studies out there, I believe, that have similar conclusions, with real data.  I’m not going to look these up right now, though. I have to go to work, and this is The Year of Living Non-Judgmentally, not The Year of Backing Things Up With Empirical Data.

Therefore, in conclusion:

1. The negative sticks
2. The positive doesn’t
3. #1 and #2 make it difficult to figure things out (“things” including what you want or need, people, yourself, TMOL) (The Meaning Of Life)
4. Good luck with all that.

That last point may sound dismissive. It’s not.

With all the distortions, assumptions, outdated patterns, sticky negatives and non-sticky positives  that cloud our perspective, we can use all the help we get — whether it’s luck, support, letting go of judgment, re-thinking things, beginner’s mind, wisdom, other people’s perspectives, or our own ever-learning experience.

So good luck to you, dear reader, and to me, too!