Some Facts About Memorial Day
Decorating soldiers’ graves is a very ancient tradition, and the practice of doing it on a specific day has had all kinds of names in different communities. One of the most common was “Decoration...
Decorating soldiers’ graves is a very ancient tradition, and the practice of doing it on a specific day has had all kinds of names in different communities. One of the most common was “Decoration...
We have talked about expressing and writing down gratitude plenty of times before. No matter how big and how small, being able to name anything positive can have an impact on your mental health...
According to Grateful, researchers at Harvard Medical School report, “Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.” However, Brianna Steinhilber writes that while...
There is an idea in psychology that we all have something called a happiness set point. A happiness set point is a term used to describe our general level of happiness, and it is...
We’ve talked about expressing and writing down gratitude plenty of times before. No matter how big or how small, being able to name anything positive can have an impact on your mental health and wellbeing. Whether it’s being able to acknowledge the good things at the end of the day or being able to look back and read them if you’re feeling down, remembering that there are always good things that can happen, even when it doesn’t feel like it, and knowing there’s a light when things feel bleak can make the biggest difference.
We’ve talked about expressing and writing down gratitude plenty of times before. No matter how big and how small, being able to name anything positive can have an impact on your mental health and wellbeing. Whether it’s being able to acknowledge the good things at the end of the day or being able to look back and read them if you’re feeling down, remembering that there are always good things that can happen, even when it doesn’t feel like it and knowing there’s a light when things feel bleak can make the biggest difference.
It can be hard to focus on the good things, especially when it feels like the world is falling apart around you, and because of you. People are more likely to focus and dwell on the negative versus the positive – this is known as having negativity bias, and it’s nowhere near uncommon. Having good things happen to us feels great! But there’s a comfort to them that our brains can become complacent with, and when negative things end up occurring instead, they tend to have significantly stronger impressions on us, because we don’t expect, nor do we not want them to happen.
The past month has been difficult for me with new mental health symptoms, diagnoses, and medications. Because of my new symptom of fluctuating between having very little energy or motivation and then feeling very motivated and over-confident, my health care team has assigned me the task of completing a daily mood tracker.
Negativity bias is a natural human experience. It’s why we are severely affected by what can end up being the slightest of inconveniences, even if really good things happen to us too. For example, you may have gotten an A on a really important exam, but forgetting to submit a homework assignment that same day and losing points for it is more likely to affect you.
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