Evolutionary neurologists have a good explanation for our habit of focusing mostly on the negative, the problems, what is wrong. They explain how we inherited our vigilance from distant ancestors who needed to be on guard against lion attacks.
We focus our attention today on the negative because we believe, somehow, that this is the way we, like our ancestors, stay alive. It’s hardwired, they say, down in the primal parts of our brains.
Of course, no lions are chasing us. And as my friend Sally likes to say, “If I am neither on fire nor in the Amazon, then I am fine.”
Despite any primordial habit we may have picked up, choosing to focus on the positive, on the appreciated, on all that is working is as easy as turning our head to look at it.
In your corner,
Mike