Your Mind Dwells Disproportionately On Pain

Why does our mind seem to remember difficult experiences more easily than happy ones?

In this insightful clip from his 2018 talk at SACAR, Pondicherry, Pulkit Sharma, Clinical Psychologist, Psychoanalytic Therapist, Spiritual Counselor and Author, explores the fascinating relationship between emotional memory and the human mind.

If we observe ourselves over the course of a single day, we may notice that worries, negative thoughts and difficult memories often arise more spontaneously than positive emotions.

Yet when we step back and look at the story of an entire life, something interesting emerges. Life is rarely defined by difficult experiences alone. It is usually a mixture of joy, connection, achievement, loss, disappointment and many ordinary moments of well-being.

So why does our mind sometimes give difficult experiences a louder voice?

Pulkit Sharma shares a simple everyday example. A person may be feeling perfectly fine, perhaps even happy and relaxed, when they switch on the television and watch a sad movie. Suddenly, they may find themselves pulled into an intense emotional space, with memories and feelings from the past coming to the surface.

Perhaps emotional memory does not simply record life.
Perhaps some experiences continue to speak much louder than others.

Learning to observe this tendency of the mind can help us understand our emotional experiences with greater awareness, rather than simply being carried away by them.

#Psychology #MentalHealth #EmotionalWellbeing #Memory #PulkitSharma