The Road to Terry - 048 - No Room for Negative

Holding on to things that are negative is the best way to ruin your life. I’ve found more and more evidence for this just from social media. The human infatuation with the negative is astounding. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of positive things out there. I feel there are a lot more negative things.

Going viral comes with emotional arousal. Amusement and anxiety are high-arousal emotions. Contentment and sadness are low-arousal emotions (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sANg0NyvVnk&t=48s). Therefore, VERY negative things go viral quickly. This is why the negative is so dangerous.

It spreads and that negativity can leech throughout your day. Negative is not just on the internet. These high arousal conversations happen around the dinner table. They always start with “Did you hear?” or “I heard that…” I’m incredibly sensitive to these strong, negative emotions. So I try my best to avoid any of that. That frees me up to be more responsive to the real threats.