Prevalence-induced Concept change
The issue isn't as bad as it seems. here's why.
If your like me, then you’ve never heard of prevalence-induced concept change, but you have definitely been affected by it.
There is an article here that discusses a study done to observe this phenomenon here.
Below is a quote from the article.
When blue dots became rare, participants began to see purple dots as blue; when threatening faces became rare, participants began to see neutral faces as threatening; and when unethical requests became rare, participants began to see innocuous requests as unethical. This “prevalence-induced concept change” occurred even when participants were forewarned about it and even when they were instructed and paid to resist it. Social problems may seem intractable in part because reductions in their prevalence lead people to see more of them
In short, we have a bucket in our brain that is labeled negative emotion, and no matter what our environment is, this bucket is always full.
Is your life going to hell in a hand basket? that negative emotion bucket I filled.
Are you having the best day of life your wedding day perhaps? That bucket is full.
Whether or not you are having a great day or a horrible life, that bucket of negative emotions is full, but the contents are drastically different. If your life is going horribly, i.e., loved ones dying, financial stress, etc., you probably don’t care if it’s raining or not. In contrast, if you are enjoying your wedding, a rainy day might cause you a lot of stress.
When there is an absence of problems, we find more; this doesn’t seem to be avoidable. but we can acknowledge it and make a habit of not letting circumstances dictate how we feel. We cannot control external forces, but we can control the inner texture of our own mind.
This can be done not only through mental habits, but changing our physical state can inversely change how we think and feel.
For example, I have a habit of cold plunging (use code CAMERON40169 for a discount on your order) every morning. Despite what is going on in my life—dead parents, car accidents, being fired—these have all happened to me in the last 5 months. That cold plunge is the only thing I can think about, and it becomes the worst thing in those moments, and when I am done, I realize that if I can overcome that every day, then maybe I can overcome the rest of these problems.
Phillpians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Again, the list of things going wrong will never go away, but there intensity will diminish. If you choose not to focus on them but instead focus on what you can control, life may no longer get better, but your perception will.
Another resource is Huberman’s podcast on processing traumatic events.
Also, get a journal and start writing things down, like gratitude and to-dos. Once you start focusing on things you need to do and getting those done instead of things that are wrong, your perspective will change.