Is it human nature to always focus on negative aspects, or is it social conditioning?


I've just been reading through the "How was 2010?" thread and noticed that we're all focusing on bad things and all thinking that the year was bad.

Now, I'm pretty sure that our years weren't entirely filled with negative happenings every minute of every day and yet those are the things we focus on and remember.. which made me wonder about why we do that. Is it human nature or are we conditioned to do it?

I think it's human nature I'm a type of person who thinks of only the bad things in my life since hey nothing good has come of it.

You're an artist. You have the gift of being able to draw.

You have clothes on your back, food in your cupboard and a roof over your head and a computer.

Many of us have full time or part time employment which gives us money in the bank to pay bills.

Compared to a homeless person or a hungry child in Africa, your the luckiest person in the world.

So here's another question...( ok 2 questions. )

How do we define good and bad? and where does that definition come from?

Material stuff and being happy with where you are in life are two different things. I'm sure there's homeless people who are happier than others who are rich. Of course being rich would give you the means to shape your life into anything you want it to be, so those sort of people don't have any excuses.

There's several discussions that could be made here. Maybe tomorrow though, I'm super tired tonight. -_- zzz......

Exactly.. so why are they happier than those who have more to be happy about?

Why is it that we can be better off than others and yet still only see negativity in our lives?

I think it's both, however nowadays it's also more today's society.

You can say everything went positive despite that one bad thing. There's no point in not telling the bad thing (unless it's really not worth mentioning it). I think by telling it, it can also make people realize they can do better and there are things that still needs to be worked on.

Because material stuff and money are just things. It's replaceable. And they have less to worry about. Maybe on how to get food, because they don't have money.

I think this getting into There But For The Grace.

What we have is good but it makes us greedy, what they don't have makes them needy. What we don't have makes us wanting, what they have makes them happy.