This is good. I wish I’d done that. Will try going forward although something bad happening has increased and accelerated over the last 10 years to the point where I need to write something bad down every day if that includes what’s happening in the world, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc..
I made a choice, uh, more than one decade ago to limit my news intake, after burning out during a few events, having been an activist (thank you Tim Ferris and your "if the apocalypse comes, your mom will call you").
And still, under my rock, things come, and the world seems to go faster. "It's more fun to read about historical periods than living in one".
To be honest, I am not sure the bad times log helps/works for these kind of things. If I check inside, it would not, but again, maybe?
Here are my reasons, and I could consider adding this to the main article:
1) something called "the emotional immune system" by D. Gilbert (not sure if he came up with that, this is a comment, I won't do the research). When bad things happen to US, some sort of sensemaking immune system kicks in, and we end up finding ways to feeling better. When bad things happen around us, we feel empathically bad, but not ENOUGH for the immune system to kick in. This is pre-replication crisis and whatnot, but I can look in my system and mostly agree
2) we have SO MUCH MORE INFO about ourselves. People around me can know I broke an ankle while hiking 2h from Barcelona with friends, with plans to go traveling and doing things afterwards, of course all plans trashed.
Bad.
I know all of the bit, the small good things that came out of that, the many other bad things that happened that in the end made things move in a way that, if I look back, it's good.
3) good things take time, bad things tend to be fast. News tend to be about the latter, I mean, some good news took 50 years to develop, good luck reading about them. 1 month and 6 month are very little in the global scale.
So.
The most I could imagine is that:
- 90% of the news will be "oh, that thing disappeared" in 1-6 months
- a few things turned out not to be true
- a few things weren't so bad, or MAYBE are even good
It’s not “the news.” It’s what’s happening to my country and the world. And humanity. I’m grieving. And plenty of personal tragedy to go around. I have a daily spiritual
Practice - (also see BEMO) but the grief is immense.
Writing it down can interrupt rumination. That by itself seems useful.
I might add one distinction, though: perspective and authority are not always the same.
In family therapy, you sometimes see two adults who genuinely do not care anymore that “mom gave my brother the bigger piece of cake.” The narrative has softened. And yet the six-year-old part that registered unfairness can still hold emotional charge decades later. The story changes. The part may not have fully relinquished its role.
Something similar could happen here. An event may feel less catastrophic six months later, while the same protector that mobilized around threat continues to shape urgency and evaluation.
Revisiting the log might not only show whether the event was “still bad,” but whether the part that took control at the time has eased its authority.
Pressure, over time, may clarify that more than memory does.
This is good. I wish I’d done that. Will try going forward although something bad happening has increased and accelerated over the last 10 years to the point where I need to write something bad down every day if that includes what’s happening in the world, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc..
I feel you.
I made a choice, uh, more than one decade ago to limit my news intake, after burning out during a few events, having been an activist (thank you Tim Ferris and your "if the apocalypse comes, your mom will call you").
And still, under my rock, things come, and the world seems to go faster. "It's more fun to read about historical periods than living in one".
To be honest, I am not sure the bad times log helps/works for these kind of things. If I check inside, it would not, but again, maybe?
Here are my reasons, and I could consider adding this to the main article:
1) something called "the emotional immune system" by D. Gilbert (not sure if he came up with that, this is a comment, I won't do the research). When bad things happen to US, some sort of sensemaking immune system kicks in, and we end up finding ways to feeling better. When bad things happen around us, we feel empathically bad, but not ENOUGH for the immune system to kick in. This is pre-replication crisis and whatnot, but I can look in my system and mostly agree
2) we have SO MUCH MORE INFO about ourselves. People around me can know I broke an ankle while hiking 2h from Barcelona with friends, with plans to go traveling and doing things afterwards, of course all plans trashed.
Bad.
I know all of the bit, the small good things that came out of that, the many other bad things that happened that in the end made things move in a way that, if I look back, it's good.
3) good things take time, bad things tend to be fast. News tend to be about the latter, I mean, some good news took 50 years to develop, good luck reading about them. 1 month and 6 month are very little in the global scale.
So.
The most I could imagine is that:
- 90% of the news will be "oh, that thing disappeared" in 1-6 months
- a few things turned out not to be true
- a few things weren't so bad, or MAYBE are even good
- the rest is still bad.
It’s not “the news.” It’s what’s happening to my country and the world. And humanity. I’m grieving. And plenty of personal tragedy to go around. I have a daily spiritual
Practice - (also see BEMO) but the grief is immense.
Writing it down can interrupt rumination. That by itself seems useful.
I might add one distinction, though: perspective and authority are not always the same.
In family therapy, you sometimes see two adults who genuinely do not care anymore that “mom gave my brother the bigger piece of cake.” The narrative has softened. And yet the six-year-old part that registered unfairness can still hold emotional charge decades later. The story changes. The part may not have fully relinquished its role.
Something similar could happen here. An event may feel less catastrophic six months later, while the same protector that mobilized around threat continues to shape urgency and evaluation.
Revisiting the log might not only show whether the event was “still bad,” but whether the part that took control at the time has eased its authority.
Pressure, over time, may clarify that more than memory does.