It should be noted that we don't tend to remember the details about a given moment, so much as we remember how it made us feel.

Memories are little more than stored emotions, which may or may not have specifics attached to them. More often than not, we reconstruct the specifics of the memory through the lens of the emotion, not the other way round.

Perhaps this is similar to how reflexes work – we react to a scalding stovetop before we compute the details, because it feels hot. The feeling comes first, then the specifics.

What's most interesting is that this relationship works both ways. Our old memories will determine how we are likely feel about a new thing: it has less to do with the facts of the thing, and more to do with what that thing reminds us of.

So, if our focus is always on the negative, always on the downside, always on the risk, always on the fear, then we will drastically reduce the variety of lenses we have with which to consider the future.

The future will always feel negative, regardless of how much hope is really in front of us.