Past Positive

How can someone perceive positives from the past, which they no longer have, as positive?

Typically, it seems that thinking about positive aspects of life which are not in the present, often can cause a negative perception. As I attempted to understand in a recent post; Positive Reinforcement Perception Relativity, having a positive perception seems to be relative to what an individual is using to compare positive aspects (of any given situation), to. If comparing present positive aspects to past positives, the interpretation often becomes, considering any lack of present positives, as a negative. In that post, I suggested the option of ignoring the past positives and focusing on present positives. But is there some method of comprehension of past positives, which allows focus on past positives, and a positive interpretation, despite the current lack of those positives?

Considering the core trigger for perceiving something as negative, seems to come from instinctual negative reinforcement triggers, perhaps comprehending those reasons, that an individual's mentality is being triggered negatively, can be a tool in the method of overwriting the natural negative result. 1 common strong instinctual negative reinforcement trigger would likely be; being apart from someone you were close to, as naturally we are pack animals, and negative reinforcement for this, causes the urge to pursue staying with a pack, for the benefit of survival. Another negative reinforcement trigger, would probably be losing possessions, as naturally, avoiding losing possessions, such as food or a quality area to live, would be beneficial for survival. Another may be losing an ability to perform an action, as a similar concept, since avoiding losing an ability (such as via injury of a limb), should be beneficial.

These seem to be the basic natural negative reinforcement triggers, which can then be triggered by a multitude of scenarios, especially considering the complexity of modern day life, with society and technology. No longer having someone in your life, could happen in the scenario of a friend moving away, arguments with a family member causing a disconnect, a boyfriend or girlfriend breaking up, or someone you know passing away. Losing possessions can situate in the way of; moving to a new city because of family, a car breaking down, being laid off from a job, having to sell clothes you’ve had for years, or losing a place to live, due to failed payments. Losing an ability might be in the form of a disease restricting physical capabilities, an accident losing a limb, a mental disorder, or common loss of ability from age. 

Simply having the knowledge that; the trigger of negativity from the loss of these past positives, is an instinctual process of the mind, developed for reinforcement of basic situations, should be potentially helpful. Comprehending the function of a process, allows understanding of the cause and effect, allowing the potential to be aware of, and cause more effective processes, for a more preferable result. This is the basic advantage of comprehension and conscious awareness. By comprehending the function of negative reinforcement triggers, someone can alter the factors involved in causing the end result. Since a result of a more positive perception should be preferable, the adjustable factors involved, would be mental interpretation of the initial negative trigger. Mental interpretation can be self manipulated, to bypass that end result of negativity. 

To manipulate the interpretation, 1 step is to gain the knowledge of the function, and that the current function is not preferable, with its end result of negative perception. Perhaps knowing the cause of the negative perception, and knowing you have the ability to redirect interpretation, can be positive enough of a concept, in itself, to redirect interpretation to an end result with significantly reduced negativity. But beyond the positive influence of knowing this concept in itself, alternate positives can be focused on, to add to the resulting positive sum perception.

Besides the option of using positives which are unrelated to the scenario, or positives caused by a fresh opportunity (as I mentioned in my previous post), positives of experience and knowledge gained, can be interpreted directly from the past positives. For eg, if you can no longer be around someone that you were close to, things you’ve learned from them, or positive influences they had on you, to cause you to become a better person, can be present positive aspects to focus on. Mostly the same concept can apply to possessions or abilities lost, since experience and knowledge, are a common positive which is gained from past situations.

These types of positives (as well as knowledge of the concept in itself) should be some of the easiest to connect for interpretation, with past, yet lost, positives, since they are more direct links, and related to the individual themselves. Since the step of interpretation is so adaptable, via comprehension and knowledge, there should be more applicable positive aspects connected to past positives, to be potentially used as a tool for causing the end result perception to be more positive. Basically, any instinctual positive reinforcement trigger can be focussed on, to improve the resulting perception. More complicated connections to past positives, or more complicated comprehension of something being positive (such as inconspicuous positive influence on others/ situations, or being happy for someone else), can be more difficult to work into interpretation.

But the beauty of comprehension, is it allows that workability and adaptability, for the potential to have a positive resulting perception, from a Past Positive