Everybody experiences highs and lows in their lifetime. Certain unfavorable events, diseases, traumas, and divorces may even have a lasting impact on our mental and behavioral processes.
But is there a way to balance out the bad things that have happened in the past and make them into valuable life lessons that will influence our actions going forward?According to a recent study by VanEpps and Truncellito in Current Opinion in Psychology, there are two ways that people might get ready to see the good side of past bad experiences.
The Initial approach, cognitive reappraisal:
Rephrasing the unpleasant incident in its entirety and emphasizing its positive aspects is one method to achieve this. The process, called “cognitive reappraisal,” entails rewriting the previous occurrence and altering your presumptions and judgments.
Second strategy ,using narrative to redeem the past:
The craft of storytelling is another way to make a bad past incident go away. This approach entails “redeeming the past” by repackaging the negative events.
Some stories inform people, while others warn or persuade. All of them have some value, whether negative or positive. In storytelling, one can consider the past negative events as a small section of the larger positive story.
The above two methods can help people overcome the trauma of the past and move ahead in the future with a more positive attitude towards life.