Live to Sieve

We consume. We consume food, data, knowledge, information, content. We process it, filtering out the wanted from the unwanted. Figuratively, the phrase “a mind like a sieve” is meant negatively for when a person has difficulty retaining information. However, when it comes to emotions, our minds often do a wonderful job retaining what hurts us most. We clench pain like a bear trap! We don’t filter out pain in the same method we do joy. We’ll often hear people say, “Wow, that was fun!” in regards to a positive experience. It also speaks to how the experience was fleeting, as if to say, “That was fun, but what’s next?” We rarely hear the opposite. “Wow, that was painful!” with the same fleetingness. Why would that be? Why do we gravitate to letting pain overstay its welcome? Why would we choose this when our bodies are designed to filter out waste? When emotions are at play, what we waste most is our time. Our time is precious, so why choose emotional constipation? Why treat our bodies differently than our minds? Reasoned choice is the fiber of our minds.