Don’t drown in real problems—shift your mental filter

When life strips away an ability—losing a leg, say—you can fixate on emptiness, expecting misery 24/7. Or you can rewire that filter by listing what you still can do. Picture a morning walk with a prosthetic, sound of shoes crunching frost underfoot. That’s your mind refusing to lock onto loss. Weekend, you launch a new hobby—wheelchair-tennis—your hands cold on the racket grip, adrenaline sparking across your cheek. You focus on possibilities, not impossibilities.

This shift doesn’t minimize the real pain or setback; instead, it gives your mind multiple beams to illuminate a fuller landscape. Yes, a relationship ended or a career halted—that hurts. But your ability to talk, laugh, and create remains. Each small joy you celebrate frays the edges of gloom.

By deliberately tilting your attention toward what remains, you weaken the mental filter that amplifies every negative like a distorted lens. You tap into real strengths and start rewriting your story from one of deprivation to one of resourcefulness.

Next time you feel stuck in what you’ve lost, take a deep breath and jot down five things you still can do—skills, relationships, joys. Notice that first instinctive complaint and see how it narrows your view. Then rehearse your positive list with detail—time, place, senses—to retrain your filter. Try it tonight before you sleep.