Counterfactual Thinking

I heard the phenomenon was initially observed from photos of competition winners. First runners-up consistently appeared with a more solemn expression than second runners-up. It would almost seem prestige was awarded in the order of 1st, 3rd, 2nd. Social researchers attribute the disatisfaction to a heightened sense of loss. These players speculate over what outcome might have been, should they have done things just slightly differently. The position of champion was so near, now yet so far. Perhaps personal best had not been achieved, but most would deny the notion of greater capabilities apart from oneself. Nothing more than a great deal of self-delusion.

And counterfactual thinking results in puffy eyes. Against your knowledge. Which is why most of us retain absurd theories about lack of sleep, stress, or even excessive crying, as the main culprits. The fact is when the mind takes leave to dwell upon past issues, your consciousness no longer operates in the present. You know not really what you do. As if everything occured in a trance. It's definitely not my idea of fun.

Fortunately, minds are volatile socialites (at least mine is), and they have the relieving tendency to drift between dimensions. At the enticement of foreign clarion calls, it propels back into the current because there is never anything as fulfilling as vacuous chaffer.

Unfortunately too, when I'm alone my stick-in-the-mud of a brain takes it to be the equivalence of idling. By which time it is promptly transported into the realm of Impossibility. Perhaps it's beguiling here where the semblances are endless; even if the marvellous conjurations conclude there where they begin. Yet like an addiction, it only draws you in.