notes from liguria, italy

What are you feeding your mind?

By Margherita Patrone - Oct 24, 2026 - 3 min read - Issue #17

On negativity bias, the stories we consume and the attention we give to the world around us.Yesterday, it was raining here in Liguria.Then, quite suddenly, the clouds began to disappear.The sun came out.And I found myself wandering around our olive trees, hoping to catch a rainbow.In a few days, we will harvest the olives and make our own olive oil.I cannot wait.As I was walking around, I started thinking about something that has been on my mind lately.How much of our experience of life is shaped by what we choose to pay attention to?A childhood memoryWhen I was growing up, dinner was one of the few moments of the day when my family would all sit together.My parents had a habit of watching the evening news.I remember finding it incredibly difficult.I was a very sensitive child, and stories about wars, disasters and suffering would stay with me long after dinner was over.Sometimes, I preferred eating on my own.It wasn't that I didn't care about what was happening in the world.Quite the opposite.I cared so much that I found it difficult to absorb all that sadness.And I still recognise that feeling today.A worrying headline can stay with me for hours.A difficult conversation can occupy far more space in my thoughts than several lovely ones.And sometimes, without even noticing, I find myself looking at everything through a slightly darker lens.Why does our mind seem so good at holding on to the negative?Why bad news gets our attentionLately, I have been reading Mind to Matter by Dawson Church.It's a fascinating book about the relationship between our thoughts, our brains and our experience of the world.Some of its ideas, particularly those relating to consciousness and energy, go beyond what science has established. I enjoy exploring them while keeping that distinction in mind.One theme, however, has stayed with me.The importance of what we repeatedly pay attention to.There is a concept in psychology called negativity bias.In simple terms, negative information can have a greater psychological impact than equally positive information.Think about it.You receive five lovely comments and one critical one.Which one are you more likely to remember?Or perhaps you have a wonderful day, full of small happy moments, and then one frustrating interaction happens in the evening.Suddenly, that's what you're thinking about.In 2001, psychologists Paul Rozin and Edward Royzman reviewed research showing how this tendency appears in different areas of our lives, from attention and memory to the way we form judgements.I find this particularly interesting when thinking about our relationship with the news.The news we noticeIn 2019, researchers Stuart Soroka, Patrick Fournier and Lilach Nir published a study examining how people reacted to positive and negative news across 17 countries.On average, participants showed stronger physiological responses to negative news.But what I found particularly interesting was that not everyone responded in the same way.Some people were more responsive to positive news.Which makes me think about how much of our attention is influenced by our natural tendencies, and how much we might be able to shape through our everyday choices.Think about a typical morning.We wake up.Reach for our phones.Read a headline.Check a message.Scroll through someone else's opinion.And before we've even had our first coffee, our minds are already full of things we didn't necessarily choose to think about.I have been wondering whether the information we encounter most often can sometimes become our picture of the world.Even when it represents only a small part of it.The competition for our attentionWorking in consumer psychology, I spend a lot of time thinking about why people notice certain things, remember particular messages and make the choices they do.And attention is a fascinating part of that process.Brands compete for it.Advertisers compete for it.Media companies and social platforms compete for it.Because if something doesn't capture our attention, it has very little chance of influencing what we remember or choose.And emotionally engaging information can be particularly effective at doing that.Fear, urgency and conflict can make it difficult to look away.Of course, attracting attention and genuinely influencing someone's behaviour are two different things.But it makes me think.If so much effort goes into capturing our attention, shouldn't we be a little more conscious of where we give it?Recently, I have also been reflecting on the difference between consuming and creating.When I read an article, watch a video or scroll through social media, someone else has usually made a decision about what I will see.An editor.A creator.An algorithm.But when I sit down to write, make a video, cook something or simply explore an idea, something changes.I get to decide what deserves my attention.And I have been finding that incredibly valuable.It doesn't mean consuming is bad. Far from it.Books, conversations, films and other people's ideas have brought so much into my life.I simply want to become more conscious of what I consume, how much of it I consume and what I do with it afterwards.The world is bigger than our worriesSince moving back to Italy, I have become increasingly appreciative of the little things around me.The changing light in the morning.The smell of the sea.A conversation with my dad.The olive trees outside our house.And yesterday, looking for a rainbow after the rain.These are small things.But they bring me so much happiness.Of course, noticing them doesn't make the world's problems disappear.And I don't think the answer is to stop following the news, ignore suffering or pretend that everything is wonderful.I want to be informed.I want to care.And, whenever possible, I want to contribute something positive.But I am learning that there is a difference between knowing what is happening in the world and allowing every difficult story to occupy my thoughts.I can care deeply about something without thinking about it every minute of the day.I can recognise what is wrong and still appreciate what is going right.And I can make room for the wonderful things happening around me without feeling that I am ignoring the difficult ones.Perhaps that's what being more intentional with our attention means to me.Not trying to see only the positive.Simply remembering to notice it too.This week's experimentThis week, I would love to invite you to try something.For one day, notice what you are giving your attention to.What do you reach for when you wake up?What do you read when you have five minutes to spare?What do you talk about over dinner?And what stays in your mind long after you've put your phone away?Then ask yourself:Is this helping me understand something, or is it simply making me feel overwhelmed?Am I choosing to give this my attention?*What else might deserve a little more space in my day?*Perhaps it's a good book.A conversation with someone you love.Something you've been meaning to create.A piece of good news.Or simply going outside and noticing that the rain has stopped.I think there will always be things in the world that deserve our concern.But there are also so many things that deserve our curiosity, appreciation and wonder.And I would love to become a little better at noticing both.Until next Saturday,Margherita