We replay moments of accomplishment in our heads to feel something – a sense of pride, confidence, or optimism. That feeling is expansive and diffuse. We also replay bad experiences but even if the motivation if partly to re-experience the emotion, there seems to be something else driving the impulse to go over and over the bad thing that happened. Something is wrong and we’re dwelling on the problem, sometimes just staring at it with a sense of helplessness but not yet willing to move on. Some of us finally get tired of it and shift into problem-solving mode. Others stay stuck. We may not want to forget because we think remembering the bad stuff prepares us emotionally for the shit that is yet to come. You don’t fall far when you’re already on the ground. Hope can be dangerous, especially when it encourages exploratory approach behavior in a hostile or rejecting world. This may or may not be a valid concern, depending.