4. Your Brain Remembers Extremes More Strongly

Positive and negative extremes leave deeper emotional imprints. Your brain stores those vividly, so it uses them as shortcuts when trying to understand similar situations. If one difficult moment sticks in your memory, your brain may generalize the whole experience as “bad,” even if most of it was fine. This turns isolated events into sweeping judgments.

5. All-or-Nothing Thinking Shows Up Everywhere

This mental habit affects many parts of life:

• Health: “I didn’t work out today, so the whole week is ruined.”

• Work: “I made one mistake, so I’m terrible at my job.”

• Relationships: “If we disagree, we must not be compatible.”

• Goals: “If I don’t do it perfectly, I shouldn’t bother.”
  These extremes hold you back because they leave no room for growth or imperfection.

6. How to Break Out of “All or Nothing” Thinking

You don’t need to eliminate this habit — just interrupt it.

• Ask, “What’s the middle-ground version of this?”

• Replace “always/never” with factual language.

• Name the bias when you hear it in your thoughts.

• Look at evidence, not emotions.

• Celebrate partial wins — they count too.
  Small shifts help your brain think more flexibly.

7. Real Life Happens in the Middle

Almost nothing meaningful is purely one thing or the other. Relationships evolve. Careers have ups and downs. Habits slip and restart. Growth is messy. The middle is where real life — and real progress — lives. When you allow space for nuance, you reduce stress and increase self-compassion.