Given the recent spotlight on financial crisis in Greece and the worry on its contagion to other countries, I thought about a similarity in the handling of our feelings (a bit of a stretch I know :>).
It is very easy and natural for most people to let a negative event have a longer lasting influence on us than it should be. For example, after an argument with someone (no name mentioned), we tend to be more negative or aggressive than normal and in most cases it is probably not very helpful nor “fair” to the other people that we shall have interaction with later. We should do our best to isolate the negative event emotionally and the associated feelings and contain the impact avoiding an emotional downward spiral.
Recognition is a good start and rationalization (to stop the impact) can be helpful.