Cleo, you really should do something that even Mac suggests. that is quitting pograms you aren't using to free up memory! That is one of the problems with the Mac...if you don't actually "quit" a program, it stays active in the background. When you have a bunch of those running, it really slows down the memory hog programs like FCP and Photoshop.
Your Mac is showing 117 processes running, at idle, while there is only 56 system processes that are required to be run. That means you have 61 other processes running that are using up resources that could be better used on your main programs.
We've been running Macs for years for video processing and with FCP, you really need to wring out everything you can. Like most Mac users, I learned the hard and slow way on how to treat the thing to get the best from it
But as I said earlier, a Mac is just another tool and no better or worse than a well taken care of Windows box or another OS like Linux. I use them all as they all have areas they excel at.