Everyday we are bombarded with all types of stressful situations at work, at home, at school. Each is accompanied by an assortment of emotions that can take us on roller coster ride filled with twists and turns, ups and downs.
If you were to sit down and jot down all the emotions that we experience in one day, it would probable read something like this: excited, angry, proud, stressed, confused, amazed, afraid, grateful, happy, proud, desperate, and it goes on and on.
At the end of the day, all these emotions can be sifted into two major categories. They are either positive or negative. Which is better? Positive or negative?
The Negatives That Help Us
Can a negative actually be a positive? Undoubtedly, negative emotions can help us by signally impending threats or challenges that we will have to deal with. For example, fear overtakes us as we drive on an icy road in the dark on our way home from a night out on the town.
Anger rears its ugly head when we discover that we’ve just been cheated out of our money, when we discover that we only have one of the two double cheese burgers that we ordered at our favorite drive-thru. That would anger me for sure.
The negative emotions give us a focused awareness, and prepares us to with deal with whatever comes our way.
But, dwell on the negative side too long, and it tends to get us out of balance. Negative emotions can sometime act like freight trains, in that, once they get rolling, they’re hard to stop. Next thing you know , problems get too overwhelming. We suddenly become stressed and anxious, and next thing you know, we are out of control.
When this happens we need something to bring us back in balance.
Positive Emotions Help
Unlike negative emotions which give us a heightened focus effect, positive emotions open us up. They seem to have the ability to increase our sense of awareness, to allow us the ability to pay more attention, and actually helps improve memory.
The more we experience positive emotions, our openness to new possibilities increases. This aids our learning abilities for skill development, test taking, and just doing better at our daily tasks.
Generally, people tend to be happier, healthier, and better equipped to get along with others.
The Happy Balance
Now researchers are learning that negative and positive emotions are not mutually exclusive. Striking a good balance is the best course of actions for a happier life. Negative emotions can reap the benefits of positive ones, and feeling negative emotions doesn’t change our ability to live a satisfying life.
However, over time, frequent momentary occurrences of positive emotions help us develop skills to help is adapt to new environments, and unexpected experiences. They give is more ability to regulate all of our emotions, solve problems, change perspectives, when necessary, and helps us experience even more positive emotions in the future.
The Advantages of Positive Emotions
Experts have found the advantages of using our positive emotions are numerous, if we know how to use them.
Here are some ways we can but Positive Emotions to work for us:
1. Outnumber The Negative with The Positive
Problem solving becomes easier when we use the effects of positive emotions to open our minds to the broader possibilities. Instead of the negative, narrowing our focus, the more positive emotions give us a wider playing field to find better solutions to our problems.
Although, we can sometimes let the negative dominate our focus, and we can’t completely avoid the negatives, we can counter it’s narrowing effects on us by outnumbering them with the positive.
In fact, studies have shown that people do their best when they have at least three times as many positive emotions than negative. You have the power to turn a negative into a positive my bombarding them with three times as many positive emotions.
2. Daily Positivity Practice
Just like any activity, it becomes habit if you practice it every day. Positive emotions work the same way. If you want a happier life, practice filling it with positive emotions every day. Pick a positive act each day, and consciously decide to increase it.
Need more confidence at work, then choose to practice acting confidently today. Go to work with the intention of using confidence in as many activities as you can. To increase confidence, practice acting more confidently every day.
Practice this method to start bringing more of the good things you want.
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3. Track It To Hack It
Believe it or not, many people don’t even realize which positive emotions they experience during the course of a day. To help increase your awareness of the positive emotions that you respond to best, make a list and start tracking.
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For the next 5 days, make a list of all the positive emotions you experience each day.
Note what emotion you felt, what the circumstances were, what people were involved, and how you can create more situations like this.
One you see a clear picture of what these positive emotions are, plan to make a way to include theses in as many activities as possible during your day.
After tracking these positive experiences, you will begin to develop a vast collection.
Use this as a reminder of what experiences lead to a happier life.
Collecting these experiences lets you periodically look back as reminders of all the good things in life you are experiencing.
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Start filling your environment with little reminders like the following:
Favorite photos you took or that someone took of you
Cards people sent
Awards and accomplishments
Gifts you enjoyed receiving
Lyrics to your favorite song
Places you’ve visited
Childhood memories
Inspirational quotes
Posters
Favorite books you’ve read
and anything else that creates great experiences
When you feel a bit of negativity coming on, counter balance it with items from your Positive Collection.
The Take Away
Everyone experiences both negative and positive emotions. We have a tendency to fall into the habit of the following the narrowing focus of the negative. To broaden our view, we can use positive emotions, which open us up to greater possibilities, and helps us resolve our problems faster.
The best approach is a balanced one. We can use the negative to alert us when our focused attention is need, and use the positive to open our minds to greater solutions.
Using the Positive emotions does have it’s advantages, if we learn how to use them.
Outnumbering the negative emotions with positive ones not only helps with problem solving, but also helps us recover from the negative events faster. Some researchers say that outnumbering the negative with three times more positive is a good practice to follow.
Increasing your positive experiences happens consistently, when you make it a daily habit of practicing positive emotions.
Tracking our habit gives us a better awareness, and understanding of what positive emotions affect us, and the circumstances that create them. Tracking over time develops a collection of positive events that we can refer to whenever we need a positive boost.
Positivity pays off when you consciously determine to bring more happiness into your life.