Module-2: Readings-2: Training your Brain, Positive Emotions, and Character Strengths
Topics Covered Under Module-2: Readings-2
When it comes to happiness, sometimes it can feel like we're our own worst enemies, slipping into thought patterns that bring us anguish and anxiety but are difficult to avoid, or even notice we're engaged in.
According to the World Happiness Report 2015, published by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, happier people are better able to sustain positive emotion, recover faster from negative events, demonstrate empathy and altruism, and exhibit mindfulness. "The circuits we identify as underlying these four constituents of well-being all exhibit plasticity, and thus can be transformed through experience and training," the report states.
In this next video, I've identified some of these "toxic" patterns of thought--including perfectionism, materialism, social comparisons, and "maximizing"--along with some alternate mental habits that are better for our happiness. As I explained toward the start of this video, developing these healthier thought patterns has been a goal of many important traditions, from Buddhism to the field of cognitive behavioral therapy. This video orients you to the benefits of these more positive mental habits; the rest of the module will help you better understand how to cultivate them.
Let the happiness of others rub off on you: It's weird science, but a few years ago researchers in the Netherlands proved humans transfer negative emotions such as fear and disgust to each other via the odor of chemicals in sweat. Recently a handful of European researchers demonstrated that the same is true for happiness--it can be transferred to others by means of smell. Be smart and gravitate toward the most contented and positive people in your life, while avoiding complainers, pessimists, and naysayers.
Optional Viewing: Here's a special for Mother's Day- Stress can undermine our best parenting intentions, but new research suggests a way to reduce its impact. Although parenting stress may be ever-present, this research suggests that building up positive emotion reserves helps moms to support their kids without sacrificing their individual well-being. If you are a mom, how can you do that? Read 3 ways as suggested in Maryam Abdullah's blog.
The next few videos feature renowned psychologist Barbara Fredrickson, the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a leading researcher of positive emotions. We’re pleased to present this guest lecture, in which she explains how positive emotions are more than just fleeting, frivolous sensations--instead, they can profoundly change our minds and bodies, broadening our perspective and making us more resilient to setbacks.
Positive Emotions (Video Lecture by Dr.Fredrickson)
Positivity opens us. The first core truth about positive emotions is that they open our hearts and our minds, making us more receptive and more creative. Positivity transforms us for the better. This is the second core truth about positive emotions. By opening our hearts and minds, positive emotions allow us to discover and build new skills, new contacts, new knowledge, and new ways of being.
“Know that joy is rarer, more difficult, and more beautiful than sadness. Once you make this all-important discovery, you must embrace joy as a moral obligation.” - Andre Gide
Let me introduce you to the ten forms of positivity: joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe, and love. I want you to get to know each one personally. Discover what you and this feeling share in common. Of course, each is already familiar to you to some degree, and terms for describing them are already deeply embedded in our language. I suspect, though, you may be less aware of their full scope and beauty. You may not have previously considered the aspects of each state as a scientist have investigated them. And you might not have appreciated all the moments in your life when each has entered your heart.
We focus on these ten positive emotions for two reasons. First, they are targets of a growing amount of scientific research. Second, over years of research these ten forms of positivity color people’s day-to-day lives the most. With one important exception, the positive emotions are described in the order of their relative frequency, starting with the ones people feel most often, and moving on toward those felt more rarely. The exception is love, which appears to be the most frequently experienced form of positivity. It will be described last for a reason.
As each emotion is presented, it will start by describing the circumstances and patterns of thought that spark that emotion. These are the specific levers you can pull to turn positivity on, to gain control over when and how often you feel it. I’ll also describe the sensations that each particular emotion brings, and what it uniquely makes you want to do and think.
The beauty of emotions is that they are highly individualized, depending more on your inner interpretations than on your outer circumstances. What makes one person awestruck with inspiration may be totally lost on another person. Likewise, what amuses one person may offend another. This means that each person’s pathway to flourishing is unique. Increasing positivity in your own life then begins with self-study. As you read about the ten different types of positive emotions, simply ask yourself:
Joy: Visualize this: Your surroundings are safe and familiar. Things are going your way – even better than you expected. At the moment the situation requires little effort on your part. These are the circumstances that spark joy. There are many other sources of joy. Perhaps your friends have just surprised you with a birthday bouquet of balloons. Or you open a letter to find an unexpected check from Grandpa and Grandma. Or you’re out to dinner with new friends and delighting in their good company. Joy feels bright and light. Colors seem more vivid. There’s a spring in your step. And your face lights up with a smile and an inner glow. You feel like taking it all in. You feel playful – you want to jump in and get involved. What brings you joy?
Gratitude: Imagine you’ve just realized that someone has gone out of their way to do something good for you. Your teacher offers to work with you during study hall to get all your homework done before the weekend. An adult you look up to steers you to a job that is in something you want to make a career out of. Your Mom cleans up your laundry and makes your favorite dinner. A store clerk is especially helpful and kind as you make a complicated exchange. We can also feel grateful for breathing clean air, having able bodies, or having a safe and comfortable place to rest when weary. In any case, gratitude comes when we appreciate something that has come our way as a gift to be treasured. Gratitude opens your heart and carries the urge to give back – to do something good in return, either for the person who helped you or for someone else. Gratitude, though, has an evil twin: indebtedness. If you feel you have to pay someone back, then you’re not feeling grateful, you’re feeling indebted, which often feels distinctly unpleasant. Indebtedness pays back begrudgingly, as part of the economy of favors. In contrast, gratitude gives back freely and creatively. It’s a truly pleasant feeling intermixed with joy and heartfelt appreciation. And gratitude doesn’t play by the rules. It’s not the etiquette we teach our kids. Think back when you were little or if you have a little brother or sister and when they’re silent upon receiving a gift or a kindness and you or Mom or Dad prod them with a “Now what do you say?” When they push out a monotone “Thanks,” they’re only being polite, not grateful. Gratitude is not mindless manners or tit-for-tat reciprocity (you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours). True gratitude is heartfelt and unscripted. When was the last time you felt grateful – not polite or indebted, but truly and openly grateful?
Serenity: Like joy, serenity enters when your surroundings are safe and familiar and require little effort on your part. But unlike joy, serenity is much more low-key. It’s when you let out that long, luxurious sigh because your current circumstances are so comfortable and so right. It’s when you lie back in a shaded hammock after a day of strenuous and rewarding work. It’s strolling down a sandy beach or a remote hiking trail on a bright morning with shimmering leaf sounds filling your head and a warm breeze tingling your skin. It’s curling up with a good book. Serenity makes you want to sit back and soak it in. It’s a mindful state that carries the urge to savor your current circumstances and find ways to integrate them into your life more fully and more often. When you tell yourself, “I need to do this more often!” that’s serenity. I call serenity the afterglow emotion. It often comes on the heels of other forms of positivity, like joy, pride, amusement, or awe. Think about the last time you savored a serene moment.
Interest: Although you’re feeling perfectly safe, something new or different draws your attention, filling you with a sense of possibility or mystery. Unlike joy and serenity, these circumstances call for effort and increased attention on your part. You’re utterly fascinated. You’re pulled to explore, to immerse yourself in what you’re just now discovering. It’s when you see a new path in the woods and want to find out where it leads. It’s when you uncover a new set of challenges that allow you to build your skills, whether in cooking, bridge, or dancing. It’s that fascinating new book that awakens you to new ideas. When you’re interested, you feel open and alive. You can literally feel you horizons expanding in real time and with them your own possibilities. The intense pull of interest beckons you to explore, to take in new ideas, and to learn more. When did interest last draw you in?
Hope: Although most positivity arises when you feel safe and satiated, hope is an exception. If everything were already going your way, there would be little that you’d need to hope for. Hope comes into play when your circumstances are dire – things are not going well for you, or there’s considerable uncertainty about how things will turn out. Hope arises precisely within those moments when hopelessness or despair seems just as likely. Perhaps you’ve just failed an important test, lost your job, broke up with your girlfriend, or scooped up your little brother after a bloody bike accident. Hope, in desperate situations like these, is ‘fearing the worst but yearning for better.’ Deep within the core of hope is the belief that things can change. No matter how awful or uncertain they are at the moment, things can turn out better. Possibilities exist. Hope sustains you. It keeps you from collapsing into despair. It motivates you to tap into your own capabilities and inventiveness to turn things around. It inspires you to plan for a better future. Unlike any other earthly creature, we humans can envision our own futures and, in so doing, all possible calamities. Without hope, our uniquely human ability to forecast our inevitable death and demise would leave us in motionless despair. With hope, we become energized to do as much as we can to make a good life for ourselves and for others. Was it hope for a better life that motivated you to come to school today?
Pride: Pride is one of the so-called ‘self-conscious emotions.’ We all know its evil cousins, shame and guilt. These painful feelings overcome us when we’re to blame for something bad. Pride is the opposite: we’re ‘to blame’ for something good. As one of the so called seven deadly sins, pride has a mixed reputation. We say pride makes people’s heads swell, or that pride comes before a fall. Any emotion can go too far, and perhaps this is especially true for pride. Unchecked, pride becomes hubris. But when specific and tempered with appropriate humility, pride is clearly a positive emotion. Pride blooms in the wake of an achievement you can take credit for. You invested your effort and skills and succeeded. It’s that good feeling you get when you put the finishing touches on a project. Or when you achieve something in school or at work; aced a test, won a race, or made a sale. Or when you recognize that you made a difference to someone else, through your help, kindness, or guidance. These are not just any achievements, but socially valued ones. We sense at a deep level that our actions will be valued by others. That is what makes pride a self-conscious emotion. Unless you’re a sociopath, you’re acutely aware of how your actions – good or bad – can be perceived by others. You feel pride when you’re praiseworthy and guilt when you’re blameworthy. Pride carries with it the urge to share the news of your achievements with others, either in words (‘Hey, look what I did!), gestures (upright posture, head held high, slight smile, hands on hips, or arms raised), or both. The mindscape of pride is expansive as well. It kindles dreams of further and larger achievements in similar domains: If I can do this, maybe I can…open my own business…redesign my bedroom…earn a scholarship…make the team…be promoted…get elected…make a difference in the world. In this way, pride fuels the motivation to achieve. Well-controlled laboratory experiments show that when people feel pride, they are more likely to persist on difficult tasks. What makes you proud? And what has pride inspired you to do?
Amusement: Sometimes something unexpected happens that simply makes you laugh. A friend makes a funny face after she tries your latest dinner creation. You mistakenly dip your chip in your soda instead of the salsa. A classmate shares her latest favorite joke. First, amusement is social. Although at times we laugh alone, those laughs are only pale renditions of the laughter we share with another. In fact, like yawns, laughter is highly contagious. Second, surprises are only amusing if they are embedded within safe contexts, not if they are dangerous or threatening. If your friend makes a face because she’s choking, or if your buddy’s joke is offensive, you’re not amused. By definition, then, amusements are non-serious. Heartfelt amusement brings the irrepressible urge to laugh and share your joviality with others. Shared laughter signals that you find you current situation to be safe and lighthearted and that you’d like to use this blessed time to build connection with others. When was the last time you laughed?
Inspiration: Every so often, you come across true human excellence. You transcend the ordinary, seeing better possibilities than usual. Witnessing human nature at its very best can inspire and uplift you. Perhaps you see a colleague step away from his own pressing schedule to patiently help a disoriented older man find his way. Or you see tennis genius Roger Federer play a flawlessly fluid game in the U.S. Open. You read the work of a poet who seems to see into the core of the human soul. Or you witness one of your role models doing what she does best. Feeling inspired rivets your attention, warms your heart, and draws you in. It’s the polar opposite of feeling disgusted by human depravity, which instantly repels you. Inspiration doesn’t simply feel good, it makes you want to express what’s good and do good yourself. It creates the urge to do your best so that you can reach your won higher ground. Along with gratitude and awe, inspiration is considered one of the self-transcendent emotions. It’s a form of positivity that pulls us out of our shell of self-absorption. Sadly, inspiration is not the only response you might have to seeing someone else do something extraordinarily well. Like gratitude, inspiration has and evil twin. Whether you call it resentment or envy, it arises when we see human excellence and respond with negativity. We grumble, mock, tear the person down, or beat ourselves up for not doing equally well. When we compare ourselves with someone who does better than we do, sometimes we get discouraged instead of inspired. Whether you respond to human excellence with positivity or negativity is a choice. It’s a choice about whether your heart is open or closed. With this choice you step onto an upward spiral or a downward spiral. Can you think of a time when you made the choice to be inspired?
Awe: Closely related to inspiration, awe happens when you come across goodness on a grand scale. You literally feel overwhelmed by greatness. By comparison, you feel small and humble. Awe makes you stop in your tracks. You are momentarily transfixed. Boundaries melt away and you feel part of something larger than yourself. Mentally, you’re challenged to absorb and accommodate the sheer scale of what you’ve encountered. Sometimes we’re awed by nature, as with stunning sunsets over the rolling country side, or by seeing , hearing, and feeling the power of waves smashing and splashing away at the lakefront. Other times, we’re awed by humanity, as when we see the Dalai Lama awe a hundred thousand people or visit the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris and stand beneath the great Rose Window aglow in the morning sun. Although a form of positivity, awe at times sits so close to the edge of safety that we get whiff of negativity as well. Awe mixes with fear when we’ve witnessed a tornado or seen the World Trade Center towers collapse. Awe, like gratitude and inspiration, is a self-transcendent emotion. It compels us to see ourselves as part of something much larger, whether it’s god’s great creation or this nation’s great progress. Awe can also bind us emotionally to powerful and charismatic leaders or performers, who often seem larger than life. What has transfixed you with awe? When have you felt intense wonder or amazement, truly in awe of your surroundings? When have you felt overwhelmed by greatness, or by beauty on a grand scale? When have you been stopped in you tracks, transfixed by grandeur? When have you felt part of something much larger than yourself?
Love: There’s a reason love is called a many-splendored thing. It’s not a single kind of positivity. It’s all of the above, encompassing joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, and awe. What transforms these other forms of positivity into love is their context. When these good feelings stir our hearts within a safe, often close relationship, we call it love. In the early stages of a relationship, tied up within your initial attraction, you’re deeply interested in anything and everything this new person says and does. You share amusements and laugh together, often as a result of the awkwardness of coming together for the first time. As your relationship builds and perhaps surpasses your expectations, it brings great joy. You begin to share your hopes and dreams for your future together. As the relationship becomes more solid, you sink back into the cozy serenity that comes with the security of mutual love. You’re grateful for the joys your beloved brings into your life, and as proud of their achievements as you are of you own, inspired by their good qualities, and perhaps in awe of the forces of the universe that brought you two together. Each of these moments could equally be described as a moment of love.
So even though love is often the most common flavor of positivity that people feel, I reserved it for last so that you could better appreciate its many facets. Viewing love in this way can also sharpen your ability to see love as a momentary state –as a surge – and not simply as a description of one of your relationships, be it with your spouse, steady, child, parent, or sibling. These intimate relationships might best be viewed as the products of recurrent surges of love. Although multifaceted, love has a characteristic nonverbal display, as we nod our heads affirmatively toward our loved ones, and lean in toward them. Love also changes the inner chemistry of our bodies. It raises our oxytocin and progesterone levels, biological responses linked with lifelong bonds, trust, and intimacy. Think of a time when you felt love flow within you. When do you most readily feel the warmth of love well up between you and another? When do you feel close, safe, and secure within your relationship? When do you feel trusting? When do you feel trustworthy? When does a relationship of yours spark one of the many other forms of positivity – joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, or awe? When do you find yourself leaning in toward your beloved, affirming his or her uniqueness? When do you have the urge just to be with and enjoy the companionship of our beloved, to cherish him or her or to bask in his or her reflected glory?
While often simplified as “grit” or “self-control,” character is more than simply individual achievement or a person’s behavior. It is a broad and complex family of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are recognized and encouraged across cultures for the values they cultivate in people and society. Character is the aggregate of who we are; it’s “what’s inside every one of us.”
The following excerpt is from "the pursuit of happiness" website:
The work of positive psychologists like Martin Seligman appears to show that the happiest people are those that have discovered their unique strengths (such as persistence and critical thinking) and virtues (such as humanity or justice) and use those strengths and virtues for a purpose that is greater than their own personal goals.
You may have had certain strengths that are so natural to you that you may not even consider them strengths. Think about an episode in your life when you were at your very best. What qualities enabled you to perform like that? While there are numerous talents and strengths that humans can possess, Character Strengths and Virtues are ones that humanity universally values. When Martin Seligman and Chris Peterson sought to discover and classify commonly held strengths and virtues across cultures, they created a classification of core virtues that humans morally value regardless of their cultural, racial, and religious differences. Take the VIA Signature Strengths questionnaire to determine your top three signature strengths: http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx (Note: you will have to register on the Authentic Happiness website first to take the test. This is a short form that should take only a few minutes to complete). In addition to the VIA Signature Strengths Questionnaire, there are also other strengths classifications, including: StrengthsFinder, the Virtues Project, & Realise 2. Each classification is unique and is based upon different studies of talents, virtues, or strengths.
Let's see an example of a signature strength:
Spirituality is one of the strengths most associated with a life of meaning. Here are some benefits to practicing this character strength.
Do You Practice Your Spirituality? (Video describing spirituality as a signature strength)
How Does this Related to Us? Why is it Important to Know my Signature Strengths?
Current research indicates that you are most likely to value a job, relationship, hobby or institution that aligns with your core signature strengths and allows you to regularly utilize them. In fact, research indicates that one of the best ways to boost your long-term happiness is to use your strengths in new ways and situations, rather than focusing on your weaknesses. For instance, a 2010 study of college students found that individuals who used their signature strengths made more progress in reaching their goals (and improving their well-being) (1). In addition, a seminal study in 2004 found that certain character strengths, including hope, zest, gratitude, love, and curiosity, show a stronger link to life satisfaction (2). The use of strengths and virtues is therefore well in keeping with the philosophy of positive psychology: to focus on the positive in your life, not the negative!
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1. What are the things you and your partner (or any loved one) do to prioritize positivity? What things did you do in the past that have now fallen by the wayside, perhaps because things have gotten so bust that you don't seem to have time for them anymore? What if I invite you to make one significant change in your schedule to prioritize positivity. This could be planning a day-- or at least significant part of the day-- when you engage in activities that bring positive emotions to both of you. Or you may want to schedule regular daily or weekly time for connecting through watching the sunset or listening to music together, taking up dance classes, or trying out new restaurants. The point here is not to force positive emotions but rather to put yourself in contexts where they naturally tend to arise. What are your thoughts about this exercise. Would you try doing it, if so, what would that be? Also speculate on how effective do you think it would be for you and your partner (or any loved one) personally?
2. Look back at the list of Fredrickson's top ten positive emotions. Choose one you would like to practice by means of exercising voluntary control over your body and your mind. For the emotion you choose, what are your physical and mental triggers for experiencing that emotions? If I were to ask you to practice cultivating the emotion by adopting the positive gestures, facial expressions, and breathing style you typically have in that emotional state, what kinds of things do you think you would think about that would trigger that emotion? It can be helpful to consider a particular time in the past when you felt that emotion in a powerful way, and then imagine you are back at that point in your life, focusing on reproducing the physical positions and mental focus you had then. This may take some practice, but if you approach this with some openness and perhaps a bit of playfulness, its effectiveness may surprise you. What are your articular thoughts on this exercise?
3. How does positivity affect relationships according to Dr. Fredrickson? What are some of your thoughts on them with regard to application to your personal lives?
- Training the Mind for Happiness
- Positive Emotions
- Strengths and Virtues
Training the Mind for Happiness
When it comes to happiness, sometimes it can feel like we're our own worst enemies, slipping into thought patterns that bring us anguish and anxiety but are difficult to avoid, or even notice we're engaged in.
According to the World Happiness Report 2015, published by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, happier people are better able to sustain positive emotion, recover faster from negative events, demonstrate empathy and altruism, and exhibit mindfulness. "The circuits we identify as underlying these four constituents of well-being all exhibit plasticity, and thus can be transformed through experience and training," the report states.
In this next video, I've identified some of these "toxic" patterns of thought--including perfectionism, materialism, social comparisons, and "maximizing"--along with some alternate mental habits that are better for our happiness. As I explained toward the start of this video, developing these healthier thought patterns has been a goal of many important traditions, from Buddhism to the field of cognitive behavioral therapy. This video orients you to the benefits of these more positive mental habits; the rest of the module will help you better understand how to cultivate them.
How Happy Brains Respond to Negative Things: Evolution has endowed us with key instincts for survival--as evidenced by the brain's tendency to quickly signal and prepare the body to respond to potential threats. In thinking about the role of positive emotions in happiness, the article below adds an interesting perspective; happiness is associated with a greater tendency for the brain to signal and respond to sources of positive emotion. This new research provides a whole new understanding of the brain's amygdala—and suggests that happy people take the bad with the good. Click here to read about this. Also, for help training yourself to be happy, check out Greater Good in Action, a new online resource offering dozens of science-based exercises that can help boost your sense of well-being.
Let the happiness of others rub off on you: It's weird science, but a few years ago researchers in the Netherlands proved humans transfer negative emotions such as fear and disgust to each other via the odor of chemicals in sweat. Recently a handful of European researchers demonstrated that the same is true for happiness--it can be transferred to others by means of smell. Be smart and gravitate toward the most contented and positive people in your life, while avoiding complainers, pessimists, and naysayers.Optional Viewing: Here's a special for Mother's Day- Stress can undermine our best parenting intentions, but new research suggests a way to reduce its impact. Although parenting stress may be ever-present, this research suggests that building up positive emotion reserves helps moms to support their kids without sacrificing their individual well-being. If you are a mom, how can you do that? Read 3 ways as suggested in Maryam Abdullah's blog.
Happiness and Positive Emotions
So far, we have heard a few experts say that happiness is about more than feeling good. But this doesn’t mean that positive emotions don't have real and lasting benefits. They are still an important part of happiness, even if they're not the only part.The next few videos feature renowned psychologist Barbara Fredrickson, the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a leading researcher of positive emotions. We’re pleased to present this guest lecture, in which she explains how positive emotions are more than just fleeting, frivolous sensations--instead, they can profoundly change our minds and bodies, broadening our perspective and making us more resilient to setbacks.
Positive Emotions Open Our Minds (8:37) (Video Lecture by Dr.Fredrickson)
Dr.Fredrickson focuses on what positivity is, and why it needs to be heartfelt to be effective. She shares about Positivity Ratio and related concepts. Let's explore that together:Positive Emotions (Video Lecture by Dr.Fredrickson)
Positive Emotions Transform Us: Are you the same person you were yesterday? Last week? Last year? According to the research cited in this next video, your mind and body are always changing, and positive emotions might play a crucial role in that evolution. As you watch Dr. Fredrickson, consider how your own emotional experiences--positive and negative--have helped to shape your identity and well-being.
Positive Emotions Transform Us (7:36) (Video Lecture by Dr.Fredrickson)
“One’s own self is well hidden from one’s own self: Of all mines of treasure, one’s own is the last to be dug up.” - Friedrich Nietzsche- Positivity feels good.
- Positivity changes how your mind works.
- Positivity transforms your future.
- Positivity puts the brakes on negativity.
- Positivity obeys a tipping point, where a small change makes a big difference.
- You can increase your positivity
Positivity opens us. The first core truth about positive emotions is that they open our hearts and our minds, making us more receptive and more creative. Positivity transforms us for the better. This is the second core truth about positive emotions. By opening our hearts and minds, positive emotions allow us to discover and build new skills, new contacts, new knowledge, and new ways of being.
“Know that joy is rarer, more difficult, and more beautiful than sadness. Once you make this all-important discovery, you must embrace joy as a moral obligation.” - Andre Gide
Let me introduce you to the ten forms of positivity: joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe, and love. I want you to get to know each one personally. Discover what you and this feeling share in common. Of course, each is already familiar to you to some degree, and terms for describing them are already deeply embedded in our language. I suspect, though, you may be less aware of their full scope and beauty. You may not have previously considered the aspects of each state as a scientist have investigated them. And you might not have appreciated all the moments in your life when each has entered your heart.
We focus on these ten positive emotions for two reasons. First, they are targets of a growing amount of scientific research. Second, over years of research these ten forms of positivity color people’s day-to-day lives the most. With one important exception, the positive emotions are described in the order of their relative frequency, starting with the ones people feel most often, and moving on toward those felt more rarely. The exception is love, which appears to be the most frequently experienced form of positivity. It will be described last for a reason.
As each emotion is presented, it will start by describing the circumstances and patterns of thought that spark that emotion. These are the specific levers you can pull to turn positivity on, to gain control over when and how often you feel it. I’ll also describe the sensations that each particular emotion brings, and what it uniquely makes you want to do and think.
The beauty of emotions is that they are highly individualized, depending more on your inner interpretations than on your outer circumstances. What makes one person awestruck with inspiration may be totally lost on another person. Likewise, what amuses one person may offend another. This means that each person’s pathway to flourishing is unique. Increasing positivity in your own life then begins with self-study. As you read about the ten different types of positive emotions, simply ask yourself:
- When was the last time I felt this feeling?
- Where was I?
- What was I doing?
- What else gives me that feeling?
- Can I think of still more triggers?
- What can I do now to cultivate this feeling?
Joy: Visualize this: Your surroundings are safe and familiar. Things are going your way – even better than you expected. At the moment the situation requires little effort on your part. These are the circumstances that spark joy. There are many other sources of joy. Perhaps your friends have just surprised you with a birthday bouquet of balloons. Or you open a letter to find an unexpected check from Grandpa and Grandma. Or you’re out to dinner with new friends and delighting in their good company. Joy feels bright and light. Colors seem more vivid. There’s a spring in your step. And your face lights up with a smile and an inner glow. You feel like taking it all in. You feel playful – you want to jump in and get involved. What brings you joy?
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| Positive Emotions: Joy & Gratitude; Dr.Pris's Creation |
Serenity: Like joy, serenity enters when your surroundings are safe and familiar and require little effort on your part. But unlike joy, serenity is much more low-key. It’s when you let out that long, luxurious sigh because your current circumstances are so comfortable and so right. It’s when you lie back in a shaded hammock after a day of strenuous and rewarding work. It’s strolling down a sandy beach or a remote hiking trail on a bright morning with shimmering leaf sounds filling your head and a warm breeze tingling your skin. It’s curling up with a good book. Serenity makes you want to sit back and soak it in. It’s a mindful state that carries the urge to savor your current circumstances and find ways to integrate them into your life more fully and more often. When you tell yourself, “I need to do this more often!” that’s serenity. I call serenity the afterglow emotion. It often comes on the heels of other forms of positivity, like joy, pride, amusement, or awe. Think about the last time you savored a serene moment.
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| Serenity: Positive Emotion- Dr.Pris's Creation |
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| Interest- Positive Emotions; Dr.Pris's Creation |
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| Positive Emotions: Hope & Pride ~ Dr.Pris's Creation |
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| Amusement-Positive Emotion; Dr.Pris's Creation |
Inspiration: Every so often, you come across true human excellence. You transcend the ordinary, seeing better possibilities than usual. Witnessing human nature at its very best can inspire and uplift you. Perhaps you see a colleague step away from his own pressing schedule to patiently help a disoriented older man find his way. Or you see tennis genius Roger Federer play a flawlessly fluid game in the U.S. Open. You read the work of a poet who seems to see into the core of the human soul. Or you witness one of your role models doing what she does best. Feeling inspired rivets your attention, warms your heart, and draws you in. It’s the polar opposite of feeling disgusted by human depravity, which instantly repels you. Inspiration doesn’t simply feel good, it makes you want to express what’s good and do good yourself. It creates the urge to do your best so that you can reach your won higher ground. Along with gratitude and awe, inspiration is considered one of the self-transcendent emotions. It’s a form of positivity that pulls us out of our shell of self-absorption. Sadly, inspiration is not the only response you might have to seeing someone else do something extraordinarily well. Like gratitude, inspiration has and evil twin. Whether you call it resentment or envy, it arises when we see human excellence and respond with negativity. We grumble, mock, tear the person down, or beat ourselves up for not doing equally well. When we compare ourselves with someone who does better than we do, sometimes we get discouraged instead of inspired. Whether you respond to human excellence with positivity or negativity is a choice. It’s a choice about whether your heart is open or closed. With this choice you step onto an upward spiral or a downward spiral. Can you think of a time when you made the choice to be inspired?
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| Positive Emotions: Take a moment to look through these pictures and in "awe" derive your "inspiration! Dr.Pris's Creation. |
Awe: Closely related to inspiration, awe happens when you come across goodness on a grand scale. You literally feel overwhelmed by greatness. By comparison, you feel small and humble. Awe makes you stop in your tracks. You are momentarily transfixed. Boundaries melt away and you feel part of something larger than yourself. Mentally, you’re challenged to absorb and accommodate the sheer scale of what you’ve encountered. Sometimes we’re awed by nature, as with stunning sunsets over the rolling country side, or by seeing , hearing, and feeling the power of waves smashing and splashing away at the lakefront. Other times, we’re awed by humanity, as when we see the Dalai Lama awe a hundred thousand people or visit the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris and stand beneath the great Rose Window aglow in the morning sun. Although a form of positivity, awe at times sits so close to the edge of safety that we get whiff of negativity as well. Awe mixes with fear when we’ve witnessed a tornado or seen the World Trade Center towers collapse. Awe, like gratitude and inspiration, is a self-transcendent emotion. It compels us to see ourselves as part of something much larger, whether it’s god’s great creation or this nation’s great progress. Awe can also bind us emotionally to powerful and charismatic leaders or performers, who often seem larger than life. What has transfixed you with awe? When have you felt intense wonder or amazement, truly in awe of your surroundings? When have you felt overwhelmed by greatness, or by beauty on a grand scale? When have you been stopped in you tracks, transfixed by grandeur? When have you felt part of something much larger than yourself?
Love: There’s a reason love is called a many-splendored thing. It’s not a single kind of positivity. It’s all of the above, encompassing joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, and awe. What transforms these other forms of positivity into love is their context. When these good feelings stir our hearts within a safe, often close relationship, we call it love. In the early stages of a relationship, tied up within your initial attraction, you’re deeply interested in anything and everything this new person says and does. You share amusements and laugh together, often as a result of the awkwardness of coming together for the first time. As your relationship builds and perhaps surpasses your expectations, it brings great joy. You begin to share your hopes and dreams for your future together. As the relationship becomes more solid, you sink back into the cozy serenity that comes with the security of mutual love. You’re grateful for the joys your beloved brings into your life, and as proud of their achievements as you are of you own, inspired by their good qualities, and perhaps in awe of the forces of the universe that brought you two together. Each of these moments could equally be described as a moment of love.
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| Love-Positive Emotion; Dr.Pris's Creation |
Sources:
Barbara L. Fredrickson PH.D. (2009). Positivity: Groundbreaking research reveals how to embrace the hidden strength of positive emotions, overcome negativity, and thrive. New York: Crown Publishers
Strengths and Virtues
Start here- The Science of Character/VIA Institute (Video 8 min)While often simplified as “grit” or “self-control,” character is more than simply individual achievement or a person’s behavior. It is a broad and complex family of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are recognized and encouraged across cultures for the values they cultivate in people and society. Character is the aggregate of who we are; it’s “what’s inside every one of us.”
| (Source: Peterson and Seligman, 2004) |
The following excerpt is from "the pursuit of happiness" website:
The work of positive psychologists like Martin Seligman appears to show that the happiest people are those that have discovered their unique strengths (such as persistence and critical thinking) and virtues (such as humanity or justice) and use those strengths and virtues for a purpose that is greater than their own personal goals.
You may have had certain strengths that are so natural to you that you may not even consider them strengths. Think about an episode in your life when you were at your very best. What qualities enabled you to perform like that? While there are numerous talents and strengths that humans can possess, Character Strengths and Virtues are ones that humanity universally values. When Martin Seligman and Chris Peterson sought to discover and classify commonly held strengths and virtues across cultures, they created a classification of core virtues that humans morally value regardless of their cultural, racial, and religious differences. Take the VIA Signature Strengths questionnaire to determine your top three signature strengths: http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx (Note: you will have to register on the Authentic Happiness website first to take the test. This is a short form that should take only a few minutes to complete). In addition to the VIA Signature Strengths Questionnaire, there are also other strengths classifications, including: StrengthsFinder, the Virtues Project, & Realise 2. Each classification is unique and is based upon different studies of talents, virtues, or strengths.
(Source: Peterson and Seligman, 2004)
Let's see an example of a signature strength:
Spirituality is one of the strengths most associated with a life of meaning. Here are some benefits to practicing this character strength.
Do You Practice Your Spirituality? (Video describing spirituality as a signature strength)
How Does this Related to Us? Why is it Important to Know my Signature Strengths?
Current research indicates that you are most likely to value a job, relationship, hobby or institution that aligns with your core signature strengths and allows you to regularly utilize them. In fact, research indicates that one of the best ways to boost your long-term happiness is to use your strengths in new ways and situations, rather than focusing on your weaknesses. For instance, a 2010 study of college students found that individuals who used their signature strengths made more progress in reaching their goals (and improving their well-being) (1). In addition, a seminal study in 2004 found that certain character strengths, including hope, zest, gratitude, love, and curiosity, show a stronger link to life satisfaction (2). The use of strengths and virtues is therefore well in keeping with the philosophy of positive psychology: to focus on the positive in your life, not the negative!
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Let's Discuss: Reflection Questions
[Address these questions in a "COMMENT" using the Rubric on the Assignments page in Canvas]
2. Look back at the list of Fredrickson's top ten positive emotions. Choose one you would like to practice by means of exercising voluntary control over your body and your mind. For the emotion you choose, what are your physical and mental triggers for experiencing that emotions? If I were to ask you to practice cultivating the emotion by adopting the positive gestures, facial expressions, and breathing style you typically have in that emotional state, what kinds of things do you think you would think about that would trigger that emotion? It can be helpful to consider a particular time in the past when you felt that emotion in a powerful way, and then imagine you are back at that point in your life, focusing on reproducing the physical positions and mental focus you had then. This may take some practice, but if you approach this with some openness and perhaps a bit of playfulness, its effectiveness may surprise you. What are your articular thoughts on this exercise?
3. How does positivity affect relationships according to Dr. Fredrickson? What are some of your thoughts on them with regard to application to your personal lives?
4. As you watched Professor Barbara Fredrickson’s videos, address: What words or images came to mind when you heard the term “positive emotions”? Jot some of them down from her talk on positivity ratio and how to raise it. How does Professor Fredrickson’s research on positive emotions support or challenge your opinions about positive emotions?
5. Take this 2-min online test: Positivity Self Test. Your score provides a snapshot of how your emotions of the past day combine to create your positivity ratio. How do you feel about the estimate of what your current life feel like based on the test scores?
1. a.) Things that me and my family do to prioritize positivity are to encourage each other everyday. That can be simply praying for one another, complimenting them or just simple words of affirmation.
ReplyDeleteb.) Things that my family and I use to do in the past that we no longer do include: not praying with each other at meals, and not having the time to enjoy a family dinner. We are get so caught up in our daily schedules that we never seem to have the time to enjoy those little moments together anymore. We have gymnastics, work, church, tennis, school before you know it everyone is already getting ready for bed.
c.) If there was one thing I needed to change in my schedule to prioritize positivity would be going on walks with my family. I would plan an evening for all of us to get together, and walk. We love being outdoors, so it wouldn't be out of the blue. Walking would allow us as a family to enjoy that time together without feeling rushed, it would allow us to spend time together and talk about our day or week that we just had.
d.) My thoughts on this exercise were positive, I really liked getting an idea of what I could possibly do this summer with my family and how to prioritize positivity with them.
2.) a.) Out of the ten positive emotions I chose Joy. Some physical triggers for that emotions would be one of my moms hugs. She gives the best hugs and after that I immediately feel joyful. Another trigger would be nature, I love to be outdoors whether that is walking, hiking, at the beach anywhere. Being out in nature and taking it all in with no distractions brings joy to me. A mental trigger would be when I pray, because I know that the time I am praying it is a one on one conversation with the Lord and after I feel so much joy in my heart and mind.
Deleteb.) As I try to cultivate the emotion of joy I think of a time where I felt it so immensely I began to cry. I was in Ireland on a mission trip and we had just finished helping out a youth group at a church and were headed to the cliffs. As we got off we were all in awe of how beautiful this place was. It was one of the most beautiful places I had ever been to, you could hear the ocean hitting the cliffs, the seagulls flying above us, and the ocean breeze hitting your face, and the air was so fresh and crisp that day. I was standing there at the edge of the cliffs looking out into the ocean and just began to cry because I realized how joyful my heart was. I was getting to witness God's beauty that he created and it was one o the best moments I had ever experienced.
c.) This exercise was interesting but so much fun. I got to think about my experience again in Ireland, and it also makes you realize how much you have to work on and how much you have to be thankful about.
3.)Positivity plays a major part in any relationship. If you are someone who is positive and has a positive outlook on life and are surrounding yourself around someone who is negative all the time and complains you are in for a ride. Who wants to be around someone who is always in a bad mood, negative about everything and always complaining. We weren't made that way, we were built to want community, but people who are encouraging and uplifting not people who tear you down and are always negative. Positivity affects a relationship in a big way.
4.)When I think of "positive emotions" I think of sunshine, the color yellow and laughter. Professor Fredrickson's research on positive emotions definitely supports my opinions about positive emotions. She says that for the 3:1 ratio that we need three positive emotions to lift up one negative. I agree with the just from experience, it always seems more challenging to get over one negative emotion than it is to feel one positive. I thought it was very interesting when she mentioned we shouldn't force ourselves to experience positivity, it needs to just be experienced naturally. I think in society we put so much pressure on one another to experience positivity that most people don't truly know what it feels like to have positivity.
5.) After taking the test, I feel like the scores were accurate. I had more negative just due to stressing, feeling overwhelmed and a lot on my plate as of this week. So I am not surprised at how I scored.
1) My fiancé and I have worked a lot on communication which has allowed us to prioritize positivity in our lives and relationship. Focusing on not only the negatives of our day or situation, but making sure to talk about positive things and compliment each other. We also put aside specific time to spend together throughout the week that no matter what happens with our schedules or something happens to upset us we stick with this plan and do things that make us happy. One thing we do not do like we used to is facetime each other while we are apart, as schedules began to get more hectic we just do not have time for this and it was not a top priority so it fell behind. With the theoretical exercise I would have my fiancé and I go to new restaurants or parks at least once a week just to get us out of our normal habits and allow us to focus and enjoy the newness of things. I think this would be a really awesome and helpful exercise.
Delete2) I would choose inspiration as my one out of the ten emotions, physical triggers for me are hugs for adoration from children, questions about how I achieved something, or watching/experiencing someone achieve their goals. Trying to achieve/cultivate inspiration I would focus on the emotions and facial expressions of those who I find inspiring; I would listen to inspirational talks such as some Tedtalks and focus/meditate on their words. I would practice long slow breaths allowing me to really focus on the source of inspiration and the feelings I have. A time that I had an overwhelming feeling of inspiration was in high school at a D-now weekend listening to the speaker who had a very similar story/background to me tell us how we got to where he is from what he had to endure and I remember feeling overwhelmed with inspiration and determination
3) Positivity is essentially the core to every relationship with have in our lives: work, friend, family, romantic, acquaintance; our attitude and amount of positivity that we bring directly influences the outcome of the relationship and the stability of the relationship. This is something I see and experience every day in each of my interactions with people, if i enter a conversation with a friend with a lack of positivity the interactions between us do not go well and it affects our relationship. Whereas, when I am in a positive mood and approach the relationship in such a manner, that things go very well and our bond increases.
4) The words that came to mind when I heard positive emotions were: Joy, excitement, children, animals. These words specifically came to mind because they are either words that are synonymous for positivity, or, they are a representation of what I think of when I hear positivity. Children often always possess this overwhelming positivity about them which seems to be contagious and makes us positive. And lastly, animals are something that ever since I was a child has made me very happy and just brought this sense of positivity to my life. The two main images that came to mind were a very bright light and a rainbow these two things to me are the symbolic representation of what it means to have positivity or positive vibes.
5) My scores were just barely more positive to negative, almost even. This result does not surprise me at all, because I’ve been very busy with a little lack of sleep, but overall in a very good spot in my life right now so the results to me seem very accurate for my current positivity to negativity ratio.
1. When I was younger, my family used to take time every night to stop and think about our day and talk about good things that happened during the day. It was a good way to prioritize positivity because it forced us to think over the day and realize that even if we may have had a bad day, there was always something good that could still be taken out of it. Now that we have gotten older, we don’t take the time to do this anymore, and I think I have struggled to find the positives during the bad days because I no longer take the time at the end of the day to think about it. I think that this exercise would be beneficial for me. I love writing because it is always a way for me to express what I’m feeling or going through, so I think one way I could achieve more positive emotions is to journal about each day to get everything out then at the end of the journal entry, I could list a few good things that happened during the course of the day. This would help me to see the positive things in my life, especially on the days that are harder. I also think that it would be beneficial for my family to do something similar as well.
ReplyDelete2. The emotion that I would like to practice more of is hope. Back in 2016, the time in which I feel I was at my best, I had a lot of hope for the future and life in general. This year of 2018 has been incredibly difficult for me, and in the struggles, it feels like all of the hope I used to have has disappeared. I want to get back to the point of being a hopeful person because I hate feeling hopeless all of the time. Some of my triggers for hope include seeing those around me doing good things, going to church, and spending time with one of my good friends who is a huge source of positivity for me. It also seems that when I pause and reflect on my past hopes for the future and what I currently want to achieve, a little bit of my hope is restored as well. For a while, I lost sight of my purpose in life, but remembering what that is restores my hope as well. Overall, I like this exercise because it helps to look back on the past and recall why I used to be so hopeful and what happened to change that.
3. According to Dr. Fredrickson, positivity affects relationships by “bringing us closer.” Positivity helps us to see our human commonalities and to think in more mutual terms of “we” rather than “me.” I think that positivity can positively influence my own relationships. One of my friends from high school is a huge source of positivity for me and many others. Relationships are huge for her. Everything she does revolves around her relations with others, and you can see how deeply she loves others in everything she does. Because she prioritizes positivity and relationships, her relationships with others benefit greatly. She sets a great example for me. I’ve seen how positivity can affect relationships through her, and I strive to be able to achieve the level of relational positivity that she has achieved in her own life.
4. When Dr. Frederickson talked about positive emotions and how they open us up, I couldn’t help but think of a door. In the video “Positive Emotions,” Dr. Fredrickson talked about how fear closes down our minds and emotions but how positive emotions can open us up to see the bigger picture. The way I see it in my mind is that positive emotions open this door to a world of a broader perspective so that instead of just focusing on one specific thing or on the negatives of a situation, positive emotions allow us to step through the door and suddenly we can see so much more than what we were seeing before. I agree with Fredrickson’s idea that positive emotions open us up. When fear or anxiety is at the front of my mind, it is much harder to focus outside of the negativity that’s right in front of me. Likewise, when I am in a better, more positive mindset, I have an easier time seeing the good in a situation and not just the bad.
Delete5. I scored a 9 on positivity and a 5 on negativity. My ratio as a whole was 1.80, which seems low to me. I can’t say that I am surprised as I have been in a more negative mindset that has been affecting my well-being recently. Yesterday was a good day overall, however, so I am pleased that my positivity score was at least higher than my negativity score.
1. We always make sure we have time to ourselves at least a couple times a week. Having a child, working, and going to school finding time seems impossible, especially when we do not live together. What we do is talk, and we watch a movie right before its time for him to leave. We allow ourselves time to relax with each other and hear what the other person has to say as far as how the day was, and what they plan to do the rest of the week. We used to go out and eat when we first started dating, but expenses and a child has its way of putting a halt to certain things. I would be open to do it, its always good to do something positive during the day especially if your day started off bad or is turning bad. I believe it would be us taking a walk at the end of the day at red bud park with our daughter. As we discussed exercise is a great thing and spending time with your loved ones while doing that is amazing. We had both discussed us getting on the unhealthy side of the spectrum, so we would be able to get back to the healthy side, as well as doing it together. This are done better if you have someone with that same mindset that is looking to reach that same specific goal.
ReplyDelete2. All of those positive emotions are great, but the one that stood out to me was gratitude. A lot of times we take a lot of things for granted, or we just don’t notice the little things. The little things are just as great as the big things. Some triggers are Saying thank you to my boyfriend to checking up on me to see how my day is going, or my mother calling me every night, so she can talk, or my baby girl whispering in my ear “I love you”. When it comes to practicing those emotions, I would smile more, because I know for one I am physically, and mentally cable of doing things I put my mind to. A lot of people can not get out of the bed by themselves, and some really can’t remember to do things. When taking a deep breath, I would smell the warm air outside and listen to the birds chirping and be thankful that I can be able to do that. In a particular time where gratitude was huge was when I found out I was pregnant, and I just could seem to catch a break from negativity, but then I turn that negative emotion to my growing child and began to be thankful for some people are not able to have children, and that God chose me to be this baby’s mother.
3. Positivity is what keeps people moving, it really is great to have in the work place, or school, and around your loved ones; it can make a relationship stronger and can make us a better person. People can always tell when somebody is being negative, and what do they do? They separate themselves from the situation as well as the person that is giving the negative vibe. Positivity makes people happy, and if you are a positive person, you will always attract positive people.
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Delete4. When hearing the word positive emotions, it takes me to a place where the sun is setting, and I am laying on a hammock listening the birds or that little locus on the tree. It brings me to a happy place that I don’t want to leave. I get happy and deep down I feel satisfied. I’m full of joy, and gratitude. When professor Fredrickson talks about the 3 positive emotions trumps that 1 negative, it takes me to algebra when it seemed hard to get rid of those negatives when they were up against a positive number. In her talk she talks about meditation (Love and Kindness), and that raises positive emotions. She likes that because all the love and kindness we give to one thing that we care about we can mirror that to ourselves. It brings me to acknowledging self-love, and all the love we give out we can give to ourselves too, that will make us more positive in life. It challenges my persona on positive emotions because sometimes I forget to love and be kind to myself, I beat myself up a lot of times for the things I could do better on instead of saying I can do better next time.
Delete5. This test really surprised me, I thought it would have showed me being more negative than positive, but I guess I don’t recognized the positivity that I actually have until I look at it. I scored a 9 on positivity.
1. My fiancé, Dillon, and I consistently write each other sweet, silly, funny or encouraging messages to one another on our personal whiteboards in our offices. Additionally, we always leave one another little surprises everywhere as well to try and help influences one another’s day in a positive way. Once school began to get more demanding leaving little surprises here and there became much more difficult for me to do, and the same for Dillon when he began a new very demanding job. I really like the exercise proposed here! In order to try it out, I would like to plan out a specific evening every week for Dillon and me to take a four-wheeler ride around Buffalo Gap to explore. I truly feel that doing that would produce noticeable positive changes within us. From the beginning of our relationship, riding around Buffalo Gap and exploring has been one of our favorite things to do- after 3 years It has been hard to always find a time together to do that. I feel that if we could get in to a regular pattern of going outside, driving around, and finding places to explore we would be able to further strengthen our relationship and I honestly believe that we would end up being happier overall.
ReplyDelete2. Of all off the emotions she mentioned, I would like to practice gratitude! Gratitude is triggered within me when I see my fiancé smile a genuine smile, when he takes the time to make me coffee in the morning, when I wake up in the morning to puppy kisses, when I think about the sun shining outside, when my mom or dad calls me randomly to tell me they love me and so many other little things that are easy to take for granted. If I was consciously practicing and cultivating this emotion, I would think about my parents and a specific moment in my mind that always bring me so much joy, my dads retirement. My dad spent 30 years in the Air Force and at his retirement he brought me and my brother up to the front and presented us with a medal. The medal signified his gratitude, acknowledgment and thanks for always loving him and supporting him even when he would have to miss countless birthdays and holidays. I remember balling like a baby with tears of joy and happiness knowing he knew how hard it truly was on us and that he honored and felt thankful for the sacrifices we had to make as well. I genuinely feel that this exercise could be extremely beneficial and mentally empowering and enlightening to try!
3. According to Dr. Fredrickson, positive emotions bring people closer together, it allows us to begin seeing one another’s common humanity, and causes us to begin thinking in terms of “we” instead of “me”. This was something I felt I had been craving to know but did not know I needed to hear it. I suffer from depression, I have since middle school. Since being diagnosed with it I have gone through so many cycles of depression and happiness, I just recently made the decision this past semester to take control of it and began the process of finding the correct medication for myself along with going to regular counseling appointments. After 2 different medications, I finally found the one that worked best for me! However, as my mind improved I began to see the repercussions my mindset had created- I had led Dillon drift further from me, I had been only concerned about myself without even realizing it. This was before this class began, but I knew I needed to repair what damage I had caused and try my hardest to change the entire environment and vibe I had perpetuated between us. Therefore, I bought a whiteboard and began writing Dillon loving words from me along with thoughtful and happy quotes each and every day. I set up the coffee at night so all he had to do in the morning was turn it on, I made daily snack bags for him to take to work, and I always sent him words of encouragement and love as the day went on. Guess what? It worked. I had not realized just how much it worked until just now as I assessed how positive emotions effect relationships and began realizing how mindful we have become towards each other’s emotions, how much easier it was to relate to him again, and how I was no longer thinking about “me” but about “we”. This class is truly opening my eyes and giving me even more amazing tools to begin utilizing as I work towards a more positive, happy, and healthy mind.
Delete4. As I listened to the videos, every time I heard “positive emotions” I began seeing my office and thought about how nice it would be to have gentle strings of light wrapped around the upper border of the wall as it approaches the ceiling, then I began to think about the way I started my morning today sitting outside with my dogs as the sun warmed my face. When Professor Barbra Fredrickson talked about the positivity ratio and how we need at least 3 positive emotions for each negative emotion I instantly began thinking of so many happy and positive things rather than even paying any attention to the one negative emotion the other 3 helped balance out- I thought of the sun and the warmth and it made me physically smile, I thought of how sweet it felt that my puppy was sound asleep on my lap and I felt so loved, I thought of my fiancé Dillon in the other room as he sang and did laundry and I began getting butterflies in my stomach. I then remembered a sad emotion, yesterday I found out that my new puppy, Delilah, has very limited eyesight and may end up going completely blind. However, once she looked up at me and then instantly began giving me sweet puppy kisses, I remembered how loved I was by this small little creature, and thought to myself, “this precious baby is going to be so loved for her entire life, blind or not, and I am able to help provide her the best life possible” and my heart instantly began feeling at ease. Professor Fredrickson’s research has only supported my current and developing opinions about positive emotions. One thing she presented that I felt extremely connected to and very fond of was her study on meditation and its relationship in fostering and growing positive emotions in your life. Since beginning my journey in yoga, meditation has been something I highly value and look forward to each day. I often practice mindful breathing and listen to pod casts or YouTube videos that lead me in meditations. Professor Fredrickson noted that after putting participants through an 8-week mediation workshop, their positivity increased a significant percentage. She noted that through meditation we are able to build mindfulness, increase the quality and closeness of our relationships, increase our resilience, and minimize some bodily ailments. That research information has only further solidified my passion and practice of meditation.
Delete5. I was actually surprised at how accurate I felt the score was! I scored higher on positivity than negativity, by 5 points. I have felt very positive over the last day with just a few little events that caused me negativity. Therefore, I feel it is currently very accurate and I plan on trying this again over the coming days just to see what happens!
Delete1. One thing that my family always did when I was at home was have a morning bible study and prayer time every day at 6:30AM. We would get to set our minds right and get our day going in a really positive manner. Since I moved to college, I was not home and was not able to do this and that was really to me. I think that one thing we could do to start our days off positively would be to call each other in the mornings to check in and pray together, this would be one way to get back into the routine. With my friends, we are aged differently and we go to different colleges in town. So we are not seeing each other near as often, and they are a large part of my positivity and so it was a major hit to my positivity. We have been talking and are going to get together and have a meal together once or twice a week, and I think this will play a large part in boosting my positivity.
ReplyDelete2. The one thing that I would really like to practice by means of control over my mind and body would be gratitude. A physical trigger would be quite literally be that overwhelming feeling of thankfulness when you know something good just happened for you. A mental way of practicing gratitude would be thinking about how grateful you are and then vocalizing it. I know that I always feel so much better when I actually say thank you to someone instead of just expecting them to know I am thankful. I think that of all of the 10 positive emotions, this is one that I constantly convict myself of not doing enough of.
3. Dr. Fredrickson says that positivity brings people closer together. I completely agree with this. When you are positive people are drawn to you, and I cannot tell you how many of my friends are my friends because of the fact that they are fun and positive. When one is positive and willing to have conversations they are opening themselves up to a relationship, I have seen it over and over in my life. When one is positive they tend to think more about others and less about just themselves. I know in my life, when I am more positive I tend to think about others before myself and because of this my relationships are far more positive all around.
4. A word that comes to my mind when I hear the term “positive emotions” is friendship. When I am with my friends, it is almost always when I am most happy. I feel my best and I feel all of the ten positive emotions when I am with my friends. An image that comes to mind is my 3 year old foster brother. While he does have his bad days, he is just a joy to be around. He is always smiling and definitely brings out the positive emotions in my life. I have not really had a lot of experience in this topic so I really think the Dr. Fredrickson’s research only builds my ideas on positive emotions. One thing that I really enjoyed was learning about meditation and how it can boost a person's positivity.
5. I got a lot of positives and negatives on my test, which means that I fall under 80% of adults in the U.S. and it also means I have a lot of room to grow in my positivity. I feel like I am in a pretty good place positivity wise right now in my life. I know that I have been extreme or quite a bit on a lot of the questions about my life, so I am not super surprised by my results.
1) A. what my family and do to prioritize positivity in our is telling each other how much they are loved and are cared for every day. That can be by telling each other we love each other before the day starts or by doing stuff for each other to show love. I say love because showing someone they are loved and show care I can promote positivity and help them get through the day.
ReplyDeleteB. One think my mom and use to do was have a BBQ every Sunday and hang out but that has not happened in years because days have been so busy and. Such as we use to do it as a whole family like cousins and aunts. Everyone just kind of stopped going and it died down and we haven’t don’t it in a long time.
C. If there was one thing I could change in my schedule to prioritize positivity would be to maybe take some dance classes with my mom because we would both have a blast. We would both have a blast because we always say we can be on dancing with the stars but at the end of the day we are both terrible. It will be funny and make a more positive environment for me and my mom because we will get a lot of laughs out of it.
D. I really enjoyed this exercise because it really got me thing about what I could in my future to prioritize positivity not only with my family but in my life as an individual.
2) A. From Frederickson’s top ten positive emotions I choose inspired. Some physical triggers for the emotion of inspiration would be visually seeing a person do what you want to do in the future and be inspired to be like them. Fort me this would be seeing someone in the Border Patrol and me wanting to be like them and they inspire me to be like them one day. A mental trigger would be hearing someone say something at motivated you and inspires you to be like that person or have the same believes.
B. when cultivating the emotion of inspiration, I think back to a time where I was in a room with the football team and the coach played a video of a guy taking about his life and the obstacles he faced to be where he was right now. The guy in the video inspired me so much that whenever I need to be inspired again and again I can go back and watch it. The physical trigger I got from the video would be chills I got chills from the video and it got me pumped that so pumped that if that man wanted me to go to war with him I would.
C. This exercise got me to think about what physical trigger inspire me. This exercise was also really fun because it got me to go back and watch the video again and get pumped while writing the comment.
3. I believe that positivity plays a huge role in any relationship whether that be a relationship between a parent and a child or a husband and wife or even just random people talking on the street. If a person talks to another person with a positive attitude the person is more likely to focus and really be into the conversation and not just want to end it and stuff like that. If a person talked to another person with a negative attitude the person on the receiving end will just be like what is that guy’s problem. Positive relationships are more likely to be more successful than relationships with negativity because with positivity there is more communication and less arguing, more trust and reasoning.
4. when I think of the word Positive emotion I think of word like radiant, smiling and cheerful. I think of these word because they are all positive things. Radiant would be someone that stands out and is positive not dull and not out going. Smiling would be that person we all know that smiles like crazy because they are always positive and have a positive emotion or attitude, no matter what the world throws at them. Cheerful is in the same category as smiling because no matter what these people are always ready and stay positive.
5.My scores show that my positive is a lot more than my negative and that is true because through everything I see the light at the end of the tunnel and push through it with a smile and happy because how would we get through life if we were not happy and uplifted.
1. I think that some things my family I do to prioritize positivity is to just have family nights on the weekend together. We would invite all our family members and we would watch the games on TV, barbeque, and play card games. However, because we moved we don’t really host that often anymore and when we do, it just doesn’t feel the same. I think for the exercise, we could do other things rather than game night. There is so much to do in Washington state, we could spend more time exploring the state and even crossing the border into Canada. I think my family members would be very open to doing the exercise and I think it would help us overall as we are having a hard time adjusting and staying positive in Washington (I mean how could we with all this rain).
ReplyDelete2. Looking at the ten forms of positivity, the one I am more drawn to is serenity. I picked serenity because the description just fit in more with what I associate positive memories and feelings with “Serenity makes you want to sit back and soak it in.” Some physical and mental triggers include laying down on the couch with my mom and watching television and I feel so relaxed, or sitting on the porch with my sister and feeling the warmth of the sun and I’m so warm I could sleep, and feeling the soft fur of my dog. In relation to doing the exercise, I think that I could very much do it, I would just sit outside for a few minutes and close my eyes and enjoy the sun and the air. I am the most stressed at school, so I would practice this at school and because Hardin-Simmons is so beautiful and there are so many areas to sit outside and relax, I’m positive I wouldn’t have a problem doing the exercise and I’m very open to doing it.
3. According to Dr. Fredrickson, positivity impacts relationships by being people closer. People begin to think of others as one whole. People also start to think of each start to think and care more about other than just the self, Dr. Fredrickson says that people think in more of “we” instead of “me.” I think this can be extremely important in terms of my own personal life because I can apply this to my current job, to my future job, and also to just my relationship to others. I think we as people can always improve on things like what Dr. Fredrickson studies.
4. After watching Dr. Fredrickson’s videos and writing down some of my reactions, I’ve realized that every time I heard the term “positive emotions” I thought about and pictured my family in joyful times, or the what the weather was like. I mostly pictured the sun and the warmth of the sun on my skin. I think I pictured those things because I really associate happiness with those things. I think that before this reading on positive emotions is that I didn’t really have an opinion on the topic. Dr. Fredrickson’s research has convinced me that positive emotions can work in situations that are relevant and important. Practicing positive emotions can help me enhance certain parts of my life such as when Dr. Fredrickson mentions college admissions, I can apply it to job interviews and taking exams and I think that is extremely helpful.
5. After taking the test, I got a positivity score of 8. A negativity score of 4. Then, my positivity ratio was 2.00. I think that my scores are pretty accurate for the past day, because I’m at home with my family I have been more happier overall. I have been a little stressed but I do think that is just day to day stress and other personal factors.
1.)My fiance and I try to prioritize positivity by making sure that we never say goodnight if either of us are upset. We make it a point to work through any bad feelings before going to bed. However we used to always make at least one day out of the week where we could just sit and spend time together. With all of the insanity of this semester that has not really been on the forefront of our minds and it really hurts that we don’t have that anymore. If I could make one change to my schedule it would be getting to sit down with each other for breakfast. Nothing feels quite so motivating to me as starting the day with the one I love. Talking about plans and getting to talk about things that maybe we were both too tired to talk about the night before. I feel like this would be a great thing for both of us in just a way to get the day started on a high note.
ReplyDelete2.)The emotion that I chose would be amusement because of the way it makes the body feel energetic and full of life. My triggers for this would be when something odd pops into my head or when I’m reading a book that doesn’t mean to be funny but goes across that way in my mind or even just hearing someone else laugh can make me laugh even harder. I would think about maybe a terrible joke that I heard the other day or a time when I was in my algebra class and everyone was so quiet and serious that when I started laughing I couldn’t stop until there were tears streaming down my cheeks. I feel like this exercise would work better for emotions such as serenity or joy, for me amusement involves new experiences, a little bit of surprise to start the little giggle.
3.)Positivity is contagious, so is negativity, so as a person you want to create positive emotions in other people so we must try our best to be upbeat and influence people in a good way. Positivity makes people want to stay. You always hear someone say that they cut a toxic (negative) person out of their lives so they can focus on the good people around them and this is true for all relationships, we want to be with those who lift us up.
4.)With positive emotions I think of the color yellow, summer time, big toothy grins, and light. These are supported by her talk because of each word connotes with a majority of people as a good time in their lives, something that made them feel better about the day or the season or the year.
5.)My test score showed extremely positive which is accurate for most days that I have, I try my best to keep positive in situations. I feel like things are going well at the moment although I know not everyday is going to be at that ratio. Some days will be rough but its just about dusting it off and trying again tomorrow.
ReplyDelete1. My family and I prioritize positivity by telling each other how grateful we are for one another. Being grateful for everything in our lives is something we try to do and remind each other of every day. We also talk to each other almost every day about how much we love each other. Something that we have fallen by is that we don’t seem to hang out or do fun activities as much anymore. We have all gotten so busy and I am farther away for college, so it is hard to make family time. I do think that scheduling a time for us to do things that bring positive emotions because I am away from college. I do think that when I am home, and we are all together this would be a great thing to try to plan to do something like this together. I think that if we were to do this I think it would be good idea if we all go somewhere to try a new restaurant together. I think this would be very effective for us because it would bring us together and we could have more moments of positive emotions. Also, we could engage with each other and have one moment that we could just be with each other outside of our busy lives.
2. I picked the emotion Awe. An example of the emotions I feel when I am in Awe is when I sometimes look at the world and think how beautiful it is. The emotion Awe reminds me of those cartoon character that have the heart eyes when they look at something they think is beautiful. It makes you feel amazed at how wonderful and beautiful something is. This is emotion is triggered when I think about the world. Last night my friend and I were at this house that was in the middle of nowhere and we looked, and we saw the stars. The stars captivated us with how beautiful it made the sky look. I think that it would be interesting to practice trying to reproduce this emotion. I think this emotion is something that can help you feel grateful about certain things. I also think that if someone tried reproducing this emotion they may start to look at life differently and realize all the things that we can be in Awe about.
3. According to Dr. Fredrickson positivity affects our relationships by making us more trusting and “they open us”. Positivity affects our relationships and things my “opening our awareness” and helping us “see more”. I think that it is very important to be able to trust people. I think it makes a person much happier knowing that they can trust people and not worry about betraying you. I also think when people don’t trust people they start to feel that everyone is bad and that is not using positive emotions. I know I feel much better about my relationships when I can trust the person or people.
4. When I was listening to Professor Barbara Fredrickson’s videos some words that suck out to me while I was thinking of “positive emotions” were hope, openness, and being deeply heartfelt. Another thing that suck out to be is when she mentioned how creating a mindset of positivity can help you be more kind, open, and real. That just reminded me of how my mom and I’s relationship changed one we started practicing more positive emotions toward each other. We started becoming more open toward each other and our love for each other grew. Positive emotions really affect the way you see people and the way you treat people. When Professor Barbara Fredrickson talked about how we need 3 positive emotions to lift us up for every negative emotion that drags us down I really had to think about that. It made me think about how much of that is and how much a negative emotion can impact us. I totally agree with her that negative emotions carry so much weight on whether we are positive or not. We must try to be positive anyway we can which isn’t hard be cause like she said most things around us are beautiful and happy.
5. My positivity was a lot higher than my negativity which I feel is very accurate. I have been feeling very grateful and happy lately. I have been stressed about a few things but the past week my stresses have gone down a lot and I have been able to enjoy a lot more things.
1. Prioritizing positivity is extremely important to be and my significant other. We have had several problems that we have had to work though, so it is huge for us to focus on the positives so we don’t get set back my thinking about the negatives. Sometimes what we’ll do if we’re having a bad day is we’ll go on a drive and listen to some music that makes us think of the good times and just talk. One thing that he has started doing to shed some positive light is write encouraging notes. We also like to go do things that we both enjoy like shopping, or doing things outside, or getting coffee. For us the best thing we can do is communicate well with each other, and so things that we enjoy doing. Do something that you love is a sure way to shed some positive light. Lastly, a huge thing for us is praying together and doing a devotional. That always boost our moods as well. In the past, we used to go on more walks. When we go on walks it just gives us time to be together, and laugh, and talk. We get so busy that we don’t do that as much anymore. I think if we could schedule a time to do something positive it would be very beneficial. I think spending quality time with people you love is the best way to get to know them better, create memories, and grow together. I think it would be fun for me and my significant other to go watch the sunset out at the lake and leave our phones in the car, our just some kind of scheduled thing where we disconnect from our phones and focus on each other. We do have a weekly lunch together which is fun, but I think adding more quality time would be a very positive thing.
ReplyDelete2. Out of the ten positive emotions I would chose serenity. All of the emotions are great and needed, but life always seems so busy, if I had to choose one to practice it would definitely be serenity. I think some physical and mental triggers for me for this emotion are just things that make you slow down a little bit and just take in the moment. It feels like a relaxing breath of fresh air. Like sitting outside talking to my best friend by a bonfire, taking a walk on the beach at sunset or sunrise with someone that I love, or even by myself, lying in bed on a rainy day and watching movies, really just any of those things that make you slow down a little bit, and in your mind, nothing else matters in that moment. I think a breathing style that would help me cultivate the feeling of serenity would be a slow breathing style, or maybe letting out a long breath of relief. Serenity is a peaceful thing so you don’t necessarily have a facial expression to match it other than a subtle smile, maybe. I think the best thing I can do to practice feeling this emotion is to practice a style of breathing you would do while mediating or doing yoga. I think this is a great exercise that allows you to focus on a positive emotion that you wouldn’t normally place as much importance on. It’s not about forcing it, it’s just about putting yourself in situations that you know may trigger that feeling from previous experience.
Delete3. Positivity has a huge effect on relationships. According to Dr. Fredrickson positivity draws you closer to people and allows you to better see the beauty of their humanity. As you would imagine, negative emotions in relationships push you away from people, but when you experience positive emotions in a relationship, it feels good, and it makes you want more of that feeling, so of course it would draw you closer to people. I think intentionally involving positivity in my relationships would be a good thing. I mean, I honestly feel like I’m a pretty positive person as it is, but going out of my way to love deeper would be great for my friendships.
4. When I hear positive emotions, I tend to think of things that make me happy, or things that enhance my life in a good way. I connect positive emotions with my time with my family and friends, doing fun things with my significant other, hanging out with my cat, or just doing some of my favorite things. Dr. Fredrickson’s research on positive emotions is very helpful. Positive emotions aren’t always things that make your happier, but they are things that make you flourish as a person. Her research shows if you feel more positive emotions than negative emotions you will flourish as a person, and you will open up to the world around you, and not only that you will see more of what is happening around you. It is interesting how different you can see the world just by having some positive emotions.
5. I scored a positivity ratio of a 2.5 for the past day, which I though was surprising because I’ve been kind of sick all day today, yesterday I was in a car accident, and I haven’t had a day off of work in over a week so I’m feeling a little drained. The questions on the test made me realize I experienced more positive emotions than I thought I have and it also made me feel like I am more resilient than I sometimes think I am.
1. One of the things that my boyfriend and I do to try to engage positivity in our lives is to encourage each other and always say how we feel. We support each other in everything that we do that way the other knows that we love them, and we are proud of the other. Being able to spend time together makes us happy but we know that schooling comes first. Even when one of us is stressed out, the other knows that having hope for the other person will give them the positivity to keep going. With this constant reminder of love for one another, it brings positivity from our happiness with each other. In the past, my boyfriend and I would spend almost everyday with each other for at least a couple hours going on walks or just watching Netflix. He eventually got a job and we stopped being able to see each other every day because he worked from the afternoon to late at night. It is not that we do not get to spend time together at all, just not as much as we used to or would prefer. There just is not enough time to do everything in a day. I would try that exercise if both myself and my boyfriend were comfortable with trying whatever it might be. For us, we used to go geocaching and found a lot of positivity from doing that because it was adventurous and finding them together was fun. If we were to try doing that again, I think it would be a good positive experience that would bond us together more.
ReplyDelete2. Interest is one of the positive emotions from Fredrickson’s list. If I were experiencing interest in something, I would think that a trigger physically would be that it was out of the ordinary that caught my attention. My attention would be focused on whatever it would be based on either curiosity or the attractive qualities that would entice my attention and focus to explore. I think a mental trigger would be the possibility of wonder and the brain’s interest to learn. Both of those qualities would most likely bring the emotion of interest. If I were interested in something, I would be solely focused on that object or thing with determination to understand. Also, my facial expression would be a smile with amazement in my eyes to actively engage the positivity in my expression. I work as part of childcare at church and the concept of interest just reminds me of the kids because they are constantly interested in the things around them. This exercise helped me to realize that we have a lot of positive emotions, not just being happy. Other emotions include being positive in other ways that I never noticed before.
3. One of the things that stood out to me from Professor Fredrick’s lecture was that positive emotions will change over time and change who we are in the future. Being positive in a relationship will affect it the relationship in a multitude of ways because a relationship is working together with another person and if one person is negative, it makes working together more complicated and difficult to find that positivity. I do know that people change over time because there are new factors and experiences a person will go through that all aid in what makes them, them so it actually doesn’t surprise me that positive emotions can change a person-I had just never really thought about that before in the past. In my own life I can see how I have changed over time and that is neat to notice the difference now.
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4. Professor Fredrickson found that in her research that positive emotions will open our minds and hearts and I agree with that statement because being positive can broaden the spectrum of thinking whereas if an individual is being negative, it will limit their capability to be creative. She also suggests that in order to raise the positivity ratio would be to be open and appreciative in simple ways instead of trying to force oneself into being more positive. Some words and images that came across in my head as I was watching these videos were clouds, ocean waves and kites. Hearing Professor Fredrickson talk about positive emotions just made me think of soothing and relaxing things to look at or take part in that seem enjoyable.
ReplyDelete5. After taking the positivity test, I pretty much agree with the results that I got. I do believe that each day a person might have a different score on the positivity test because of factors in life that can go on. I scored a 5 on positivity and a 6 on negativity with a ratio score of 0.83. However, over the past two days I have had pink eye and been sick, so my score seems about right to me. If I was not currently sick I think my scores would possibly be a tie or barely more positive. I am generally a negative person, but I am content at where I am in life, my brain just tends to think more negative, but I am getting better at being more positive!
1) Something my Mom and I usually do is try to make a phone call at least one time a day and if not then we text for a while. Something we used to do is eat lunch every Monday to stay in touch, but there just really isn’t time for that anymore. I would love to try to adjust my schedule to make time for more positivity I feel this is something I should do regardless. I feel this would benefit my mom and I’s relationship.
ReplyDelete2) I would thing that gratitude is something that I should work on more or at least something I would like to improve in. A mental trigger for this emotion would be when someone does a favor for me without me even realizing or when I am not expecting it. When experiencing this emotion, I tend to have a somewhat light smile with a what I hope is a genuinely honest face. My breathing is probably level and easy. I thought about the time my mother bought me several different groceries even when I didn’t ask for it. This meant a lot to me and it made me smile just to remember what she had done. This exercise seems to work well because I definitely can get all the feelings. I was definitely more excited with an accelerated heart rate when I realized what she had done for me.
3) According to Dr. Fredrickson, positivity definitely improves relationships with loved ones. Not only that, but they also improve the person’s functions in daily activities and life. I feel this that this is accurate and I myself benefit from my relationships daily. I feel improving them would make me an even better person overall.
4) Throughout the video I heard “cells” and “positive emotions” a lot. This formed imagery in my head of each person having a sort of bubbling changing fizz and it is rising or falling within them depending on how their mood is. I am not sure if this makes sense, but it makes perfect sense in my head.
5) My ratio was one being exactly even 7 to 7. I feel this is a bit inaccurate as I have felt pretty good these last few days. However, there have been stressors in my life balancing school, work, and bills all into almost every day. I feel this ratio should be more positive is something that I now intend to work to make it a positive ratio.
1. Some things that me and my boyfriend do to prioritize positivity is to constantly remind each other how much we appreciate and love each other. Things that I love to do is leave my boyfriend little love letters that he can read before he goes to work in the morning. With the demands of school, work, and children it is sometimes hard to do. I really like the exercise and look forward to trying it. I think for us it would be nice for us to go to Kirby lake and let the kids play and maybe go for a walk around the lake. I think logically we would be able to go and do this maybe twice a week would be nice. I think this would be very effective because we get to spend time together as a family while also getting some exercise in.
ReplyDelete2. After looking back at the ten positive emotions the one that I am drawn to the most is “Awe.” I pick this emotion because I can still to this day remember the day that I had the best awe moment. My church youth group was on our way to Colorado for our ski trip. I had fallen asleep on the charter bus and I woke up and it was dark I just remember looking outside and seeing the snow move off the highway as we drove by and I also remember the stars in the sky and how amazing they looked. This was a moment where I felt overwhelmed by the awe moment and how amazing my surrounding were. I think that if someone took the time and patience to reproduce this emotion they would end up with an appreciation for the nature and the world that surrounds us.
3. According to Dr. Fredrickson, positivity draws you closer to the people around you. Positivity is contagious but so is negativity. When it comes to relationship you always want to have a positive outlook and make the other person feel that positivity. This feeling will help draw each of you closer. On the other side negativity pushes people away and makes them withdraw from the relationship. For me I can see a big difference in my life by being with someone who always tries to stay positive compared to someone that is always negative about their life.
4. The first thing that comes to mind when I hear “positive emotions” is the thought of being happy and joyful. Dr. Fredrickson’s research has helped me learn how to use positivity to help enhance my daily life. For instance when she said that giving someone a small bag of candy before having them do a task helped them perform better compared to if they weren’t given the positive gesture.
5. After taking the positivity self test my result were very accurate. I scored a 9 on positivity and a 3 on negativity with a positivity ratio of 3. I do feel that I am more on the positive side because I have tried my hardest to cut out the people in my life that are negative and try to bring me down. I know that the negative part of my score is due to the stress of everyday life of being a parent, working and going to school.