Heartfelt Positivity

Barbara Fredrickson is renowned for her research on positive emotions. She identified the 10 most common positive emotions (Fredrickson, B. L. (2013a):

INSPIRATION, JOY, GRATITUDE, LOVE, PRIDE, INTEREST, SERENITY, HOPE, AWE and AMUSEMENT.

Research suggests that the experience of heartfelt positive emotions improves our health, wellbeing and performance.

HEARTFELT POSITIVITY means genuinely feeling one of those positive emotions. Not faking, pretending or simply repeating positive affirmations through words, but authentically experiencing it.

With this knowledge in mind, you can ask yourself the following questions:

Looking through the list of the 10 most common positive emotions and reflecting on your week, HOW OFTEN DID YOU EXPERIENCE POSITIVITY? Can you estimate it as a percentage?
What or who triggered these emotions? Notice WHAT’S CREATING HEARTFELT POSITIVITY FOR YOU.
Looking at your week ahead, what might be some of the things you could do to ADD SOME MORE OF THESE MOMENTS INTO YOUR DAYS?

Feel free to share your answers with us. You might inspire others to take control over their wellbeing!

Love this? Watch this space for more to come. Next time:

How does heartfelt positivity impact our health, wellbeing and performance?
And what about negative emotions?

Reference:

Fredrickson, B. L. (2013a). Positive emotions broaden and build. In E. Ashby Plant & P. G. Devine (Eds.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 47, pp. 1–53). Burlington, VT: Academic Press.