In many ways it seems that humans change behaviours more easily in response to fear than in response to more positive emotions. We quickly get defensive, shut down and move away in response to real or perceived threats. And even some of the "positive" resolutions which are formed in these days are fear-driven, motivated by negative views of ourselves or comparisons with others or more desired states. It would seem that we have evolved to use fear and anxiety more regularly than more positive emotions, simply because they may be more immediately necessary for survival. This could be partly because positive emotions like joy, love, calmness and gratitude do not immediately impact as forcibly as fear or anger. They do not register as strongly in the body, or push to to act in the same ways. All emotions can lead to changes in what has been called “momentary thought-action repertoires" – the range of potential actions the body and mind are prepared to take. However, the negative emotions have a specific function of promoting survival. This means that when we consistently practice negative emotions, such as fear, our thought-action activity significantly narrows, focusing on avoiding and defense. Since fear is somewhat "easier" to follow, some psychologists argue that we need to learn skills to keep fear in check and develop positive emotions.
Positive emotions such as joy, gratitude, and contentment, seem to broaden a person's thoughts and actions, and help us approach what we need in order to grow fully. These emotions broaden, build and open people's mindsets, enabling more creative and flexible thinking. Thus they expand our thinking and behaving capacities. These positive emotions also seems to effect our overall health and even our recovery from illness. Research has found that contentment and joy speed the recovery of a patient after illnesses and after the onset of certain diseases. Using positive emotions seems to be at the heart of what allows people to bounce back from hardship and become stronger than before. Not only do they effect the individual in the present but they seem to lead to better mood and functioning in the future. Again, studies show that people who increase their positive emotions develop better collaborations with others, their resilience and optimism strengthens, and they become more content with life, compared with people who do nothing to experience them more frequently.
Cultivating positive emotions therefore would seem to be a necessary skill, if only to loosen the effect of negative emotions which can dominate a person's body and mind. How can we do this? It seems that the key is to start in our actual current circumstances. Developing the ability to be truly open to what actually is happening in our lives and celebrating the good things found there, seems to be crucial. Not surprisingly meditation has been found to boost positive emotions, as has walking or running in nature, dancing, or reading a new book.
Simple changes in self-talk can also help. Self-limiting talk, - such as “I can’t handle this!” or “This is impossible!” - is particularly damaging because it increases the stress in a particular situation and stops the person from looking for solutions. It is better to turn such thoughts into questions. Thinking “How can I handle this?” or “How is this possible?” already opens up more space and allows the imagination seek new possibilities.
