Every day, almost every minute, people experience different emotions. Any little thing, someone's words, actions can change a person's mood, cause negative or positive emotions. To maintain peace of mind, you need to learn to manage your emotions. Then it will become possible, regardless of the circumstances, to always be in a good mood.
Positive emotions, what are they?
To manage your emotions, you need to clearly understand what they are, what they are, and where they arise from. First of all, it is worth understanding in detail what kind of emotional background can arise in a person, and what can cause various positive and negative emotions. It’s better to start with those that are the most useful and pleasant - these are positive emotions. The list of them is something like this:
- joy;
- laughter;
- Love;
- love;
- sympathy;
- pleasure;
- tenderness;
- Gratitude;
- respect;
- confidence;
- confidence;
- Delight;
- satisfaction;
- delight;
- anticipation;
- pride;
- Delight;
- tenderness;
- complacency;
- faith;
- a sense of “clean” conscience;
- self-satisfaction;
- feeling of safety and reliability;
- inspiration;
- feeling of interest;
- sympathy;
- curiosity;
- fun;
- hope;
- trembling.
Of course, there is no exact list of emotions. Each of them can be perceived differently in different situations. And there are emotions whose interpretation is quite contradictory. For example, is schadenfreude a positive or negative emotion? On the one hand, some bad event in the life of another person causes joy. Joy is joy – it is a positive emotion. But is it positive to rejoice at the evil done to someone? The answer is ambiguous and different for everyone.
How to learn to recognize negative emotions in yourself and others
Emotional intelligence is a course from the brain development platform Vikium. It consists of 20 lessons and is designed to improve identification, understanding, management of your emotions, as well as to recognize the emotions of others.
The author of the course is Oleg Kalinichev. He is the director of Paul Ekman International in Russia.
Paul Ekman is a world expert in the psychology of emotions, deception detection and nonverbal behavior:
- included in the top 100 most influential people in the world;
- intelligence consultant for the CIA, FBI, Scotland Yard;
- the world's best “LIVING LIE DETECTOR” Forbes;
- 50 years of scientific research;
- author of 170 scientific papers and 15 books;
- scientific consultant for the TV series “Lie to Me” and “Inside Out”.
What you can learn by taking this course:
- recognize deceitful people you meet at work and in your personal life;
- see the manifestation of empathy and other hidden emotions;
- the ability to “read” the interlocutor;
- determine where the information leak occurred;
- the ability not to show off your emotions;
- the ability to see the manipulator;
- improve relationships in your personal life;
- become confident.
The cost of training is 990 rubles. Registration is made automatically on the website.
Within 7 days you can get your money back if you are not satisfied with the course.
You can already find out how developed your EQ is. To do this, take an online emotional intelligence test.
There is also an article on levelself.ru that contains the best courses on EI.
Check out 14 EQ courses
Where do emotions come from?
Various structures of the brain (hypothalamus, limbic system, reticular formation and others) are associated with the process of the generation of emotions. This or that emotion arises as a result of assessing the state of the body after exposure to some factor (social, biological). A positive emotion is the result of satisfying some human need (vital needs, the need for love, understanding, praise and many others). Otherwise, some kind of negative emotion arises.
The more positive emotions a person experiences, the more his needs are satisfied. It is not difficult to notice that a person who is dissatisfied with his life is always gloomy and there is little that can make him happy. And vice versa, when a person is satisfied with his life, his mood is easily lifted even by a minor pleasant event.
Why is it good to be happy?
As you know, a positive emotional background is good for health. It helps improve the functioning of all organs and systems of the body, especially the nervous system. Positive emotions help to withstand stressful situations and avoid the occurrence of many diseases. Joy hormones (endorphins) contribute to the normalization of all biochemical processes in the body. Therefore, experiencing a lot of positive emotions is simply necessary for all people to maintain good health. It’s not for nothing that they say that laughter prolongs life.
Where can you get positive emotions?
To experience a lot of positive emotions in the daily hustle and bustle of life, you need to learn to enjoy life and enjoy what you do. Saying this is easy, but doing it is much more difficult.
First of all, you need to try to form as many positive beliefs and judgments about different areas of life as possible. Try to take advantage of any situation and see the good even in unpleasant events. Of course, it is impossible to see only the good in everything. But we must try to treat everything negative as a temporary phenomenon, which will pass the faster the faster a person can change his attitude towards it.
In order not to turn into a gloomy, eternally dissatisfied grumbler from daily work and hassle, you need to periodically arrange an emotional shake-up. Go to a place where you can relax, get a lot of positive emotions and recharge with positive energy. It could be a circus, a movie (comedy show), a theatre, an amusement park, or a holiday with a fun company in nature. Positive emotions are caused by doing what you love: various types of needlework, reading, going to the gym, growing flowers, fishing. Women get a lot of pleasure from self-care: carrying out various procedures to care for the face, body, hair, and nails in specialized beauty salons and at home.
A good way to get a dose of positive emotions can be to travel to a distant or near corner of the world. A change of environment will allow you to look at all existing problems from the outside and, perhaps, help you come up with a way to successfully solve them. If it is not possible to go somewhere at a given time, you can simply arrange a weekend of active recreation. Go on a “mini hike” with friends or family, rollerblading, cycling, or going to the skating rink. This is also a great way to provide emotional relief.
The main condition for positive emotional recharge is to enjoy all these entertainments and procedures.
Therefore, in order to improve your life, fill it with pleasant, joyful emotions and feelings, you need to try to create within yourself the basis for their origin. Form a stable positive attitude towards the world around you, towards yourself, towards other people. The first step in this direction should be the solution of all internal problems that oppress from within and interfere with the establishment of mental balance. A sign that these problems have been solved will be the emerging and every day growing joy in the soul from every day you live. Positive emotions was last modified: December 21, 2015 by Elena Pogodaeva
Notice the good
Our sense of happiness is closely related to the positive emotions we experience every day. Sometimes these reactions are fleeting, but they can create a mood that lasts for hours or days. The prevailing moods forge our character over the years. If we are to build a better perspective for ourselves, then we need to take care of our emotions. If we take care of the minutes, the hours will take care of themselves.
Why do we need positive emotions?
The most influential scientist in the field of studying positive emotions is Barbara Fredrickson, a professor at the University of North Carolina. She found that positive emotions:
- expand people's attention and thinking;
- are an important component of resilience to life’s difficulties;
- build important personal resources over time and enhance our well-being;
- serve as an “antidote” to negative emotions.
Positive emotions can vary in intensity from weak - peace, to very strong - ecstasy. Low intensity positive emotions are great. They are the basis of everyday well-being. They improve working memory and concentration by helping you ignore distractions. However, high-intensity positive emotions have particular benefits. They can pull us out of stupor, routine, stress and disappointment, and build a bridge from black and white to color perception.
Positive emotions help us study, work, communicate well and with a desire, and ultimately get out of life. They expand our attention to objects and surroundings, give us confidence, and enrich us with possibilities. Positive emotions motivate us to approach what is interesting.
Spectrum of positive emotions
Paul Ekman is a scientist who has spent his life studying emotions. With the support of the Dalai Lama, Ekman compiled an atlas of emotions. Below is a spectrum of positive emotions from Ekman's atlas. Positive emotions are associated with a feeling of pleasure and enjoyment.
Let's take a closer look at these emotions, moving along the spectrum as intensity increases:
- Sensual pleasure that we receive from our five senses - sight, taste, aroma, sound, touch.
- Joy, jubilation is a warm, sublime feeling that people experience when they see manifestations of human generosity, kindness and compassion.
- Compassion/happiness is the pleasure of helping to relieve another person's suffering.
- Fun - light, playful feelings of pleasure and good humor.
- Schadenfreude is enjoying the troubles of another person, usually a rival.
- Relief is when you have avoided or ended something unpleasant, especially a threat of harm.
- Peace is a feeling of lightness, peace and contentment.
- Satisfaction - a feeling of pleasure from solving a difficult task (fiero, borrowed from Italian)
- Pride is the deep pleasure and satisfaction derived from one's own achievements or the achievements of those with whom one is associated.
- Joyful pride in the achievements of one's children or charges (NACHES borrowed from Yiddish)
- Surprise is the experience of something very surprising, so beautiful that it is difficult to believe.
- Inspiration is powerful enthusiasm.
- Ecstasy is delight and bliss, a state of overwhelming great happiness.
Tendency to negative experiences
Unfortunately, we have a natural tendency to focus on negative events and aspects of things. Our ancient ancestors, in the struggle for survival, had to catch every rustle, every hint of danger in order to save their lives. And those who did it best managed to pass on their genes by inheritance. When there is a predator in front of you, you don't need to assume his good intentions, you need to run.
Today, this tendency to fixate on the negative greatly hinders us, because it is not enough for us to survive, we need to live happily ever after.
To prevent this natural tendency from interfering with our plans and well-being, we need time and training to perceive the good in people, marvel at the world around us, and feel gratitude for all the good things in life.
Notice the good
There are difficult times in each of our lives. But the more difficult a person’s life period, the more important it is to find and feel truly positive emotions. Of course, positive emotions are not about suppressing or covering up pain, anxiety or resentment. Positive feelings can be present in the mind along with negative ones. They help us cope with difficult events and feelings in life, and fuel us to continue on our path.
“No matter what happens in the world around us, no matter what situation we find ourselves in, no matter how much we suffer for others, no matter how hopeless it may seem and no matter how helpless we feel - we can always turn to joy, declare our her her rights and welcome her. It’s a kind of triumph to light just one candle despite the growing darkness,” writes neuropsychologist and meditation teacher Rick Hanson.
The most effective way to joyful emotions is to notice the good. Enjoy the warmth of the sun on your cheek, sneeze and get extreme pleasure from it, be glad that your partner still loves you, which is why he is so happy to return home after a long day of work. All these are chances for joy. By being aware of them, you strengthen them. You can be intentional about prolonging these small moments of joy. Allow yourself to be in a state of pleasure a little longer.
By adding even a few “beads” of joy, you change the entire necklace of moments that make up your day.
You will need three simple steps. Open yourself up to the good things in life. Please accept it with gratitude. Make this your daily practice.
This article is perfectly complemented by:
The Secret of Happiness: 9 Ways to Become Happier
The Power of Gratitude
Vulnerability: weakness or courage?
How did philosophers of different eras understand happiness?
Mathieu Ricard and his path to happiness
Tatiana Senichenkova
Editor-in-Chief of Art of Balance magazine. Contemplative Science Researcher “Every moment we have a choice, every choice will have an impact.
Seize the moment, make a choice!” Tags: happiness
