Make these things a habit and you positively will be a happier you! Reviewed by: Mary L. Gavin, MD. Larger text size Large text size Regular text size. All Emotions Are Natural Let's say you start to brainstorm a list of all the emotions you've ever experienced.
How Negative Emotions Help Us Negative emotions warn us of threats or challenges that we may need to deal with. How Positive Emotions Help Us Positive emotions balance out negative ones, but they have other powerful benefits, too.
P The Importance of Positive Emotions Science is helping us find out how valuable positive emotions can be. Here are two findings that can help us use positive emotions to our advantage: 1. Let Positive Emotions Outnumber Negative Ones When we feel more positive emotions than negative ones, difficult situations are easier to handle. Practice Positivity Every Day Building habits that encourage us to feel more positive emotions can help us be happier, do better, and reduce our negative emotions.
It comes down to two basic steps: Notice and name your positive emotions. Start by simply focusing on your feelings. You can tune in to your emotions in real time, as they happen. Or take stock at the end of the day, noting how you felt in different situations. For example, you might feel proud when you answer a question right, joyful when your puppy chases you around the yard, or loved when your mom shows up at your game. When you first start doing this, you'll probably need to remind yourself to focus on your emotions.
But — like any habit — it gets easier the more you do it. Pick an emotion and act to increase it. Let's say you choose confidence: What helps you feel confident? How can you get more of that feeling? You might give yourself a "Yes, I can! Or maybe you stand up straighter and practice walking through the halls in a confident way, feeling strong and powerful.
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The Influencers. Longevity Next Generation Leaders. Person of the Year. Space Top of the World. Privacy Policy. You also tend to take certain actions in order to experience positive emotions and minimize the probability of feeling negative emotions. For example, you might seek out social activities or hobbies that provide you with a sense of happiness , contentment, and excitement.
On the other hand, you would probably avoid situations that might potentially lead to boredom, sadness , or anxiety. Emotions increase the likelihood that you will take an action. When you are angry , you are likely to confront the source of your irritation. When you experience fear, you are more likely to flee the threat. When you feel love, you might seek out a partner. Naturalist Charles Darwin was one of the earliest researchers to scientifically study emotions. He believed that emotions are adaptations that allow both humans and animals to survive and reproduce.
He suggested that emotional displays could also play an important role in safety and survival. If you encountered a hissing or spitting animal, it would clearly indicate that the creature was angry and defensive, leading to you back off and avoid possible danger. Emotions can also prepare the body to take action. The amygdala, in particular, is responsible for triggering emotional responses that prepare your body to cope with things like fear and anger.
Sometimes this fear can trigger the body's fight-or-flight response , which leads to a number of physiological responses that prepare the body to either stay and face the danger or flee to safety. Emotions serve an adaptive role by prompting you to act quickly and take actions that will maximize your chances of survival and success.
Your emotions have a major influence on the decisions you make, from what you decide to have for breakfast to which candidates you choose to vote for in political elections.
Researchers have also found that people with certain types of brain damage affecting their ability to experience emotions also have a decreased ability to make good decisions. Even in situations where you believe your decisions are guided purely by logic and rationality, emotions play a key role. Emotional intelligence , or your ability to understand and manage emotions, has been shown to play an important role in decision-making.
Research has found that experiencing fear increases perceptions of risk, feeling disgusted makes people more likely to discard their belongings, and feeling joy or anger causes people to leap into action.
When you interact with other people, it is important to give clues to help them understand how you are feeling. These cues might involve emotional expression through body language , such as various facial expressions connected with the particular emotions you are experiencing.
In other cases, it might involve directly stating how you feel. When you tell friends or family members that you are feeling happy, sad, excited, or frightened, you are giving them important information that they can then use to take action. Research suggests that people experience positive emotions 2.
Just as your own emotions provide valuable information to others, the emotional expressions of those around you also give a wealth of social information. Social communication is an important part of your daily life and relationships, and being able to interpret and react to the emotions of others is essential. It allows you to respond appropriately and build deeper, more meaningful relationships with your friends, family, and loved ones.
It also allows you to communicate effectively in a variety of social situations, from dealing with an irate customer to managing a hot-headed employee.
Understanding the emotional displays of others gives us clear information about how we might need to respond in a particular situation. The emotional processing network is the group of brain regions and structures responsible for processing emotions. Parts of the brain involved in this process include the amygdala, the hippocampus, the prefrontal cortex, and the cingulate cortex.
Emotions can help a decision-maker determine which aspects of a decision are the most relevant to their specific situation. They may also help people make faster decisions. This theory suggests that emotions step from the cognitive evaluations that people make about specific events.
In other words, it implies that people must think about a situation before having an emotional response. As you have learned, our emotions serve a wide variety of purposes. Emotions can be fleeting, persistent, powerful, complex, and even life-changing.
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