[Psychology] Emotions: 12 Ways to Experience More Positive Emotions

Types of positive emotions | Benefits of Positive Emotions | Difference between positive and negative emotions | 12 ways to experience more positive emotions

Remember your last emotional reaction to an emergency? At that moment, did you think through all possible options for action or did you just instinctively react to the situation in the form of “fight or flight”? These are completely 2 different ways that highlight how positive and negative emotions affect life experiences.

How to move to a more expansive and thoughtful approach to life. Positive emotions can have the effect of expanding awareness and response to events, as well as increasing resilience and coping skills. On the other hand, rather than arguing that positive emotions should replace negative emotions, it is better that both types of emotions coexist together and that positive emotions create a valuable resource for coping with negative emotions. In this way, positive psychology complements the study of negative emotions and how to eliminate them.

Types of Positive Emotions

Below is a list of positive emotions that you can experience in everyday life. How many of them do you experience daily? Are there any that are not on this list? Remember that positive emotions are both emotions you feel in response to something and feelings you can create at will.

Pleasure is a feeling of satisfaction of a need.
Happiness is a feeling of deep satisfaction in the moment.
Joy is a stronger feeling of inner satisfaction.
Interest is a feeling of being attracted to or intrigued by something.
Expectation is a reaction to an event that may happen.
Gratitude is a feeling of appreciation for something.
Serenity is a feeling of peace, calm, relaxation.
Love is a feeling of deep affection for a spouse, child, friend, animal, or even a stranger.
Optimism is a feeling of hope and confidence in a better future.
Relief is a feeling of calm about the changes that have occurred.
Attachment is positive feelings towards someone or something.
Cheerfulness is optimism or a positive outlook on a situation.
Hope is the expectation of a better future.
Entertainment is the search for something funny, pleasant or interesting.
Pride is a reflection of positive self-esteem and the presence of self-respect.
Admiration is a feeling of joyful satisfaction.
Inspiration is a state in which a person’s productivity and strength increases.
Confidence is the absence of fear of making mistakes and doubts.
Surprise is a feeling of joy from an unexpected situation.
Altruism is the joy of selflessly helping others.
Enthusiasm is inspiration or a surge of positive emotions.
Euphoria is a surge of positive emotions associated with a person, place or thing.

In addition to understanding the types of positive emotions, it is also important to explore the benefits of these positive emotions.

Read. Gratitude: 6 Ways to Incorporate Gratitude into Your Life

What causes positive emotions

The basis of any person’s positive feelings is joy, from which all other types of emotions are born. It is the experience of joy that creates happy moments, without which all people fade away and fade away. Positive emotions and feelings mean those that are accompanied by a joyful emotional background and bring pleasure. The most important source of positive emotions is the person himself. It is he who sets the atmosphere of any meeting, radiating what is inside and shaping not only his own reality, but also influencing those around him. In addition, the source for each person is:

his attitudes and beliefs, images;
an inner world formed on the basis of a worldview;
small victories, goals achieved, results obtained;
a positive attitude towards everything that happens in life;
positive energy messages to the outside world in any manifestation;
positive thoughts.

Any positive reaction to current events that causes a joyful state and corresponds to a person’s inner beliefs will become a source of pleasant emotions. When we achieve some results in life, our brain, consciousness and subconscious understand this and give a signal to the endocrine system to respond to the brain with pleasant feelings of joy and pleasure.

Read our article “What is a book of shadows and how to use it.”

Thoughts have a direct impact on feelings, which in turn cause certain vibrations. These vibrations bring to life every thought that shapes our reality. This is why positive thinking is so important, which underlies the kind of life we live at a given moment in time or want to live in the future. By thinking positively, we feel pleasant emotions, get the desired results, and again experience joyful feelings due to these results. Conversely, a negative type of thinking leads to results that a person does not like and from which he experiences negative feelings. This is why it is so important to control your thoughts and be able to think positively.

Benefits of Positive Emotions

Positive emotions lead to enhanced experiences and the creation of Taylor & Francis Online resources. Positive emotions broadens the scope of attention and thought-action repertoires – Published: 07/19/2002. Try to be aware of how you feel in each moment and your reactions. Make a plan on how to deal with negative emotions so that they don’t last long and switch to positive thinking. The following are believed to cause positive emotions:

Strengthens creativity - this will allow you to get out of survival mode and consider more possible options.
They allow you to see the “big picture” and soar above everything - this helps to maintain clarity of mind.
Increases psychological resilience - this provides more tools for managing negative emotions.
They allow you to thrive , not survive - that is, live the life of your dreams, and not the life of your nightmares.
Increase coping resources - this helps to create your own set of skills tools.
Putting negative emotions into a broader context helps you understand that your current situation is not your destiny and that things can change for the better in the future.
They are taught to see something good in any situation - this helps to notice changes and that you can always find something positive in a negative situation.
Increased sense of well-being – this improves the condition in a positive upward cycle.
They give life more meaning - to find “the good in the bad.”
Improves the ability to persevere in the face of obstacles - this provides tools for managing difficult situations.
They allow you to rely on wisdom and be guided by internal instructions - this allows you to not react so violently to negative emotions.
Improves social integration – this helps to achieve and maintain peaceful social relationships.
Increases tolerance to stress - this improves the ability to calmly respond to conflict or ambiguous situations.
What influences resistance to depression is the ability to manage your emotions and remain calm under pressure.
Improves emotional control – this helps cope with negative emotions.
Increase job satisfaction - this increases the expression of positive emotions from the work process. and increasing productivity by providing tools to improve your skills and overcome obstacles with clarity.

As you can see, positive emotions have many potential benefits. However, it is also important to understand the role of negative emotions and their relationship with positive emotions.

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

Difference between positive and negative emotions

Positive emotions, such as joy, interest, and playfulness, differ from fear, anxiety, and sadness in only one way: Negative emotions are associated with survival and prevent us from thinking beyond the immediate situation, while positive emotions promote expansion and potential in our lives.

Positive emotions:

Help us cope with negative emotions and recover faster from negative situations.
Makes us more open to positive experiences in the future.
Helps you find meaning in negative experiences.

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.

What emotions can harm a person?

In addition to the good and pleasant ones, there are also negative ones in a person’s life. This is an unpleasant feeling that you often want to get rid of as quickly as possible. We advise you to find out how positive ones differ from negative ones, which is well described in the publication: https://fb.ru/post/wellness/2016/9/3/7270.

However, sometimes negative ones also contain an important task - to motivate a person to action, to change something in himself or in his life, so as not to experience similar things again. Negative ones include:

fright;
anxiety;
fear;
disturbance;
anger;
shame;
rage;
bitterness.

However, emotions are what is on the surface, deeper feelings. They are tested for a long time, sometimes for years and sometimes for decades. And overcoming them can be much more difficult than coping with momentary anxiety.

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Confidence • Adopt the posture of a confident person. • Think about times when you felt confident and acted accordingly. • Talk to yourself, telling yourself that you are a great person, reminding yourself of the things you value about yourself. • Imagine yourself doing something amazing: climbing a mountain or flying an airplane. • Identify something in the situation about which you feel confident. • Feel your spine and feel that it has turned into a steel rod. • Determine for yourself a clear outcome of the implied situation. • Remember your favorite tune that fills you with confidence. • Think about the people who give you confidence, and imagine that they are shrinking, sitting on your shoulder and talking in your ear. What methods do you have to gain a sense of confidence? Equanimity • Imagine calm, still water. • Imagine that you are in a Japanese garden. • Take a deep breath, close your eyes and get comfortable. • Listen to slow, soothing, harmonious music playing in your head. • Close your hands and think about harmonious unity. • Count to ten slowly. Curiosity • Ask yourself what questions you really want answered—especially those that relate to what's happening around you right now. • Ask others questions like: “How do you do it?” and “How does it work?” • Change your body position so that it leans forward more and is more attuned to a particular activity. • Consider getting answers to questions without asking them out loud. • Look for answers and patterns in the events happening around you. Fun • Imagine that you have supernatural powers, but don't use them on mere mortals. • Imagine that everyone is running around in bags. • Think of something outrageously rude, but don't voice it. • Make up puns and keep them to yourself or say them out loud. • Look for ambiguity in the words of others. • Imagine the same situation in a different time frame - ten years earlier or ten years later. • Imagine what your favorite comic actor would do in this situation. Format for successful search for emotions : 1. Clarify what exactly you want to feel (information about this may appear through the use of one of the three selection formats presented in the previous chapter). 2. Ask yourself: “What can I do here and now (or there and then) to evoke this emotion?” 3. Turning to your personal biography, remember the ways that previously helped you or someone you know to evoke your chosen emotion. 4. Select the means that seem most favorable. 5. Do it. If you are not satisfied with the result, return to steps 3 and 4 and choose other means to access the emotion. Format for the self-anchoring technique : 1. Identify the feeling you want to experience. 2. Remember when you experienced this emotion in its entirety. Having decided on a memory, clasp your hands in a weak lock (or use any other tactile signal: pinch your earlobe with your thumb and forefinger or touch your nose). 3. Lose yourself in memory, seeing what you saw; hearing what they heard, and, most importantly, feeling what they felt. 4. Once immersed in the desired emotion, gently increase the strength of your grip or touch, continuing to experience it in its entirety. With this action you will turn the clasping of hands or any other tactile signal into an anchor for feeling. 5. With the same pressure, refocus on the immediate situation, taking the emotion with you. If the emotion disappears, return to steps 3 and 4, dive into the memory again, and repeat the anchoring. 6. Release your hands and enjoy the feeling. If the feeling becomes vague, use the tactile cue again to re-access the emotion. Do this until you can create an emotion with an anchor and maintain it when the anchor is no longer there. 7. Later check the anchor by clasping your hands again or performing any other tangential action you chose. If the anchor does not allow you to evoke the desired emotion, repeat the entire procedure, intensifying the memory as much as possible and adding others if necessary. * Anchoring is a technique of combining some stimulus that you have control over with an emotional state that you would like to have access to. We all already have many unintentionally installed, but indestructible anchors to which we react automatically. So, there is a melody that always takes you back to some special evening, or a smell that awakens in you the feelings you had for a certain person, or a tender hug that instantly makes you feel safe. Each of these “events”—music, smell, hug—is an anchor for the memories and feelings with which that event was associated. The effectiveness of an anchor depends mainly on its strength . When you first anchor an emotion, make your experience of returning to a situation where you already experienced that emotion as vivid and compelling as possible. You can intensify the experience by increasing the intensity of your sensations and the colors of your picture, increasing its brightness, mobility, volume, and also accelerating the tempo of what you hear. You can also strengthen the anchor by repeatedly anchoring the emotion. Sufficient intensification of emotion sometimes requires searching for a particularly memorable episode from one's past, which, once remembered, still continues to have a deep impact. If, for example, you want to anchor your love for your spouse, then instead of intensifying the feeling of love you currently feel, you can return to those unforgettable days when you first felt attracted to this person...)

Series of messages “Self-development”:
Part 1 - How to evoke the right emotion in yourself? Part 2 - Why do you need to engage in self-development? Part 3 - How not to be a lazy fat pig and start life. True story... ...Part 5 - Everyone has 10 powers Part 6 - How to love yourself. 10 tips from Louise Hay Part 7 - Traps of consciousness. What makes us think and act wrong?

Sadness is like longing

Sadness is a very ambiguous feeling. It is somewhere in the middle between sadness and longing. It's like you're missing something. At the same time, we feel so squeezed between these two feelings, two spaces and incomprehensible needs that we immediately fall into despair.

It is often said that sadness is the most subtle type of sensitivity that people have. With its help, we can sense everything more acutely and see everything with greater clarity. This means we become more creative.

The potential for sadness can be channeled into art, music, or writing. What’s most amazing is that you will achieve even greater success than if you were cheerful and happy.

However, it is important to remember that although sadness inspires the heart of an artist, no one can remain forever in this land of melancholy and emptiness. This is the "land" of emotional immaturity

Therefore, sadness is suitable as a temporary “shelter”, but as a “place of registration” it is categorically contraindicated.

Sadness as a warning sign

Sadness is not only a feeling, but also a loss of significant energy. Naturally, we do not reach such a state as during depression, when even getting out of bed or leaving the house is a problem.

With sadness, everything is different: we feel an internal need to step back for a while, think about something, understand something. As a rule, this condition is accompanied by some apathy and fatigue. This is logical: the body has turned on a new mode for us.

This physical reaction is caused by signals that come from the brain. It’s as if he’s telling us: “Disconnect from everything that’s happening around you, focus on your inner self.”

There is nothing left to do but submit: we should carefully analyze what worries and worries us. If we are distracted by external stimuli or pretend to be cheerful, we will never get to the bottom of the reasons for what is happening.