SO HOW POWERFUL IS POSITIVITY REALLY?
Surely you must have heard this before: Be more positive! Not that most of us don’t already know that life feels better when we have a smile on our face. But sometimes it’s hard, or so we are quick to conclude, to smile. When we’re overworked, tired, sick, out of luck, genuinely unhappy, lost or just feeling lousy for no good reason at all.
We think: First something good has to happen to me, so I have something to smile about. Right?
Well, not necessarily. Actually, let me be clearer: Not really, no.
During my Health Coaching studies at Atlanta’s Emory University one of the many requirements of this intense educational training program was the study, discussion and active implementation of some of Barbara L. Fredrickson’s scientific findings in regards to positive psychology. As future change agents it was deemed immensely important that we understood the profound power of positive emotions.
Barbara L. Fredrickson, Ph.D. is Kenan Distinguished Professor of Psychology and principal investigator of the Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Laboratory at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (A quite beautiful place by the way.) More so she is generally seen as the leading scholar in regards to positive psychology. In short: When it comes to the power of positive emotions she knows her stuff!
What is great about her scientific work is that she has encouraging news for her fellow humans: POSITIVITY, heartfelt positivity that is, is one of the most powerful emotions we can feel.
And for the ones of you who are tempted to give this more thought, there is more: Fredrickson compiled her findings in a truly easy to read book 'POSITIVITY' - 'Top-Notch Research Reveals the Upward Spiral That Will Change Your Life' that is not only entertaining and informative, but quite simply a practical tool-box for all of us who like to get a better grip of life; by my experience something of a priority for most people in midlife and beyond.
What an eye-opener her findings were for me! Although some of the experiences seemed familiar, as for the most part, I have always been a quite positive person. Nevertheless, as even I found out, there is much more POSITIVITY to be experienced, and even more so, much more powerful goodness and happiness to be intentionally generated, if one knows how to make positivity work for oneself.
To do so, the author shares with us the tried and proven “tricks” of how to live a positivity-filled life by making some or all of the strategies part of our routine, like ‘finding positive meaning’ or ‘savor goodness’. And trust me, when I say that the way she suggests we savor goodness is so much more powerful than I ever even dared to reward myself with before her encouragement to do so. And powerful it is!
Besides providing the readers of her book with a set of strategies for the proper pursuit of POSITIVITY, Professor Fredrickson also shares a number of tools that we can use to create the very platform on which we can then apply the strategies for a much more positive way of life for ourselves and others around us.
Lastly, especially for the ones of us, who appreciate an honest evaluation of ourselves every once and a while, there are a number of positivity tests within the book (also opportunities for a before-and-after self-evaluation) that the readers can take during her guided journey to a more positivity-filled life.
In any case, I really benefited from learning about the science behind positive emotions, and I thought you deserve to know about this easy to read scientific page-turner, too.
Finally, in case you’re interested, you will find more detailed information about this book here.
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