successline

Positive emotions *

Dr. Barbara Fredrickson has analyzed people’s reports of positive and negative emotions in various settings—individual, marriage, and the workplace—and discovered that at a ratio of 3 to 1 positive to negative emotions, people do better than just getting by—they flourish and thrive.

Some of the positive emotions are:

• Flow: meaningful work, creativity, exploration, open-mindedness, and initiative
• Humor: zest, enthusiasm, playfulness, amusement
• Gratitude: appreciation, recognizing others
• Connection: love, friendship, meaning, and a higher purpose
• Forgiveness: mercy, understanding
• Contentment: joy, awe, inspiration, serenity, savoring the moment
• Altruism: kindness, generosity, volunteerism

Tools to increase your ratio of positive emotions: (suggested by Dr. Fredrickson)

• Be open; cultivate mindful awareness throughout your day
• Create high-quality connections with other people
• Cultivate kindness
• Develop distractions to help you get your mind off of troubles
• Dispute negative thinking; argue back to your inner critic
• Find places close enough that you can spend a few minutes in nature frequently
• Learn and apply your strengths
• Meditate mindfully
• Meditate on loving-kindness
• Ritualize gratitude
• Savor positive emotions
• Visualize your future
• * Read more about this toolkit in her book, Positivity.