Today I would like to explore positive emotions by using the analogy of the seasons. For those of you who have read my previous blogs, you will know my calling to help people to increase the amount of positive emotions they experience. This is because there are so...
The ‘be positive’ movement has been running for a while now. On the surface, it feels like a great thing – why wouldn’t you be positive? It makes sense that being positive is better for you mentally, emotionally and physically. The problem is that a lot of people...
There is a tale of unknown origin. An old man says to his grandson:” There’s a fight going on inside me. It’s a terrible fight between two wolves. One is evil-angry, greedy, jealous, arrogant, and cowardly. The other is good-peaceful, loving, modest, generous, honest,...
When did you last feel elevated? Elevation is the emotion elicited when you see someone do something morally beautiful, such as helping someone in need. Try and think about the last time you experienced this. Perhaps it was seeing a video about a hard-working...
Lockdown is a time where the disrupted world will unleash a whole range of emotions. These are likely to be heightened by the continuing uncertainty and lack of control. Lockdown 2.0 is worse in many ways than the first because the novelty has worn off, the days are...
Emotional baggage is heavy. It weighs us down mentally, energetically and physically. You’ll notice for example that people who have a lot of stress tend to get backaches, headaches and tension in their shoulders. People with anger and anxiety tend to get stomach...
Positive Psychology’s relationship to emotions One criticism of Positive Psychology (PP) has been that it focuses too much on positivity and neglects the reality of suffering as part of human experience. This results from a misperception of what PP is really about....
Identification The classic “go to” piece of advice when you find yourself worried, anxious, grieving, broken hearted, or angry is near enough always the same: “distract yourself” or “try to take your mind off of things”. These phrases are much more easier said than...
Do you recognise that feeling when you are in the car listening to some music and then they play something that strikes a chord and it reminds you of someone or some situation and wham, you just start crying. Well, I do. Quite annoying when you are on your way to...
Some people love New Year with the promise of resolutions, a new beginning, renewed energy to do the thing that they meant to do last year. Others dread the long winter days, the dreary ‘down’ after the busy high of Christmas. This blog looks at the mixed (ambivalent)...