I suspect I am not the only one who has noticed that in our daily lives, much emphasis is placed on those things that are not going well, with little time spent reflecting on the good things we are experiencing every day.
It turns out that negative emotions such as fear, anger and disgust have a useful function in that they kept our ancestors alert and enabled them to survive (“must watch out for that cave lion”, “that’s my deer that I spent hours hunting, go away or I’ll fight you off” and “this root smells bad, maybe I won’t eat it”) and continue have some obvious use in our modern lives.
However, while negativity is good for us in a small measures, it is the positive emotions that allow us to develop and to flourish. When you are in a negative mindset, your thinking can be reduced to “fight or flight”, which doesn’t bode well in situations when you are looking for creative and innovative solutions. Inspiration and personal growth will most likely come to you when you are in a positive frame of mind, enabling you to make connections and build on what you already know.
Unfortunately, particularly at work, the negativity mindset seems to be encouraged by some of the tools and mechanisms that are common practice in most organizations. Feedback, for instance, is often focused on what went wrong, with minimal time spent on the things that went well. Perhaps, as a friend noted today, it is due to the fact that focusing on the gaps gives us a clear action plan – “solve that problem” – whereas we don’t really know what to do with the positives except acknowledge them. Clearly we have work to do to change that perception!
So by now you’re probably thinking “that’s all very well, but how in my stressful life do I get my daily positivity fix?” Actually, the good news is, it’s not that hard to take your first steps in the right direction … starting today!
I’ve come across three great exercises that you can try out and experience the difference they make. All the research (by Martin Seligman, Barbara Fredrickson etc.) shows that you will quickly experience the benefits, and I can happily report a shift in my thinking since trying out some of these techniques. In fact, if you want to be really scientific about it, you can even take a happiness test developed by the University of Pennsylvania before and after a few weeks of the exercises to see the difference!
1) Gratitude Exercise – this can be done in a few ways. Essentially, you take the time at the end of the day to make note of three positive things that have happened during your day, no matter how small. Then make a note of why they happened. After a few weeks, you will experience your positivity levels increasing.
2) In a similar vein, you can jot down your Positive Thought of the Day on a small piece of paper, and put this in a vase (or any other kind of container that takes your fancy!) each day. After a year, take a look at them again to remind yourself of the great moments you had in the past year. You can read a great account of this activity and its benefits on the blog “Positively Present“.
3) Positive Emotions Visualization exercise – this is one I recently discovered while doing Barbara Fredrickson’s Positive Psychology Coursera.com course, and is my personal favourite. It might appeal to those of you who are particularly creative. Over the course of a week or two, collect images that reflect a positive emotion (such as joy, gratitude, interest, serenity, pride, love, inspiration or amusement) and make a collage out of them. A great visual reminder of what means most to you!
Why not set aside a few moments to give it a try … you have nothing to lose – apart from your inner caveman 🙂 – and lots to gain!
Have a great day!
Sarah
