Our last eight episodes have been on how to experience more positive emotions. This episode summarizes positive emotions concepts and discusses how to keep experiencing positive emotions.
There are also strategies to help continue these in your routine and continue getting the benefits and effects of positive emotions! How do I choose how to get more positive emotions? Which activities do I do and when? How do I form them into a new habit? This episode answers these questions and more. If you are interested in more on positive emotions, their benefits, and how to experience more positive emotions, this good book on positive emotions has some great info.
Hi, I’m Dr. Matt B., and these are your Emotional Minutes. Welcome back. In the last eight episodes, we went over positive emotions, their benefits, and several strategies you can use to boost your positive emotions. These topics also protect against things like depression and anxiety.
Today, I want to sum up the strategies in the earlier videos and tie them together. I will give you ways to decide which approaches to take, as having so many options can be overwhelming. I will also cover how to keep up with these strategies because changing or starting a new habit can be hard.
Videos on positive emotions and how to experience more positive emotions:
EM 41: Positive emotions and their benefits
EM 42: Can I feel more positive emotions?
EM 43: Tracking positive experiences
EM 44: How to feel more gratitude
EM 45: Acts of Kindness
EM 46: Pleasurable and enjoyable activities
EM 47: Engaging activities and flow state
EM 48: How to find meaning in activities
EM 31: Awe and how to find awe
EM 50: Obsession with happiness and how to find contentment
Research on Positive Emotions
We’ve talked about positive emotions research, which is the idea that you can affect your positive emotional state. Research also shows that you have some degree, about 50%, of control over your feeling states. The other 50% is what happens and what goes on in life. We also talked about tracking positive emotions, gratitude journaling, gratitude expression, acts of kindness, pleasurable activities, the flow state, and meaningful activities.
You can try to do many ways to choose which activity to engage in. The good news is you do not have to do all of these things all the time. However, you will want to persist in doing these things. This is because we, as humans, are not made to maintain positive emotions. We might do some of these activities on purpose and benefit from them. But, the effects might be fleeting. So, frequently doing them is a wonderful way to keep getting positive emotional benefits.
Maintaining Positive Emotions
What are some ways to maintain positive emotions and the habits of doing positive emotion activities? The first thing is to try to figure out which ones fit for you. For example, which ones do you like the most or seem to fit your schedule the best? Another way is to think about what fits into your day and then create a routine around those things. For example, every Saturday afternoon, you do acts of kindness.
Another way to help fit these in is to incorporate them with something you already enjoy doing. For example, if you enjoy going to coffee shops, bring your gratitude journal to write what you are grateful for or use that opportunity to do an act of kindness. Do a mix to see where these practices fit best into your schedule and with what you already enjoy.
Another piece that can be helpful is to set a routine around going back to check how these things have been for you or what effects they have had on your life. So, maybe once every couple of months, look back and ask how these things have affected your life. Have they brought more positive emotion? What are some ways to mix them up or try a new routine? What will give you the maximum benefit?
Variety is the Spice of Life
Another part of this process that is important is variety. The reason is that it loses its benefit and power if you only do the same activity repeatedly. For example, if you buy someone coffee every time you go to a coffee shop as an act of kindness, it might get stale over time. What I mean by this is it doesn’t have the same emotional benefit or effect. So, one of the things that can be important is to add in a lot of variety when you can. So, maybe you do acts of kindness or meaningful activities. Or perhaps it is engaging in flow state activities and gratitude journaling.
Mixing up the types of activities can help to maintain those effects. Mixing things up with every kind of activity is also good. Maybe for a meaningful activity, on some days, you’re going to help out at a homeless shelter, but on other days you’re picking up trash. Or maybe it is mixing gratitude journaling with gratitude expression and occasionally writing cards to people. Really, just trying to find variety where you can get it.
Activities Socially and Independently
Another beneficial thing we’ve discussed in many of these episodes is mixing up the degree to which you use these strategies socially and non-socially. So, trying to do some of them socially. Some people like it because this gives them a sense of accountability. You can make sure you continue to do this with other people, like doing a certain activity or setting up a routine around the activity. These events can also strengthen social bonds when done with people. So, not only do you get benefits and feel a positive emotion from the act itself, but you facilitate social relationships. You may even form new social relationships from there.
We’ve also talked about how, when doing activities, we can’t always control other people’s behaviors. Sometimes people cancel. And sometimes they cannot do an activity when you want to do it. So, it’s also good to have some activities you can do alone. For example, you might do gratitude journaling or an act of kindness on your own.
Summing up the Series
I hope all this helped with positive emotions. These are effective, enjoyable, and fun ways to boost positive emotions and focus attention away from adverse events in your life. These strategies also protect against things like depression and anxiety.
Hopefully, the information in these episodes is helpful. I want to give a shout-out and thank one of my post-doctoral mentors, Charlie Taylor, at the University of California, San Diego Medical School, for all his input on this series. I also want to promote all the great work he and other researchers are doing to understand positive emotions, their benefits, and how best to use them to boost your positive emotions.
Thank you for joining us for this series. Stay tuned for more. I’m Dr. Matt B, and these are your Emotional Minutes. We’ll see you next time.
