Positive emotions and experiences include peace, gratitude, interest, awe, inspiration, and joy. When we experience positive experiences, our minds really open up. It expands our perspective, allows us to appreciate the world around us, and our peripheral vision expands so that we are literally, and figuratively, able to see more.
If you notice in your mindfulness practice that you frequently engage in negative thinking and that these negative thoughts lead to the arising of negative emotional states, you may find it useful to focus some effort in your practice on cultivating positive emotions and experiences. Practicing mindfulness changes the brain. We can shape our brain and our emotional states by choosing where we focus our attention.
Open your heart to positive experiences that include peace, gratitude, interest, inspiration, awe, and joy.
Positive emotions support flourishing
Positive feeling states are like nutrients for the body, heart, brain, and mind. Cultivating positive feelings is one way to develop inner assets and resources that allow us to be more resilient to difficult events. Positive emotions allow us to more easily recover from cardiovascular stressors. And positive emotions support overall health and wellbeing—body, heart, brain, and mind.
People who are flourishing –feeling happy a lot of the time, more creative, finding meaning and purpose in their lives—have a ratio of 3, 4, or 5 positive emotions to 1 negative emotion. People who are just getting by have a ratio of 2 positive emotions to 1 negative emotion.
One way to increase positive experiences is to develop mental resources through practicing mindfulness. Another way is to wake up every morning and name three things that you feel grateful for. One more way is to practice inclining your mind to notice the small moments of joy and pleasure in your world. Yet another way is to do things that inspire you. You might consider a mindful journaling practice to support all of these practices by writing about your experience.
The way to overcome negative thoughts and destructive emotions is to develop opposing, positive emotions that are stronger and more powerful. –Dalai Lama
Here’s to peace, inspiration, and joy,
Jen
Check out Jen’s Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) 8-week intensive e-course