In other words, positive emotions help increase awareness, boost coping ability, and improve resilience.
Have you ever experienced a negative emotional reaction to an emergency?
The difference between these two reactions highlights how positive versus negative emotions can direct your life experiences.
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What Is Broaden and Build Theory?
How many of these do you experience on a daily basis?
Are there others that you could think of that are not on this list?
attempt to be aware of your feelings and reactions in each moment.
You’re able to improvepsychological resilienceby giving you more tools to manage negative emotions.
When you feel more positively, you are also able to see yourself as “wise.”
This enables you to operate from your “wise” mind rather than reacting out of negative emotion.
This can increase feelings of well-being, which improves in a positive upward cycle.
Other Important Benefits
Positive vs.
Negative Emotions
As you might see, positive emotions have various potential benefits.
So what is the difference between positive and negative emotions?
They also make us more open to positive experiences in the future.
They also help to find meaning in negative experiences.
Ways to Experience More Positive Emotions
Have you heard of the “hedonic treadmill”?
And so, you might go about your life trying to chase those positive feelings.
Eventually, over time, you will develop a more positive mindset and outlook on life.
This allows you to get the full effect of synchronicity and mirroring ofbody languagebetween you and the other person.
However, just taking a small step each day might be helpful.
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2001;56(3):218-226.
Peterson C.What Is Positive Psychology, and What Is it Not?
Fredrickson BL, Branigan C.Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought-action repertoires.Cogn Emot.
2017;8(6):1623-1633. doi:10.1007/s12671-017-0735-9
Fredrickson BL.The role of positive emotions in positive psychology.
The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions.Am Psychol.
2001;56(3):218-226. doi:10.1037//0003-066x.56.3.218
