Positive Emotions

10 Propositions regarding (Positive) Emotions, especially Happiness

Good_AdviceBy now, I have written +400 blog posts on Positive Psychology and given +30 talks and presentations for different audiences, mostly in the realm of business. While I receive a lot of positive feedback (referring to the PP content; I´m not talking about my presentation style here), quite obviously, I also get some pushback once in a while. Over time, I´ve come to notice that most of the counterarguments I hear are based on a rather small set of “shared (mis-)conceptions”. I guess, a lot of these arise over time due to the fact that – for the sake of brevity – speeches and news articles on Positive Psychology have to simplify and overgeneralize their messages in order to get their points across. In order to structure my own thoughts vis-à-vis this situation – but also for discussion – in the following, you´ll find…

10 Propositions regarding (Positive) Emotions, especially Happiness

1) I feel, therefore I am. Emotions are among the very few constants in life. Where´s the consciousness, there´s emotion. They may not always be strong, and we may not always be aware – but they are there.

2) All emotions are valid and adaptive, depending on context and dose.

3) In excess, every emotion can and probably will have detrimental side effects.

4) Different emotions will have different consequences (e.g., for our overall health or the perception of “meaning in life”), especially in high doses and in the long-term.

5) Feelings are contagious and therefore, (almost) always “social”: What we do unto ourselves, we do unto others (to some degree). With that, there comes a responsibility.

6) Happiness is mostly used as an umbrella term, it comes in many different forms and sizes (e.g. serenity, exhilaration, relaxation).

7) Feeling happy is not a (or the) goal in life itself, it’s a “positive side effect” of certain behavior patterns and thinking styles.

8) Feeling happy is not shallow. At least, it´s not shallower than experiencing sadness, anger, or any other kind of emotion.

9) Feeling mostly happy requires effort, at least more work than feeling mostly unhappy (especially with regard to people displaying certain unfavorable genetic predispositions).

10) We seldom feel pure emotions. In most situations, we have several feelings at the same time. Quite often, they display a somewhat antagonistic structure (e.g., experiencing a bittersweet moment; or feeling proud of having been humble).

 

Picture via Gratisography

5 short Videos on Positive Psychology

Dr. Nico Rose - Other People MatterIn April 2015, I gave a keynote on Positive Psychology for several hundred people at the BMW-Arena in Munich.

The talk was recorded and I received a DVD a couple of weeks later. Finally, I’ve found the time to cut and edit some of the parts – these are the videos displayed below.

They’re in German of course and due to the sound equipment, I seem to have a slight lisp (which is not the case) – but nevermind.

The first video is a general introduction to Seligman’s PERMA framework, the second talks about positive emotions and especially, emotional contagion. The third video talks about the importance of social support (Other People Matter), the fourth about Esa Saarinen’s concept of systems of holding back, and the final one is about Daniel Kahneman and peak-end-theory.

Share and enjoy!

The world of the happy is quite different from the world of the unhappy.

It´s always a crime to divorce a Wittgenstein quote from its context – but I´ll do it anyway:

Wittgenstein - HappyWhat we can definitely say today is that happy people see the world differently – and I mean literally, not metaphorically. When looking at the same visual information, happy people seem to see more of the scenery, they have a different scope. And this scope, in turn, seems to enlarge their mental scope, thereby transferring the broadening quality to the metaphorical level – which, at the end of the day, makes happy people e.g., more creative. If you´d like to know more, please have a look at these articles.

Beautiful Short Film on the Ripple Effect of Kindness and Gratitude

We all know the warm feeling of gratitude in our hearts when we’ve been the beneficiary of an act of kindness. And the really good thing is: in return, we typically want to be kind(er) to others, too. E.g., a recent study by the name of The Social Contagion of Generosity finds that receiving help from strangers prompts us to be kind to other strangers, thereby creating a ripple effect of gratitude and kindness.

This mechanism is beautifully depicted in the following short film from Turkey. Enjoy!