Creating Positive Emotions
Learning to create positive emotions in times of stress is a skill that can be learned. Like any new habit, it requires practice and repetition. Here are some techniques to try (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006). Find what is meaningful to you.
- Mindfulness meditation – Being mindful means that you are paying attention to what is happening right now. Ten minutes a day is all you need to start. An excellent book for beginners is Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming the Present Moment – And Your Life by Jon Kabat-Zinn.
- Keep a gratitude journal – write down three things you are grateful for. Do this once a week.
- Exercise.
- Have compassion for yourself and others.
- Experience humor – laugh. Smile. The act of smiling has been shown to lower the body’s reaction to stress (Kraft & Pressman, 2012).
- Set and pursue obtainable goals.
- Positive reframing – look at a situation from a different, more positive perspective. This is not a “rose-colored” glasses suggestion, but a proposal to look for opportunity in the midst of what might otherwise be a negative situation.
- Do something you love. Get lost in it. In the field of psychology, this is called “flow”. You can learn more about flow in Csikszentmihalyi’s book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.