The Attitude of Gratitude

WHY DOES IT MATTER? - POSITIVE EMOTIONS

Positive emotions like happiness, joy and enjoyment are not only pleasant, they have also been found to broaden one’s awareness and encourage new, varied, and exploratory thoughts and actions. In other words, when we experience positive emotions, we look at the world in a different way; a way that is characterised by more openness to new experiences, a broader scope of visual attention, more creativity and so on. Simply put, we “open up” when we experience positive emotions.

Positive emotions can undo lingering negative emotions because they put the negative emotions in a broader perspective. If we can cultivate these positive emotions, we can use them to deal with negative emotions. Also, because of their broadening effect, positive emotions allow us to find good in future events. People who are able to quickly bounce back from stressful events in life have been found to experience more positive emotions even in the face of stress. Having these positive emotions is what helps us to build up resources to cope with negative emotional experiences in the long run.

In Your Journal

In this session, we are going to focus on positive emotions. An example of a positive emotion is gratitude.
In this exercise, we are going to explore the positive feeling of gratitude by remembering people who have profoundly influenced you in your life. These are the people who had a great positive influence on you: grandparents or parents, teachers, bosses, a spouse, a child, or some iconic person you have never even met. Consider three of these people, mention their names, and tell your coach how they contributed to your life.

Person #1 - Name:

How this person has positively contributed to your life: