“Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.” - Pema Chodron
Many of us know that negative emotional states can have a significant impact on our health and longevity. Emotions such as fear, hostility, anger, and cynicism are known to elevate stress hormones, which increases the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. Studies show that, as negative emotions become entrenched and our mindset shifts toward pessimism, the risk of developing metabolic disorders such as Type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer increases. Negativity can also impair our ability to learn as it interferes with the functioning of the prefrontal cortex, the center for working memory. Negative emotions limit how effectively we absorb new information and acquire new skills. Recent studies using brain scans suggest that hostility and anger can even change the structure of the brain itself, leading to a marked decrease in curiosity, cognitive agility, and strategic thinking.
With so much evidence linking negative emotions with poor health, we may wish to replace them with positive emotions such as gratitude, joy, and compassion. Studies link positive emotions with lower blood pressure, reduced stress, enhanced immunity, and lower inflammatory markers. Positive emotions provide numerous benefits, including improving our capacity for physical and mental resilience, broadening our mindset, expanding our awareness, and enhancing social connectedness. Even though a positive outlook improves the quality of our lives, it is unwise to seek to eliminate or suppress negative emotions. All emotions are important; they serve as powerful teachers about how we interact with the world. Negative emotions are sparked when we sense danger, whether real or imagined, spurring us to respond quickly and take immediate action to mitigate the threat. Positive emotions grow more slowly, expanding our awareness so that we can access resources and build connectivity. Rather than favor one over the other, we should harness their power, utilizing them at the right time and in the appropriate context.
The overall impact of positive and negative emotions is determined by different time scales. Negative emotions are highly reactive, appearing in a flash, charged with a great deal of energy. They seemingly come out of nowhere, hijacking our attention and leaving us feeling overwhelmed. Their intensity is important when we are faced with a threat, but that benefit lasts only for the short term. Negative emotions become problematic when they linger long after the threat has passed. We can’t control the onset of negative emotions, nor should we try to, but we can learn to react to them in a skillful way. I once heard it said that emotions such as anger, contempt, and greed are distasteful houseguests. Invite them in for only a brief visit or they will linger and destroy your house.
Unlike the spark of anger or hostility, positive emotions build slowly, gathering energy over time. Whereas one single negative emotion such as anger can, on its own, generate tremendous energy, the strength of positive emotions is found in numbers. A feeling of compassion for someone can generate feelings of gratitude, which can then foster a sense of joy, which leads to more compassion, and so on. Whereas negative emotions can be sharp and heavy, pulling us downward, positive emotions spread slowly, creating an uplifting and buoyant sensation that helps us feel expansive. Negative emotions promote survival, whereas positivity fosters resource building and connection. Although distinctly different, both are essential to our experience of being human.
Most of us experience a range of negative and positive emotions throughout our lifetime. There are times when we are mired in negativity and others when we enjoy a more optimistic disposition. Although these contrasts and fluctuations are normal, how they impact our health is related to the ratios of the emotions we experience over time. Research by Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, a leading scholar within the field of positive psychology, suggests that a positivity ratio of three to one is the best prescription for a healthy life. This means that for every gut-wrenching emotional experience you endure, balance can be maintained with three positive, uplifting experiences. These ratios are cumulative and unfold over time. We can shift them, but only with awareness and intentionality: balance can’t be achieved by simply uttering a few upbeat words or by smiling more often. It takes the power of mindfulness to shift the ratios.
Through mindfulness we become aware of our thinking patterns, noticing the tendencies of how we process and respond to our environment. When we pay attention to the activity of our mind, suspending judgment and watching our thoughts as they arise, we notice how quickly negative emotions can spin into negative thinking—ripe with judgment, criticism, and rumination. These thinking patterns have the capacity to spread quickly, like a wildfire. Mindfulness can contain this energy by helping us decipher our initial reaction—fear, anger, hurt--from our interpretation of it. This pause creates an opportunity to stop the racing negative thoughts by shifting to either a neutral or, perhaps, an optimistic reappraisal. Doing so gives negative emotions the space needed to dissipate, and like the difficult houseguest, we shorten their stay and invite them to leave so they don’t trash the house.
The ratio of positive emotions to negative emotions is a balance between levity and gravity. Levity is the force that lifts us up whereas gravity is the force that tethers us to the earth. The ratio of these emotions will determine how they impact our health and well-being. Too much levity makes us flighty as well as ungrounded, which can interfere with goal attainment and impede our growth. Too much gravity is heavy and crushes us, causing us to collapse in misery. An appropriate level of negativity keeps us safely grounded, enabling us to make decisions that reflect reality. Positivity, in the right amount, gives us the lift needed to keep us buoyant, curious, resilient, and ready to flourish.
We can start to shift these ratios as we become aware of our thinking patterns. Emotions are visceral, so they typically show up in the breath and the body. Noticing our breathing patterns and scanning the body for tension are easy and accessible ways of identifying which emotions are present. Shallow, rapid breathing and tension in the body are a sign that negativity has taken hold. By deepening the breath and working to relax tension we can stop negativity from taking hold and spiraling out of control. Alternate nostril breathing for five minutes is an effective method of shifting to a more positive state. As we deepen our breath, the parasympathetic nervous system is activated and signals the brain to stimulate the relaxation response. Physically, we become calmer, which allows our mindset to broaden, enhancing our capacity for learning, creativity, and social connection.
In addition to changing our physical state, there are some simple but effective mental “hacks” that can maintain healthy emotional ratios. One of these methods involves noticing the types of questions you favor when engaging in self-reflection. The nature, intention, and tone of our questions will create either a narrow or an expansive mindset. Negativity lurks in the corners of a narrow mindset, whereas an expansive mindset opens our awareness to new possibilities. Do you tend to ask “Why” questions? These types of questions are narrow as they require analysis. Since they lean toward problem solving, they require judgment, categorizing, and a certain amount of criticism. “Why” questions are useful for specific tasks such as research or data analysis, but their critical and evaluative nature make them toxic for self-reflection. They invite negativity. “What” and “How” questions are expansive as they involve fact finding that encourages us to notice rather than judge. We need a broad and open mindset when answering these types of questions. Positive emotions are more likely to grow when we ask ”what” and “how” questions.
Health, wellbeing, and flourishing is cultivated through a balance of the gravity of negativity and the levity of positivity. Think of positive emotions as the mast of a sailboat—it allows the sail to catch the wind, which provides the fuel to move the boat forward. Below the waterline is the keel, which is heavy. It is essential for the safety and efficiency of the boat as it provides stability and direction when the wind catches the sails. Appropriate levels of negativity keep us on course and make life manageable, whereas positivity gives us the fuel to move forward in life.
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