Positivity Resonance: The Power of Happy Moments

Positivity resonance is an experience of well-being shared between two or more people. They are pieces of happiness. Bright moments created with friends, with our partner or family. These experiences impregnated with gratifying emotions later act as mirrors in which we can look at ourselves at some point in the future and feel those same sensations again.

We know that love is an emotion, that affection for our friends is also an emotion, as is affection for any person who at some point in our lives is (or was) important. However, Those feelings are much more than a chemical reactionhave significance and often act as antidotes to sadness or discouragement.

Every rewarding experience is not forgotten, it does not fade, it remains deeply integrated into the brain. Positive emotions resonate in our existence and are worth accumulating, promote them and live them whenever possible.

What is positivity resonance?

Positivity resonance is an experience of shared positive affect, care and also mutual concern. This term was enunciated by Dr. Barbara Frederickson, a psychologist at the University of North Carolina and one of the most relevant figures in the study of positive emotions.

In one of his best-known books, Love 2.0: Finding Happiness and Health in Moments of Connection, tells us about an idea as evocative as it is interesting. According to her, all Positive emotions are enriching. Nevertheless, Love like affection or affection are inherently and exquisitely the most pleasant.

They are much more than specific experiences. According to Dr. Frederickson, they change our minds, they give us meaning and make us more permeable to the experiences that surround us. All of this has an impact, a resonance that transcends us emotionally and also biologically.

Sometimes, by spending a day with friends, stress is reduced and we gain physical and psychological well-being for an entire month. Something changes in us during those shared experiences…

Components of positive resonance

The University of Carolina (Berkeley) conducted a study to understand how the concept of positive resonance appeared in relationships. That is, the objective was to understand how it arises and what implications it has for the bond itself. It was defined in this analysis that for this phenomenon to be evident, three dimensions must occur:

Shared positive emotions. Resonance only appears when two people experience the same emotions and with the same intensity. It is feeling complicity, desire, satisfaction, fun, joy…On the other hand, This emotional reality requires a sense of concern and mutual care.. It’s a “I take care of you because I care about you and I care about you.”Likewise, biobehavioral synchrony appears, that is, couples show the same body language, the same tone of voice and the same physiological reactions. These moments of greater positive resonance are accompanied by psychophysiological synchrony.

When there is biobehavioral synchronization there is brain synchronization

This information is interesting. Dr. Barbara L. Fredrickson insists that a meaningful interaction, whether in the realm of a couple or friendship, involves biobehavioral synchrony. For example, when we drink coffee with our friends, laugh, talk, etc., we are doing the same activity and feeling the same emotions.

In these contexts, the brains also synchronize. The same thing happens when we interact with babies or young children. We make them laugh, we play with them and without realizing it That resonance of positivity arises that synchronizes the brain, reducing stress, fear and anxiety.. Positive emotions surround us.

The resonance of positivity improves our health

We have all heard that emotions heal, but yes… there are nuances. We know that emotions such as joy, interest, inspiration, fun, affection, and serenity affect our spirits and balance us; it’s true. However, a good part of these realities are still specific experiences. None of this lasts nor does it accompany us for a month, a year or an entire life.

However, positivity resonance has a more transcendent impact on psychological well-being. The fact that this is so is based on the fact that this phenomenon originates from moments shared with significant people. They are experiences of greater emotional weight because they have been built in common with loves, friends, family, children…

All of this is cognitive reserve, they are neural connections created with great strength that are maintained over time. Likewise, they also act as emotional anchors. That is, in moments of stress, despondency or despair, we pull the anchor of memory to allow those happy moments of yesterday to resonate in us again.

Thanks to this we remember that life has meaning, that love gives us purposes, that friendship strengthens us in this world, just like family… All these figures are people who are refuge, emotional spaces to which it is always worth it. return, even if it is through memory.

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