The 10 most important positive emotions according to B. Fredrickson

If you had to choose an emotion, which one would you choose? For many, the most nourishing, powerful and transformative emotional state is undoubtedly love. For others it is calm, that experience of balance and absolute satisfaction in which life for a moment does not prick us with any of its edges, with any of its weights and distortions.

Be that as it may, there is a fact. The entire spectrum of emotions is basic, decisive and important for human beings.. However, those with a positive valence are our daily driving force and the light that illuminates our motivation, hope and connection with our environment. Passion, inspiration, curiosity, joy… Who wouldn’t like to embrace them forever?

We know that it is not possible, that on a daily basis sadness, anguish and disappointments test our ability to adapt. Howeverunderstanding the essence of the most rewarding emotional states can allow us to know how to promote them, how to awaken them in us to achieve mental well-being.

Love, curiosity or inspiration are those emotions that most promote our psychological well-being.

Most important positive emotions and their explanation

One of the leading experts in the field of positive psychology is Barbara Fredrickson. We could say that thanks to the research of this professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA), the field of positive emotions was addressed for the first time in a scientific and objective way.

Until the early 90s, no one had delved into the functions and objectives of these psychobiological states. Dr. Fredrickson demonstrated that these experiences are key to developing new learning, establishing new knowledge and behaviors, and consolidating our relationships.

Positive emotions are the spark that makes life possible and consolidates well-being and human growth. They act as a cognitive impulse that facilitates the ability to build and transform reality. Thus, In a study published in 2021, the most important positive emotions were detailed, those that we should promote. We analyze them below.

1. Enjoyment, the ability to experience pleasure

What gives you pleasure, enjoyment, delight and satisfaction? Joy is the opposite of pain and stands as that emotional state that gives us fulfillment and happiness.. It is a brief state, like the one a child feels when eating ice cream, like the one we experience when reading a book or having sex. There are simple, basic and enriching activities that make us experience rewarding well-being.

2. Inspiration, our reasons for living

Inspiration is the ability to find objectives, concepts and references that instill in us curiosity, passion, the desire to experiment, to learn, to imitate and even to transcend. It is the breath that moves us to action, that transmits energy, strength, and new interests with which to update ourselves and continue moving forward.

A investigation by psychologists Todd M. Thrash and Andrew J. Elliot, for example, emphasizes that this emotion acts as a decisive construct for well-being.

3. Joy, the daily spark that cannot be missed

What gives you joy? What tickles your heart, gives endorphins to your brain and puts smiles on your face? In our daily lives there are tasks that are essential: working, feeding ourselves, resting… However, Joy is the oxygen that cannot be missing in your days, and finding it is something simple. Promote it.

4. Serenity, inner calm

We were talking about her at the beginning. Among the most important positive emotions, serenity cannot be missing. It is a feeling full of harmony, it is a mental state in which nothing external or internal alters us or brings suffering.

This emotion is the most longed for, because The serene mind is the one that knows how to deal with anxiety, the one that does not suffer the disturbance of excessive worries.

5. The amazement, the innocence that we must not lose

It is true, there are realities that amaze us every day. Just look at social networks and see how the world is going. However, There is another type of wonder that is more stimulating and it is the one that we can see every day in the youngest children. It defines that capacity to be moved by the simplest things, it is the virtue of seeing the world from curiosity, openness and fascination.

6. Hope, confidence in tomorrow

Hopeful hearts and minds are not naive. This emotion goes beyond the optimistic outlook. Those who cling to hope and cultivate it daily do not expect everything that destiny brings them to be good and exceptional. He thinks that whatever has to come will make sense and he will be able to face it, he trusts that even though we are all sailing in an ocean of uncertainties, tomorrow will be better.

7. Pride, the feeling of being valuable

Among the most important positive emotions that we should cultivate and enhance is pride. Far from seeing it as that negative entity from which selfishness or narcissism emerges, we must understand it from a more adjusted perspective. There is nothing bragging about someone who feels proud of their achievements, who recognizes their skills and makes them serve effectively.

This emotion gives muscle to self-esteem by acting as a validator of the self.

8. Interest in the world, life, yourself

Barbara Fredrickson highlights in her works the importance of this emotion as a key to our development and evolution. No learning will be consolidated if there is no prior interest in discovering certain areas or new information.

The interested mind pushes the person towards exploration, motivates himmakes it move from security to novelty to expand perspectives and knowledge.

A positive state of mind can improve relationships, health and broaden the mind.

9. Gratitude, a bow to well-being

It may surprise us, but Gratitude is a primary skill for developing and maintaining optimal levels of satisfaction, quality of life, and emotional well-being.. Thanks to this experience we appreciate everything from the quality of our relationships to our own existence in this world.

So ask yourself… What are you grateful for today?

10. Love, the engine that moves the world

What do you think is one of the most important positive emotions? Indeed, because we have left it for last it is not the least relevant. Quite the opposite. Love is the energy that makes us beat, grow, feel strong and valuable. Without this vital force, we feel lost from childhood, and it is not enough to just receive it, we must also know how to offer it.

Love is the social glue that consolidates our bonds and also that glass from which to look at the world in each of its details. Only those who observe life from love are capable of always giving their best. This, as we well know, directly impacts our physical and emotional well-being.

What if we started to focus on promoting these emotional states a little more? The benefits are undoubted. Let’s make it possible.

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