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The role of happiness
Introduction of happiness and success
Introduction of happiness and success
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Only in recent years have psychologists begun to appreciate the benefits of happiness and positive emotion — benefits that include everything from enhanced creativity to improved immune-system function. Dr. Barbara Fredrickson at the University of North Carolina, a leader in the field of positive psychology, posed the question, “What good are positive emotions?” and came up with the following possibilities.
Happiness broadens your focus and expands your thinking
Positive emotions — curiosity, love, joy, contentment, wonder, excitement — expand your focus of attention. When you’re angry, your focus narrows to the source of your frustration and the object of your wrath. Your mind is like a heat-seeking missile, bent on destruction.
Contrast this
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Think about someone who makes you laugh, something that excites you, some activity that pleases you — it may provide just the escape you need from those negative emotions.
Happiness protects your health
You probably already know that getting upset or angry can raise your blood pressure and, in the worst-case scenario, precipitate a heart attack or stroke. But did you know that positive emotions can lower your blood pressure and risk for cardiovascular disease? Well, they can.
The pioneering work of Dr. Barbara Fredrickson illustrated that when stressed people watched a film that left them feeling amused and content, that led to quicker recovery of heart function. She also noted that stressed subjects who smiled while watching a sad movie had a more rapid heart rate recovery. Her thesis is that positive emotions undo the effects of stress and, therefore, protect a person’s health.
Other studies have shown that something as simple as getting a light touch on your hand from a compassionate friend or the act of petting your favorite animal can also lower your blood pressure — and, neither requires a prescription, gets you into a hassle with your insurance carrier, or has negative
Negative emotions stop us from thinking and behaving rationally and seeing situations in their true perspective. When the negative emotion overrules a person then he tends to listen only to his inner voice, on which he has no control. Negative emotions should not be prolonged for a longer time and when it happens, the problem becomes more entrenched. Negative emotions, if not handled with patience and appropriate measures, it can lead to big disasters of any kind, for example, expressing anger with violence.
Emotions can also put people in all sorts of situations - anger causing someone to think irrationally, unhappiness leading to depression and, possibly, suicide. Although distractions can be hindrances when people are trying to complete projects or finish paragraphs, they can also be useful.
These states might be unpleasant at times, but sadness and anger can actually have a beneficial role in human development. Sad emotions, anger issues, and guilt sometimes can bring some cases of positive outcomes. David states in his article that there is good news about the value of bad moods such as, “Helping [one] form arguments...improving [one’s] memory...encourage perseverance...up [his or her] generosity...and [boosting one's] ability to reason”(126). Being upset can help with forming arguments because one is more aware of making
Anger is a common negative sneaky emotion that catches most of people off guard even if they try to hide it. Anger may be a good thing as it gives one a way to express his bad mood or negative feelings. It can also help one to find solutions to problems. (Web)
People are exposed to numerous amounts of positive and negative events throughout their lifetime. No one is given a life that is perfect or free from difficulty. Whether it is a death in the family, chronic illness, house fire, automobile accident, or any other type of impacting event, stressors are bound to occur throughout one’s life. Since people are constantly exposed to stressors in life, it is essential that one is able to adequately cope. There are three types of responses to stress. The first is the positive stress response, which is a normal and brief response to stress and is characterized by a mild increase in heart rate (“Toxic Stress,” 2017). One example of a positive stress response could be the slight apprehension one feels before
All of our emotions play a big role in our lives. Even though it does not feel like it at the moment, negative feelings can be a good thing.If we never become sad, angry, or scared we would not be able to appreciate the true value of happiness, we would only focus on ourselves and happiness, and we would become less alert to threats and dangerous situations around us.
At the end of the experiment I will complete the last two steps in the scientific process. I will analyze the data gained and will formulate a conclusion. I don’t think much research has been done of the effects of Positive Psychology on those people with a higher than average level of happiness, since the catalyst for this research came from the desire to augment pathological treatment for depression. It will be interesting to see the impact, if any, on my current level of happiness.
Emotion is often thought of as simply how one feels, but it is much more complex than that. Emotions have almost evolved as extensions of survival mechanisms and are essential to managing life (Schmidt, 2017). Without emotions, we wouldn’t be able to experience feelings in our lives. We would not get excited and nervous for the birth of our first child, we would not get angry when something we love gets destroyed, and we would not be happy when life is going great. Without emotions we wouldn’t be able to successfully learn and complete the learning cycle. Emotions, both good and bad, help us navigate the learning cycle and are influential to how we make decisions, reflect upon those decisions, and create new ideas for the future. According
and pleasure, the body changes into a relaxed state. When an individual is angry different
Anger can help or hurt out relationships whether it be with coworkers, friends, boyfriends or family members. When we have a conflict
Wong, P. T. (2011). Positive psychology 2.0: Towards a balanced interactive model of the good life. What to do about the negative?, 52(2), 69-70.
Similarly, anger, described as a survival emotion, is often used by individuals to communicate their feelings, boundaries and defend values. Individuals are believed to mismanage their anger as somatizers, self-punishers, exploders, or under handers. Fear, on the other hand, is considered a difficult emotion and may include fear of failure, rejection, dying and the unknown among others. Negative emotions, including worry, anger and loneliness, can inevitably have a detrimental impact in the form of disease and illnesses in the body. Positive emotions on the other hand, can affect the body positively by accelerating the healing process and promoting well-being. Humor which is believed to be an excellent stress reducer is considered beneficial to well-being. Mental wellbeing, defined as “the ability to gather, process, recall, and communicate information” (p. 42) can become significantly compromised by stress.
You know when you’re watching a movie and you really connect with it, not just with the characters but you really just get the film? Ever wonder what it is that made you fall in love with a film even if the dialogue or cinematography isn’t everything you hoped for? It’s the sound design! Not to discredit any part of the film, The Pursuit of Happyness, because it is a beautiful film, but the sound design is what truly makes this film so great. It fills all the voids that are sometimes experienced in films. It does this by capitalizing on what the untrained ear calls noise. Another way the sound designers of this film really grab the attention of the audience is by creating a fluid way to make you listen to the sounds simultaneously with the images on the screen. In addition, the realistic sounds in conjunction with synthetic sounds complete the film by providing seamless cuts between scenes. The amalgamations of these three aspects are what make the sound design of The Pursuit of Happyness a truly vital part of the film.
An unavoidable part of life is dealing with stress and learning how to handle it. While the busyness of people’s lives steadily increases, the stress level of an individual tends to rise. There are many stress relief methods that exist. I believe cardiovascular exercise is one good beneficial approach to reducing stress. Different forms of cardio exercise can physically contribute to ease stress. It can also provide benefits for the mind. Since exercise is an outlet for frustration, it can be a healthy and effective way to release these negative emotions. There are many practical things that someone could do to exercise to relieve stress. By prioritizing cardiovascular
Emotional health plays a hand in many parts of people’s lives. When you maintain good emotional health it can play an important role in your school, work, relationships and physical health. Researchers used to believe that our happiness came from being successful. To the contrary, research has since shown it is just the opposite. A person with a positive outlook is more likely to set goals and work towards them. People tend to attract people with a like-mined outlook and attitude, therefore a happy person is likely to be surrounded by other happy people. This creates a positive circle of support and healthy relationships. These are key building blocks of success. People with good emotional health have positive coping skills to deal