What Is Positive Psychology?

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Emotionality creates even more opportunities for impulsive actions.

When we let frustrations accumulate, we are moving toward our threshold of tolerance.

Many people aren't aware of the paradox that expectations and frustrations are correlated to a high degree.

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.” —William James

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.” —William James

Living your life with negative beliefs, emotions, and behaviours affects everything. Understanding the source of a poor attitude, or “baditude,” can alter your relationships and your outlook on life. Where does a poor attitude come from? Are there specific strategies that can change one’s baditude into gratitude?

When we dwell on the negative aspects of our life, there are repercussions. Negativity feeds on itself. That is, it becomes automatic. Ruminating is a good example.

In a sample of 2,143 individuals from the Netherlands, for example, Spinhoven et al. (2015) found that 84 percent of the shared variance between rumination and worry overlapped with repetitive negative thinking. Negative thinking is on automatic. To transition to positive, we need to shift to manual.

Negative thoughts also lead to negative emotions. It becomes increasingly more difficult to experience joy and happiness when we are constantly reinforcing how miserable we are. Emotional regulation also becomes more problematic when we are feeling less tolerant and amenable.

Once we have reached our emotional threshold, regaining control of our thoughts and feelings is even more challenging.........

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