The Power of Emotions

Vivek Murphy, former U.S. Surgeon General¹,  “I think of emotional well-being as a resource within each of us that allows us to do more and to perform better.  That doesn’t mean the absence of mental illness.  It’s the presence of positive emotions that allows us to be resilient in the face of adversity.

“The first thing that we have to change is how we think about emotions.  Emotions are a source of power, and that’s what science tells us.  But many people I encounter have been led to think of emotions as a source of weakness.”

Meg Wolitzer New York Times-bestselling author², ” The world is always trying to tell you what you are not & it’s really up to you to say what you are.”           

Meg realizes that she may not become the actress she dreams of being, but  finds the freedom of  self acceptance.

Have you heard, “Champions are made, not Born”? There is also, “Hope for the best, plan for the worst”.

Matthew Hunt³,

Positivity:

“Psychologists have suggested that conscientiousness is the single most important factor that will help a person to score a job because conscientious people not only achieve more, but deal with setbacks more effectively. Highly conscientious employees do a series of things better than the rest of us. While you’re struggling to get out of bed in the morning, successful people have often already been to the gym, made breakfast and started on their daily to-do list”.

25 Practical Success Habits

1. “1. Wake up early, 2. Gratitude, 3. Smile, 4. Eat a healthy breakfast.
2. 5. Exercise, 6. Drink water with lemon, 7. Walk 10,000 steps.
3. 8. Vitamins and minerals, 9. Effective time management, 10. Daily goal setting, 11. Inspire yourself, 12. Save and invest, 13. Budget and track expenses, 14. Learn something new, 15. Organize, 16. Contribute to others, 17. Network, 18. Break through fears, 19. Take action, 20. Follow a plan, 21. Enjoy “me” time, 22. Implement positive thinking, 23. Read.
4. 24. Get ample rest, 25. Journal your thoughts.”

Negativity:
“University of Illinois psychologist Brent Roberts, “Even if there is a failure, they’re (successful people) going to have a plan to deal with that failure”.

Oliver Burkeman, “Those cheery slogans intended to lift the user’s mood by repeating them: “I am a lovable person!” “My life is filled with joy”? Psychologists at the University of Waterloo concluded that such statements make people with low self-esteem feel worse — not least because telling yourself you’re lovable is liable to provoke the grouchy internal counterargument that, really, you’re not”.

“Even goal setting, the ubiquitous motivational technique of managers everywhere, isn’t an undisputed boon. Fixating too vigorously on goals can distort an organization’s overall mission in a desperate effort to meet some overly narrow target, and research by several business-school professors suggests that employees consumed with goals are likelier to cut ethical corners”.

“Ancient philosophers and spiritual teachers understood the need to balance the positive with the negative, optimism with pessimism, a striving for success and security with an openness to failure and uncertainty, deliberately visualizing the worst-case scenario. This tends to reduce anxiety about the future: when you soberly picture how badly things could go in reality, you usually conclude that you could cope. Besides, they noted, imagining that you might lose the relationships and possessions you currently enjoy increases your gratitude for having them now. Positive thinking, by contrast, always leans into the future, ignoring present pleasures”.

“From this perspective, the relentless cheer of positive thinking begins to seem less like an expression of joy and more like a stressful effort to stamp out any trace of negativity. You can try, if you insist, to follow the famous self-help advice to eliminate the word “failure” from your vocabulary — but then you’ll just have an inadequate vocabulary when failure strikes”.

Balance:
The final determinant boils down to how it affects your life in its entirety. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, strives to help you achieve this balance. Does your thinking and behavior (CBT) lead away from destruction and toward success?

Counseling on Demand fields a team of counselors and therapists who are adept at CBT.

We are online at CounselingonDemand.com

Effective Online Counseling… Only a Click Away.

1.  Vivek Murphy, former U.S. Surgeon General, What it Means to be Healthy, National Geographic Magazine, September, 2017

2. Meg Wolitzer, Summer Camp, The Moth Radio Hour, NPR, https://themoth.org/radio-hour/camp-cars-cockroaches-and-the-kremlin

3. Matthew Hunt, Success-How is it Achieved? The Power of Positivity…Balanced with Negativity, http://www.counselingondemand.com/counseling/success-how-is-it-achieved-the-power-of-positivitybalanced-with-negativity/