Habits Mindset

April 11th, 2020

How to Feel More Positive and Enthusiastic

When you’re overwhelmed, embracing the current moment seems counterintuitive. However, you can engage the power of gratitude (and its ally, savouring) to feel more positive and enthusiastic.

Mindset Matters!

If you want to create lasting lifestyle changes, you need to tackle your self-sabotaging subconscious. Because to change your behaviours, you need to (literally) change your mind. Our brains have a ‘negativity bias’. We’re evolutionarily wired to react more strongly to negative things. While necessary to keep us safe in survival situations, it causes problems in everyday life. Especially if we start ruminating—replaying those negative thoughts going over and over.

Neuropsychologist Rick Hanson says the brain is “like Velcro for negative experiences but Teflon for positive ones.” And that “negative events and experiences get quickly stored in memory—in contrast to positive events and experiences, which are not prioritized in the same way.” So, we need to keep positive experiences in our active awareness for longer to help them ‘stick’.

How can we overcome this negativity bias? Two habits: gratitude and savouring.

Start with Gratitude

Recognize and appreciate what you receive in life.

I joined Sue Crites’s Gifts of Gratitude challenge shortly after receiving a cancer diagnosis. Every day we posted three things we were grateful for. I shocked my doctors with my positive outlook — within only a few weeks of starting the practice!

Gratitude aligns our perception with reality. Research shows that it has physical, emotional, and social benefits, including:

    • More robust immune systems, lower blood pressure and better sleep
    • Increased positive emotions — happiness, joy, enthusiasm, and optimism
    • Improved relationships and more generous, loving behaviour
    • Fewer destructive impulses and feelings of loneliness and isolation

“Gratitude blocks toxic emotions, such as envy, resentment, regret and depression, which can destroy our happiness.”
—Robert Emmons

You can nurture gratitude with three S’s:

See: Keep your eyes, mind, and heart wide open for things to be grateful for; big or small, it doesn’t matter. Listen to your heart and embrace what’s real.

Scribe: Write them down to reinforce the feelings.

Share: Let others know how you feel. Especially potent if it’s the person to whom you’re feeling grateful.

According to social scientist Arthur C. Brooks, gratitude “stimulates the part of the brain that regulates stress… and part of our ‘ reward circuitry’ that produces the sensation of pleasure.” Who doesn’t want that?

Now, to amplify your appreciation, add savouring. 

Savour Something Good

Stay with an experience to examine and appreciate it.

I learned about savouring in cognitive scientist Laurie Santos’s Science of Wellbeing course (currently available for free). 

Savouring enhances and prolongs positive emotions to rewire your brain.
Like gratitude, it improves physical and mental health. And, it fosters creative problem-solving to help overcome overwhelm.

“Savoring is the glue that bonds people together…   People who savor together stay together.”
—Fred Bryant

It’s simple. Pick one thing in your day. Your morning brew, walk with a friend, or pre-bed bath. Take a few minutes and immerse yourself in the experience. Bring all your senses to the party: How does it look, smell, taste, sound and feel? Stay with the sensations and enjoy them. It’s so easy to skip ahead and miss the full sensory input.

Take Action to Feel more Positive and Enthusiastic!

Pay attention to your mindset. If you slip into a negative headspace, shift into the positive by thinking of what you are grateful for. Then, savour it. Together, gratitude and savouring are a powerful combo to help the positives ‘stick’. Essential to overcoming negative bias. 

Start an Appreciation Journal

Spend 5-10 minutes each evening reflecting on your day. Write down three things you’re grateful for. Be specific; the more details, the better. Enjoy the memory of each. In addition, note your savouring experience. I’ll often take a quick pic of things as they come up. Easier to remember. And to share too.

Express your gratitude

Affirm your family and friends with what you appreciate about their actions and attributes. For example, ‘I’m really grateful for you for listening to me when I was upset this afternoon. I love how compassionate and caring you are.’ Don’t hold back because you’re worried they’ll feel uncomfortable; they’ll probably be thrilled! 

Want to dive deeper? Check out Robert Emmons’s Thanks!: How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier or Fred Bryant’s Savoring: A New Model of Positive Experience. (I’ve linked to Amazon for you to preview, but please support your local bookstore if possible.) 

Gratitude and savouring can change your mind. Let me know if they help you feel more positive and enthusiastic. 

PS. If you have questions, please reach out via email to janet@janetwalker.co.