Sadness, fear, and anger are emotions that many people view as strictly negative. Society assumes these emotions’ only purpose is to damage people’s lives, and because these emotions are viewed as harmful, many people try to avoid them. However, these emotions are not given the credit they deserve. People encourage others to be optimistic and positive, but human beings are not supposed to be always happy. Negative emotions are surprisingly significant because they offer many benefits that positive emotions do not, but positive emotions are necessary as well. People’s lives are supposed to have a balance of each emotion in order to stay mentally and physically healthy. Even though people attempt to be happy all the time, they should accept …show more content…
They believe they are always safe. Many communities underappreciate negative emotions because psychologists and scientists rarely view negative emotions as beneficial. Although negative emotions are beneficial, happiness is equally important because it provides advantages, and negativity has its flaws also. In the article “The New Science of Happiness,” the author explains “Some of Seligman's own research, for instance, had focused on optimism, a trait shown to be associated with good physical health, less depression and mental illness, longer life and, yes, greater happiness” (Wallis). Happiness increases a person’s life span and decreases diseases which are helpful qualities. Being positive allows people to maintain healthy lives, so emotions associated with happiness provide a better lifestyle. Therefore, positivity is beneficial to people’s health; in contrast, excessive negativity can be unhealthy. As an article in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine asserts, “We expected that daily negative mood[s] at the end of day would predict worse reported sleep that night, whereas daily positive mood at the end of day would predict better sleep” (Song 945). Negativity can cause sleep deprivation, which can lead to other medical issues, so negativity has its faults as well. Therefore, positivity has benefits while negativity has flaws. Happiness is not just a feeling; it has an underlying purpose for people’s lives.
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When our bodies respond in emotions, our health can be affected in many ways. When we are in an unpleasant mental state, our bodies can respond in impairing our immune systems, our blood pressure, and the risk of heart disease, a stroke,
Ben-Shahar speaks correctly while discussing how individuals must give themselves permission to experience negative feelings before they reach the point where they can completely experience the positive feelings. Therefore, positive feelings are inadvertently blocked by negative feelings. Dr. Mathieu (2011) from Psychology Today, discusses how “providing so many positive solutions can inadvertently blame people for their suffering” (para. 3). Henceforth, whenever people see articles on being happy and social media posts where everyone has their happiest face on, they do not accept the it is okay to have negative feelings as well. Ben-Shahar discusses how many people feel inferior while experiencing negative feelings, but in reality every person except the dead and psychopathic experience the same feelings. Counseling Directory (2016) identifies that “we are continually setting ourselves up to fail” (para. 5). Furthermore, acting as part of the human race means that individuals are imperfect. Striving to reach perfection is the beginning of failure because of the impossibility forever block the
From the perspective of positive psychology, there is a well-being formula invested by Martin Seligman to achieve a higher well-being. Martin Seligman (2010) defined as happiness: H (to maintain the length of happiness) = S (happy range breadth) + V (you can control the factors) + C (your living environment). Happy length: the distinction between "temporary" happy and "persistent" happy. Temporary happiness can be achieved by food, comedy, bunch of flowers. While the persistence of happiness is mainly affected by genetic, and this genetic trait can be changed. The breadth of happiness: psychologists think that we are born with a happy constant point, like a thermometer. If there is a happier thing, even if we are upset, it will be dedicated
One study that Eric Wilson did was he bought a book that would try to make him happier. Wilson tried several different activities to try to become happier, those activities included putting on a smile everyday, jogging, and even end every conversation he had with kind words such as “Great” and “Wonderful!”. None of these activities made him happier, and he wrote his opinion on it by saying “a craven disregard for the value of sadness.” (Begley 3). What he means by that is everyone is ignoring the value of sadness, which is becoming a very solid argument in today's conversations. Wilson also argues that we once need to experience sadness to create new ways of understanding ourselves and how we view other things. Wilson made very solid points and tries to persuade you that sadness should be socially acceptable in today's society because everyone is going to experience it one way or
Happiness is one of the most significant dimensions of human experience. Many people can argue that happiness is a meaningful and desirable entity. Studies indicate that everyone pursues happiness in various aspects of their life. Our four fathers saw happiness as a need, so they made the pursuit of happiness as one of the three unalienable rights branded in the Declaration of Independence. There is a sense of complexity behind the meaning of happiness; its definition is not definite. Think of happiness as a rope; there are many thin fiber strands bonded together to become the strength of the rope. Like the analogy of the rope, there are numerous factors that can contribute to an individual’s overall happiness in life. This study is going to
Some people argue that happiness helps make good decisions because happy people strive for the best result. David states, “[Positive emotions] help build vital social, physical, and cognitive resources that lead to positive outcomes and affiliations” (124). David points out that with the right amount of positivity, people make good judgments. The author acknowledges that happiness can have benefits, but she states that too much happiness could hurt human development because the mind does not consider the consequences of an action. Julie Norem, a psychology professor, points out, “’If you’re a pessimist who really thinks through in detail what might go wrong, that’s a strategy that’s likely to work very well for you’” (qtd. in Wallis). She explains
People are shaped into individuals through many defining attributes – from the way we communicate and the way we express ourselves to a person’s morals and ethics. Coincidentally, these are all linked through one major omniscient trait – emotions. Emotions contain a wide spectrum of subcategories, but these can basically be broken down into the two elementary divisions: happiness and sadness. These ups and downs are crucial for people to be themselves; to have their own stories and experiences to tell.
“Beyond Happiness: The Upside of Feeling Down” article by Matthew Hutson explains that negative emotions often have a pessimistic stigma. Normally when one addresses fear, anger, guilt, and regret, a positive outlook is not the first thing that comes to mind. Because these emotions are mostly negative, people try to not act on them or conceal them when trouble arises; however, acting on these emotions can bring a positive feeling. Hutson sheds light on why anger, shame, envy, fear, and grief should not be looked at as “negative” emotions all the time, rather they should just be looked at as emotions.
Following Malcolm Gladwell’s idea on “the story of success”, Sonja Lyubomirsky put happiness to the test. Happiness has many great advantages that some may not think about. Studies shown happiness leads to stronger relationships, higher work performance, and even living longer with many health benefits.
These events can lead to people showing their emotions through happiness or sadness. Emotions that are generally perceived as positive are mostly associated with good and pleasant thoughts. Emotions help us develop our personality as well as our outlook on life. Experiencing emotions can be perceived differently based on age.
Happiness is one of the most important emotions; with happiness, all cares disappear, which is why it is so important for people to be happy before perishing. In an article titled “Why Being Happy Is Important”, Collette Gee, author, speaker, and relationship specialist, explains how happiness can affect you:
No one question the positive effect of feeling good, but are there any benefits from unpleasant emotions? It seems that people has been chasing for good mood in the last 2 decades, but there are several people trying to find positive influences for feeling bad underneath. In the Psychology Today article “Beyond Happiness: The Upside of Feeling Down” (2015), Hutson focuses his attention on the how human beings benefit themselves from negative emotions. Hutson has some strong point that there are many positive effects from negative emotions, which are expressing anger is good in negotiation, guilt can motivate individuals to fix the mistake, and envy is one of the motivation to drive people to success.
Being somewhat in control of one’s emotions seems like it could work out when it favors them, but usually ends up later to hurt them. Many see this as a false hope and follow their emotions rather than thinking clearly. Distancing from feelings all together helps rid the body of such poisons that makes it immune. Trying to reach such a complex idea such as positivity resonance cannot simply be attained with just trying to be positive, it all depends on how you can collect the surrounding positivity and work it, not just by helping yourself, but also to spread it around to create a society of happy people. Being able to keep a strong and free-willed spirit gains the validity of living life. Fredrickson explains with, “Evidence for synchrony in two people’s insulae suggests that in a good communication, two individuals come to feel a single, shared emotion as well, one that is distributed across their two brains” (Fredrickson 112). Having a connection between two only hurts more with emotions because now the false hopes are spreading between two different cultures that could and will eventually spread to more. With emotions being a key topic that is shared, it only gives weakness to certain areas that can limit potential in life. Having a selfish attitude where a false sense and a more centralized positivity compared to a communal one shows how this can also go in
Module 12.2, “A Survey of Emotions” discusses anxiety, anger and positive emotions. Psychologists who study anxiety have the advantage of an operational definition for anxiety, which allows them to measure anxiety objectively. Before reading the chapter, I did not know that the amygdala plays a big role in peoples’ varying amounts of anxiety. Interestingly, the module questions the reliability of polygraph tests, which ruins tons of relationships on numerous TV shows. The module continues to explain that many factors may influence happiness from wealth, heath, and weather.
If you are not happy, your thoughts and your emotions are not happy. Complaining, sadness, hopelessness, worry, jealousy, hatred, blame, doubt, disappointment, overwhelming, annoyance, and on and on it goes. All of these things contribute to the decline of your happiness and health in a big way.