Top 10 Positive Emotions & How To Build Them

It’s important that we celebrate our best! For those of you that have followed my account, you know about negativity bias, or the concept that negative events have a more significant impact on our lives than positive events. In fact, data shows 80% of people are below optimal ratio of positive to negative emotion, which could be contributing to the current epidemic of unhealthy lifestyle behaviors.

Positive Psychology focuses on successful live change by building up our top ten positive emotions. In order to build these emotions, there are questions to reflect on.

When building up your positive framework, it’s important to recognize the emotion you’re building as well as ask yourself the important questions to fundamentally understand what matters to you. Keep in mind that every human is unique. Therefore, all answers are unique. The way you build up an emotion may vary drastically from the way another does. The principal of building positive emotions first requires self-exploration. Asking yourself the questions below aid in developing that sense of self.

So, without further ado, what are the top 10 positive emotions and what should we be reflecting on to build them up?

1. Inspiration

   • How can we connect our health and well-being to a higher purpose and to our overall life meaning?

2. Hope

   • What are our visions of the future?

3. Pride

   • How can we uncover our strengths and talents? And celebrate them?

4. Interest

   • What goals will truly engage and inspire us?

5. Love

   • How can we foster trust and rapport?

6. Awe

   • Who are inspiring role models we can identify?

7. Amusement

   • How can we laugh at ourselves and some situations?

8. Joy

   • In what ways can we develop an awareness of when we thrive? In what ways can we celebrate our thriving?

9. Gratitude

   • What can we appreciate and give thanks for?

10. Serenity

    • How can we savor moments of content?

If you’re interested in developing these emotions more deeply, take some time to really think about the questions above.

*Bonus: Each questions serves as a fantastic journal prompt to those of you looking for some inspiration in the writing area :).

I’ll finish the post with two additional questions of reflection:

1) What emotions do you consider strengths of yours?

2) How can you give yourself permission to work on building the emotions that need some more attention?