24 Oct No one’s happy all the time, but we can become happier
In some ways, it’s an obvious truth.
Yet it still needs to be said and we still need to be reminded.
No one is, or should expect to be happy ALL the time.
If you think about this another way, would you really want to NEVER FEEL anxiety or sadness, grief or anger (with the world’s injustices)?
The so-called “negative emotions” are normal and at times, appropriate. It is, as the saying goes, OK not to feel OK all the time.
But none of that means we can’t work towards becoming happier, more often. We can, to borrow and repurpose a phrase, up our POSITIVITY RATIO!
The positivity ratio refers to the balance of positive to negative emotions, or positive to negative experiences. It assumes we will have both, but that having MORE of the positive, at least 3, 4 or 5 times more positive, will contribute to real and meaningful happiness, or to thriving and flourishing.
Which brings me to the point of this post; maybe we don’t need to eliminate or even reduce the negative in our lives, maybe we can just work on increasing the positive!
Boosting our positivity ratio could bring about more motivation and inspiration, which could lead to more positive action and thus, doing more good and living a better life.
All of that is likely to mean … more happiness. Or at the very least, a life that’s happier.
What, then, could you do?
Plan and schedule positive events every day, week and month.
Savour and appreciate positive events, as and when they happen.
Reflect back on all the good that’s happened in your life, in an act we psychologists call “positive reminiscing”.
And in doing all that, in upping our positivity ratio, we can live a happier life with more positive emotions, including but not limited to happiness, which we all know also brings many additional and valuable benefits.