You Don’t Need Positive Emotions to Be Happy.
The secret to happiness, according to a new study, is not constantly stuffing your head with rainbows and unicorns. It is a tendency towards emotions – even so-called negative ones – that are in line with your values. If you can figure out what you most want to feel and revel in those feelings when they arise, you will be better off.
The study was published last month in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General . As the authors write, traditional research into well-being suggests that the more pleasant emotions we experience, the happier we will be. But Aristotle said that the more emotions we want to experience, the happier we will be.
The authors decided to test the old Aristotle and recruited 2,324 participants from eight countries: the United States, Brazil, China, Germany, Ghana, Israel, Poland, and Singapore. Countries represent a wide range of cultural regions of the world.
“Wanting to be happy or joyful all the time is not very realistic,” lead study author Maya Tamir , director of the Emotion and Self-Regulation Lab at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, wrote in an email interview. “Never wanting to feel sad, angry, or fearful is unrealistic. If we can accept and even welcome the emotions we have, whether they are pleasant or unpleasant, we are likely to be happier and more satisfied. “
Participants filled out questionnaires on paper or on the Internet. First, they rated the desired emotions and indicated how often they want to experience them. They then spent five minutes playing emotionally neutral word games to clear their minds. Finally, they reported how often they experienced the same emotions in their daily lives on a scale of 1 to 5.
Some people value pleasant states of high arousal, such as arousal, while others prefer pleasant, low-arousal emotions such as calmness. For them, happiness is the difference between passion and satisfaction.
Some people, however, value cultivation feelings such as power and achievement. They harbor pride, but also anger, hatred and contempt. For those people, the good style of Emperor Palpatine is, “Let the hate flow through you!” really makes them happier.
“It would be good to aim for emotions that we find valuable and meaningful, even if they are unpleasant,” says Tamir. Food for thought the next time traffic jams make you see red – perhaps part of your plan – to be your best and craziest.