What positive emotions are for

Broaden and build

Her theory, known as “broaden and build”, says that positive emotions widen our outlook: when we feel good, we see more options, we are more creative and we open up more to others. And over time, those moments build lasting resources, such as friendships, skills or confidence, that hold us up when difficult days come.

Fredrickson set it out in 2001 in a paper in the journal American Psychologist. She speaks of four kinds of resources: physical, intellectual, social and psychological, which remain as a reserve for later. She herself warned that the evidence was still preliminary and that many questions remained to be answered.

Each emotion opens up something different

In that paper, Fredrickson describes what each positive emotion urges us to do:

• Joy, to play, to try things and to be creative.
• Interest, to explore and learn something new.
• Contentment, to savour what we are living.
• Pride in something well done, to share it and imagine greater achievements.
• Love, to do all of that with the people we care about.

She gives the example of play: while playing we enjoy ourselves, and along the way we gain strength, friends and creativity that are still there when the game is over. She also mentions gratitude among the pleasant emotions whose benefits last beyond the moment, and several articles on this blog are devoted to it.

Breathing space after a hard moment

Fredrickson also proposed that positive emotions help undo the traces left by negative ones. In one of the experiments she cites, a group of people were asked to prepare a speech, a task designed to cause anxiety. Those who then watched a film that brought on joy or contentment got their heart rate back to normal sooner than those who watched a neutral or a sad one.

Years later, Ong and his team followed adults day by day, among them recently widowed women. In their 2006 study they found that the day’s positive emotions softened people’s reaction to stress and helped them recover from it, especially in those better able to adapt.

What does not hold up: the magic ratio

You may have read that it takes three positive emotions for every negative one for a person to flourish. That figure, about 2.9 to 1, came from a 2005 paper that applied equations from fluid dynamics to emotions.

In 2013, the researchers Brown, Sokal and Friedman re-examined that calculation in the same journal and concluded that it had no basis: the equations were not justified and contained errors. The idea that positive emotions help still stands; the exact figure does not.

It is not about always feeling good

Difficult emotions have their place too, and hiding them is not the answer. The idea is not to force joy, but to make room for good moments when they come, instead of passing them by.

There is no need to force yourself to smile when you are sad. It is enough not to close the door on whatever good turns up, even if it is small and sits alongside the sorrow.

Small things that help

• Getting out into nature or looking at the sky for a while. There is more on this in awe.
• Spending time with people who are good for you.
• Learning something that interests you.
• Laughing, even at something small.
• Helping someone. Why it feels good is explained in acts of kindness.

A universe to share them in

Looking at the stars in A shared universe and seeing what other people are grateful for or hope for can also stir some of these emotions. And if you have something good today, you can light your own star.

You can also tap “Keep someone company” and leave a few words of joy or hope for someone who has lit theirs.