Tracking Positive and Negative Positions

Researcher for decades have been try to establish the causes and consequences of emotions during laboratory sessions but to avail. The development of a Smartphone application has proved essential in tracking a person’s different emotions for a set period of time and that monitors the real-time emotions. Tracking of positive and negative emotions in a person during the tracking period is very essential as this promotes optimal brain functioning. Research and experimental evidence has proved that although both negative and positive emotions are incompatible, both of them are very essential for optimal brain functioning. Negative emotions are very essential in a person since they play a major role as the positive emotions do. Positive emotions and experiences in most cases are used use to overshadow the negative emotions and hence creating a balance in the life of a human being ( Bowers, 2013).   

Data acquired by the Smartphone applications has showed that the people participating in the tracking period have experienced at least one emotion 90% of the time. Participants experience mostly the emotion of joy, followed by love and later anxiety. The research has also proved that people experience positive emotions 2.5 times more often as compared to the negative emotions. By using the tracking application, I realized that I experienced more positive emotions as compared to the negative emotions over a period of four days. However, according to the tracking application, I noted that I experienced both positive and negative emotions concurrently.

My emotions were regularly influence by the people I spent the day with. The relationship between me and the people I was around influenced my emotions and people who were close to me such as friends and family members generated positive emotions. Spending the day next to new people generated negative emotions such as anxiety and at times anger. Looking further into a person’s emotions, I realized that different emotions influenced the decision-making and the judgment during various occasions. During negative emotions like anger, I realized that I made rush decisions such as not talking to a certain person or even avoiding them and hence the negative emotions generated the strongest emotions responses.

In many situations, positive emotions balance out negative emotions and usually have powerful benefits to a human being. Positive emotions usually affect our brains in different ways as compared to the negative emotions. Positive emotions increase our awareness, attention and also the memory. Positive emotions according to research have been noted to improve the physical health in human beings as positive emotions help people to recover from issues such as stress and depressive symptoms caused by negative emotions. Psychology has proven that frequent expression and experiencing of positive emotions comes along with resilience and resourcefulness. According to positive psychology, the secret behind a good life is the ability of a person to use his/ her strengths and virtues for a purpose which is usually greater than them.

There are various strategies that can help a person in cultivating positive emotions in his or her life. One the strategies includes training your brain to be more positive. This doesn’t entails on traits such as expression of smiley face or whistling of a happy tune but actions such as expression of gratitude. Expression of gratitude helps a person in experiencing more positive emotions leading to decrease in depression and also ensures a person feels better about himself or herself. The other strategy that can help a person in cultivating positive emotions is by nurturing and enjoying your relationship. Relationships have been observed to being one of the biggest sources of happiness in our lives and hence nurturing a relationship is one of the best emotional investments a person can make.

The other strategy is living in the moment and savoring life’s pleasures. Focusing on present matters rather than past events has been found out to generate positive emotions among different people as people are likely to feel happy, centered and at peace with themselves and with the people around them. Living in the moment also helps a person in noticing the good things that happening around them rather than letting them pass by unappreciated. Through meditation a person is able to acquire the technique of living and enjoying the moment as meditation is associated with decreasing the negative thoughts in a person such as depression.

Reference

Bowers, E. (2013).    The Everything Guide to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Learn Positive and Mindful Techniques to Change Negative Behaviors . Cincinnati: F+W Media.