Positive emotions in times of crisis

How can you possibly have positive emotions when you have just lost your job? Does it do any good to have positive emotions under these sorts of difficult circumstances? Yes, is the answer. Interesting research by Tugade and Fredrickson shows that positive emotions in times of crisis have a profound impact on well being and achieving your goals. Barbara Fredrickson has written the book Positivity, in which she explains research results of many years of dedicated research. Tugade and Fredrickson looked for example into the effect of positive emotions on survivors of the 9/11 bombings.

They found that survivors who reported feelings of gratefulness and joy to have survived, were much better off in the long run. It turns out that when people give positive meaning to negative events beyond their control, this has a very strong positive effect on how they cope. It leads to a healthier body and a healthier mind. People who stayed focused on positive and realistic goals, turned out to cope much better with the 9/11 disaster than people who felt to be a victim of the bombings.

Positive emotions in times of crisis help to keep a broader perspective on your situation, to look beyond the direct negative stressors and to take a more varied array of actions to achieve positive goals. Positive emotions, therefore, do more than just making you feel better in the moment. They have a long term effect.

In the current times of economic downturn, it is useful to be aware of the positive effect of positive emotions. But how do you do that? Surely it is not easy to feel anything positive after you have lost something valuable or someone special? Solution focused counseling is one of the ways in which people can find positive meaning and become more optimistic. The solution focused counselor helps clients to keep their positive, realistic goals in mind and to develop effective coping strategies when things are hard. Solution focused counselors subtly help clients to give positive meaning to their current situation and to focus on what works for them to achieve their desired future step by step.

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