What’s good?
It’s such a simple question: What’s good?
Don’t be fooled by its simplicity.
This question is a really powerful tool.
In this week’s episode of UNLEASHED (at work & home), Becca Keiser of Blue Heron Consulting and I talk about rewiring your brain to notice and appreciate the good.
A surprising number of people don’t actually know what they’re thinking and feeling in any given moment. They get caught up in the situation and respond reflexively.
Taking time to stop and mentally check in with how you are feeling right now is a great way to develop self-awareness. Ideally you should do it multiple times of day.
But what if every time you check in, you discover you are cranky? Or discouraged? Or sad?
What do you do then?
Who wants to develop greater awareness of uncomfortable emotions?
Well, you do. Trust me on this.
Honoring your emotions—the full gamut of them—helps you navigate the world more effectively.
Positive emotions broaden your perspective and build connections between you and others.
Negative emotions narrow and focus your attention. They help you identify problems and inspire you to take action.
All emotions serve a purpose. All emotions have value. It’s good to feel them, understand them, and appreciate them.
HOWEVER … there’s a catch.
Your brain has a negativity bias. It’s constantly on the lookout for danger and threats.
Evolutionarily speaking, this is awesome. It keeps you alive.
Those people who didn’t wonder about what went bump in the night? They didn’t survive to become your ancestors.
You come from a long line of worriers who were great at spotting potential problems before they became life-threatening.
Most of the issues they worried about weren’t life threatening. They were just ordinary situations that didn’t require any special attention.
But their brains, and now yours, believe it’s worth sending 999 false alarms rather than miss one serious threat.
Again, from an evolutionary standpoint, this is awesome.
But the problem is it creates a lot of unhappiness and stress.
Your internal wiring is designed for survival, not thriving.
To move yourself north of neutral, to fully experience joy on a regular basis, requires some deliberate action.
And that starts with actively seeking the good.
There’s always something good in every situation. It might be something small. Microscopic even. But if you look for it, you’ll always find something good.
Being able to induce positive emotions when you want them gives you a secret superpower. Positive emotions help you generate more creative ideas and inspire better communication and collaboration.
Listen in to learn a variety of simple strategies you can use to not only notice what’s good, but also to spread positive emotions in your encounters with colleagues and clients.
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