You’re given a choice: Would you rather spend your day feeling happy, versus happy interspersed with some moments of sadness, frustration, and anxiety? Most of us would choose the first option in a heartbeat. Psychologists, too, long championed the importance of cultivating positive emotions as one path toward optimizing well-being, resilience to stressors, and salutary physical health outcomes. Not surprisingly, when people are asked what emotions they want to feel, they place a heavy emphasis on primarily positive emotions.
However, research suggests the choice may no longer be a straightforward one. Recent work by psychologists reveals the once-hidden benefits of experiencing a diversity of emotions, both positive and negative. Just as physical environments flourish through a biodiversity of flora and fauna, this new work on “emodiversity” likens the human mind to an abstract and internal psychological ecosystem that may also benefit from experiencing a wide diversity of emotions.
Although still a new idea, the yield of emodiversity is apparent: Adults who report experiencing a greater diversity of both positive and negative emotions report fewer symptoms of depression and fewer days spent in a hospital. This is consistent with what we have long known about emotions: namely, that emotions serve as a guidepost on the map of human experience, drawing our attention to the important markers in our environments—the warning signs, or things that need to be noticed, changed, processed, and understood.
[For more on this story by JUNE GRUBER, JESSICA BORELLI, go to https://greatergood.berkeley.e...e_all_their_feelings]
Photo credit: www.iroccam.com
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