Exposition
Elizabeth, a 4-year-old girl, refused to eat and play with friends during lunch time in school because her favourite pencil was broken. Her elder brother, who was happy to see her during lunchtime, asked her why she had put on such a sad face and she narrated how it happened. The brother smiled, gave her a hug, and took the pencil from her. He sharpened and dressed the broken pencils and gave them back to her. Elizabeth suddenly became happy because she now had 2 pencils and left to eat and play with friends.
We might use the word “negative” to describe more difficult emotions, but it does not mean those emotions are bad or we should not have them. For example, Fear can alert you to possible danger and a need to protect yourself. Anger shows that something needs to change and that perhaps our well-being has been threatened. Frustration can motivate us to change something around us.
However, when negative emotions are out of balance, problems might seem too big to handle and lead to stress. Positive emotions balance out negative ones, but they have other powerful benefits, too. Instead of narrowing our focus as negative emotions do, positive emotions affect our brains in ways that increase our awareness, attention, and memory. They help us take in more information, hold several ideas in mind at once, and understand how different ideas relate to each other leading to better results on tests or tasks.
People who have plenty of positive emotions in their everyday lives tend to be happier, healthier, learn better, get good results and get along well with others. Make a conscious effort to let positive emotions outnumber negative ones. Jesus has always taught us to keep rejoicing amid challenges while taking away every form of anxiety in afflictions and resort to prayer, thinking of things that are praiseworthy from our scripture reading.
Practice positivity everyday by building habits that encourage you to feel more positive emotions. Maya Angelou once said that “I have learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”