“I think, actually, that when people learn about the science of positive emotions or the positivity ratio, there’s a temptation to make your motto, “I’m going to be positive.” People think it will be easy. But think that strategy backfires because there is a huge difference between genuine positive emotions and insincere positive emotions. Insincere positive emotions or even wishful-thinking…sometimes we have insincere positive emotions because we want to make someone else think we’re happy even though we really don’t care: maybe it’s the flight attendant saying goodbye to three hundred people leaving the plane, as part of a role. Other times, people learn about it and they so earnestly want to feel better that they strong-arm themselves into positive emotions rather than changing their thinking or their behavior first. So, I think that a much better motto than “be positive” is “be open,” or be appreciative and kind.
“Be open” does wonders because, especially in our contemporary culture, we are so caught up in mental time travel ruminating about the past, or your mind telling you to think about this next thing that’s coming in the future. We are constantly outside of the now. This is a great thing that humans can do, that other animals aren’t able to – that mental time travel. It’s a great human achievement, but it also robs us of the subtle experiences of goodness around us. I think that a really important strategy for being open is to just tune into all of your senses: look at the trees, feel the breeze on your skin when you’re on the motorcycle, just listening and really tuning into what your senses are telling you. That our quickest pathway into the present moment.”
Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, quoted in “Ride of Your Life: A Coast-to-Coast Guide to Finding Inner Peace” by Ran Zilca
Compiler’s Note: As a person who has owned and ridden a motorcycle for 30 years I really enjoyed this book. There are some wonderful insights shared in it, such as the one above.
For more information about this book visit Amazon.
Jeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.
