How to Restart Your Positive Emotions

Taking charge of your emotions is easier said than done. When things are going well, it’s easy to have a surge of positive emotions that make you feel happy, confident, and successful. But, going through a stressful patch in life or at work can change perspectives. You may think that you’re up against a brick wall. And it can feel like you are struggling for success.

Most people go through varying emotions, depending on their current experiences. Of course, things that happened in the past can affect your perspective of what is happening now. So, how can you develop a mindset to help you succeed in what you’re doing, despite your situation?

This article looks at four ways to help restart your positive emotions to help get a fresh perspective on your current situation.

Restarting Positive Emotions

In life’s ups and downs, wouldn’t it be great if you could press the restart button to reset your emotions? After all, that advice seems to work fine with computers. If your computer is playing up, the first piece of advice the folks in IT give is to “switch it off and switch it on again”. Seemingly by magic, the computer’s glitches have disappeared, and things are working normally again.

Some researchers suggest that there are ways to reset emotions by developing a new perspective on things.

One study on depression found that most people with depression have the potential for positive emotions. However, they show a habit of suppressing positive emotions. People in the study tended to talk themselves out of being happy, and they are left with negative emotions. The researchers concluded that “positivity suppression” can play a role in feelings of depression.

How to Reset Positive Emotions

What can you do to avoid the tendency to dwell on negative feelings? How can you use your emotional resources to reset emotions to start focusing on the positives? Here are four ways to do this.

1. Develop a growth mindset

Developing a growth mindset can help you see your potential despite setbacks. Having a growth mindset can enable you to build the necessary skills to reach your goals. For example, a growth mindset helps a person to embrace challenges and persist despite setbacks. They will also learn from criticism and use that to improve their potential.

The journal Nature reported that someone with a fixed mindset usually ends up achieving less in life. They view failure as proof of low ability and are less likely to push on despite difficulties.

2. Change your inputs to change your perspective

A crucial step to restarting positive emotions is to try and change negative self-talk. Let’s face it, there are few—if any—people in the world who don’t face setbacks. But many of the most successful people were able to change their mental or emotional inputs. This could involve dealing with criticism better, identifying and changing negative thoughts, and focusing on what they can control.

Interestingly, two different people can interpret the same event in different ways. Persons with a positive perspective tend to be the ones who are successful.

3. Focus on what is important in life

Usually, the things that take up most of your thinking is what your mind focuses on. According to a Harvard Business Review report, your mind can only focus on so many things at once. Because of this, it filters out information that it thinks is unimportant.

The way to restart your positive emotions is to try and focus on positive events or things you are grateful for.

Here is some anecdotal evidence that shows your mental focus affects what the brain picks up. Usually, after buying a new car, you start noticing the car everywhere. What has happened is that your mind has subconsciously shifted its focus. It is now registering information that you now view as important—in this case, your new car.

4. Replace negativity with positivity

It is crucial to replace negative thoughts with positive ones. In other words, change your perspective. Very often, keeping a negative outlook on things causes more negativity. This is because your default position is one that believes you are receiving criticism or someone is being picky.

For example, say you have a negative opinion of your boss. You think they are out to get you, always complaining or being critical. If your boss tries to give you constructive criticism, you will probably view it negatively. Your initial reaction would be to defend yourself. You may start thinking negatively of yourself, and the result is that the situation won’t improve.

However, what if you believed that your boss always wants the best for you? Now, constructive criticism seems like helpful advice. So, by changing your perspective, the same event could help further your success.

Restarting Negative Emotions — In Conclusion

Changing your perspective isn’t about fooling yourself that adverse events don’t occur—they do. But trying to see things from a different perspective helps you learn from situations. You can develop a growth mindset, find the positive in any situation, and resolve to use any event to build your success.