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Positivity: Groundbreaking Research Reveals How To Embrace The Hidden Strength Of Positive Emotions, Overcome Negativity, And Thrive (2009)

by Barbara L. Fredrickson(Favorite Author)

3.83 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0307393739 (ISBN13: 9780307393739)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Crown

review 1: Admittedly, I was not in the correct mindset for this book: having read it at the behest of my employer and not seeking it out to enhance my life. However, I remain open to Fredrickson's approach and find merit in her central idea that that positivity is a state of mind that can be encouraged and expanded by mindful meditation and monitoring of responses to our daily environment/interactions. Negativity is not something to be avoided (as that is a fool's errand), but mitigated in seemingly small, yet overall monumental ways. Using her "Positivity Self Test" (which can be taken online at positivityratio.com) or by merely reflecting upon your day, note the situations/people that elicited overall negative emotions. Do this for an extended period of time to see what occurs fre... morequently (depends on how constant your life is) and brainstorm small changes you can make to these continual events/interactions that would improve them, even marginally so. On the flip side, recognize what frequently inspires moments of positivity and actively work towards increasing those while being aware of additional opportunities to genuinely enjoy small segments of your day. Engaging in this self reflection, followed by enacting minor improvements will eventually lead to an upward spiral in which your mindset will be largely positive. Negative events/interactions will still occur, but you will be able to absorb/move past them with increased ease (obviously with a limit). Sure, this method makes sense to me - the mind is powerful and attitude really does have a significant impact on overall outlook. But jesus, this would have been an excellent and compelling essay (if written by someone else, but based on her and others' research), but this book is just bad. Well, that's not fair, the point was evident. *read for Doc*
review 2: Barbara Frederickson is a solid researcher. One interesting finding that resonates with my experience is that insincere positivity (a faked smile) is just as bad for the heart as anger. So the focus is on increasing genuine positive feelings, including humor, awe, gratitude, hope, etc. At the end of the book there are a bunch of great practice recommendations for building your positivity tools. less

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