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How to use positive emotions

By Marc van der Linden - Last updated: Sunday, October 30, 2011 - Save & Share - 16 Comments

What you focus on the most, increases. This is certainly true for all your negative emotions. If you focus on negative emotions, you will start dwelling on them and they will increase. When you are afraid of your financial situation and you ignore the message it gives you, you will become even more afraid of it. When you are angry because somebody is disrespectful to you and you don’t listen to the message it tells you, this person will become even more disrespectful to you. If you feel uncomfortable with your life and you don’t listen to this signal, you will gradually feel more and more unfomfortable.

 

You don’t need to live like that. It is possible to use your emotions as a kind of a life guide. If you start listening to your emotions, learn from them and use them as a guide of your life, you can start mastering your life.

 

The first step is to learn to how to deal with negative emotions, which I discussed in my previous blog post.

 

If you start mastering  your negative emotions, you can also start focusing on very powerful positive emotions. In the same way we can dwell on negative emotions, we can dwell on positive emotions. If you feel good and you focus on that feeling, you will start feeling even better.  If you feel passionate about something and you focus on your passion, you will feel even more passionate. If you feel joyful, and you focus on that, you will feel even more joyful. Every emotion is very personal and helps you to understand better what you truly value in life. Keep asking yourself questions about the messages your emotions provide you whole day long.

 

Here are my top 5 positive emotions:

 

1. Love

 

Love is the balance between support and challenge of your own values. If you love somebody for what they truly are, they will love you back for who you are and you will feel loved. The more you feel loved, the more love you can give.

 

My advise is to love as much as possible, dwell on loving and feel loved. If you carefully listen to the messages of love, you will learn about your own values.

 

Power Question to increase love in your life:

 

2. Gratitude

 

Cultivating the attitude of gratitude gives your powerful messages about what you already have in your life. The more grateful you are for what you already have, the more present you will feel and the less you can worry. When I was doing the 8 gratitude question challenge, I experienced this time after time. It amazed me that the more I dwelled in the feeling of gratitude, the more other positive experiences I got such as fearlessness, clarity of mind, feeling of being balanced, the warm glowing of just being, …

 

My advice is to cultivate the attitude of gratitude on a daily basis. When you dwell in gratitude and listen carefully to the messages of gratitude, you will learn about what you truly have in your life.

 

Power questions to increase gratitude in your life:

 

3. Curiosity

 

The quality of the questions you ask yourself will determine the quality of your life. With great questions you can create opportunities in life and solve problems in your life. Great questions lead to great answers. Einstein asked himself the inspiring question ‘How can I travel on a light beam?’, Anthony Robbins asked himself ‘How can I change the life of people?’. Dr John Demartini asked himself the question ‘How can I be an genius, apply my wisdom and get handsomely paid for that?’.

 

My advice is to be curious about yourself and the world and learn about that on a daily basis. When you dwell on curiosity and become more curious about life, you will notice what you want to learn in your life.

 

Power Questions to increase your curiosity

 

 

 

4. Vitality

 

This is so important and so often forgotten. Your physical body helps you in your life 24 hours a day / 7 days a week. Your body can help you to achieve many great things, attract people in your life by your energy and beauty and just feel good.  Can you breath well? How much energy do you have to do things you love to do? Do you sleep well and get up in the morning refreshed or are you grumpy every morning?  These are all messages of your body telling you about your vitality.

 

My advice is to respect your body and have healthy habits and feel your vitality increase.  If you carefully listen to the messages of your body, you will learn about what your body and mind really needs.

 

Power questions to increase your vitality:

 

 

5. Passion and determination

 

Everyone has dreams about their life. What is your dream? What are you passionate about? We live in a unique period in history that living the life of dreams is easier than ever before. I would even put it stronger: most of us ARE actually living our own dream. We are just not conscious about it. When I started investigating my dreams some years ago, I was shocked to find out that at that moment I was actually doing the job I was dreaming about when I was 15 years old, see my blog post ‘How to use your dreams as an inspiration‘. I was just not aware of that fact until it hit me in the face.

 

From then on I decided to become more conscious about my dreams and my passions. The result is, that I manifest more and more what I really desire in life. I discovered that there is actually a price to pay to make dreams come true.

 

My dreams in life reflect also my greatest challenges in life  and that’s why I thought that I will never be able to live the life of my dreams. I learnt, that I had to pay the price of being totally committed to manifest my dreams.  It was only when I was completely determined to solve my problems, that I could get the woman of my life, living in a dream apartment and get more energy and vitality.

 

Once you have discovered what your dreams are and which passions drive you, you too can become determined and commit yourself to do whatever it takes to make your dream come true.  When you dwell on the emotion of passion, you will learn what you love to do in your life.  The more you dwell on the emotion of determination, you will learn how important it really is for you and how much self love you have.

 

Power Questions to increase your passion and determination:

These are my most important positive emotions I give attention to. Which positive emotions are important to you? How do they help to make your life better?  What do you do to assure yourself they stay and grow in your life?

 

Photo by kongsky

 

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16 Responses to “How to use positive emotions”

Comment from Jimmy
Time October 31, 2011 at 3:44 am

Hi Marc,

Another great article. I like the last two articles you did on emotions. They are really well connected to give us readers a sense of what go through in our daily lives. Many of the comments and suggestions from you were valuable tools for us to use too.

From today’s post, my greatest takeaway are all the empowering questions you asked. These are really powerful for us to switch focus.

I am still trying to compile a list of empowering questions for me to carry around wherever I go. Instant usage.
Jimmy recently posted..How to Find the Purpose and Meaning of Life? – Method 7My Profile

Comment from Marc van der Linden
Time October 31, 2011 at 10:57 am

Hi Jimmy,

Thanks for your great appreciation. It seems that you are already very good in the attitude of gratitude :-)

The ability to ask empowering questions to yourself is very powerful way to change your focus to what is really important in life. I think it is great idea to have a compiled list of questions. I’m very curious for your experiences you will have with that initiative.

Thanks for sharing!

Comment from farouk
Time October 31, 2011 at 11:12 am

this advice can provide us with a good dose of positivity, thank you Marc :)

Comment from Chris Richards – Mindnod.com
Time October 31, 2011 at 1:25 pm

Excellent post Marc.

Curiosity is one of the things that keep me going. I think if it wasn’t for that, I would find life very dull.
I have always been grateful. Although I’m not superstitious or religious – I have an almost fatalistic outlook on life and tend to look back and think ‘if that hadn’t happened to me then I wouldn’t be doing what I am now’. And if I’m in a bad place at the moment then I tend to believe that the experience will take me to a better juncture in my life.
Chris Richards – Mindnod.com recently posted..Using stuttering techniques to help you beat procrastinationMy Profile

Comment from Pj Zafra
Time October 31, 2011 at 2:20 pm

Hello Marc,

What a great post you’ve made here. Such a strong message. We need to focus and use our positive emotions as they are the ones that produce effective results. What we think usually happens. That is the Law Of Attraction working there. So it’s very important we harbor the right thoughts.

I also loved the questions you’ve asked. It puts all us in a position where we can realize things and make them happen.

Thanks for sharing this post! Keep it up! :)
Pj Zafra recently posted..Sean’s Thoughts For The Week Ahead – 9My Profile

Comment from Wendy Irene
Time October 31, 2011 at 7:16 pm

This was such a wonderful post to read! I know I will carry it through my day. Thank you :) “What you focus on the most, increases.” This is something I try to live my life by. I hope you have a wonderful day! Thank you for your nice comments, Marc!

Comment from Marc van der Linden
Time October 31, 2011 at 8:18 pm

Thanks for your positivity and passing by, Farouk!

Comment from Marc van der Linden
Time October 31, 2011 at 8:29 pm

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the compliment!

I agree completely. Without curiosity, life would be very dull for me too. There are so many things to explore and to be curious about.

And about gratefulness I agree completely as well. For me gratefulness is not connected to religiosity or superstition. It is a very useful part of every day life.

Thanks for sharing!

Comment from Marc van der Linden
Time October 31, 2011 at 8:34 pm

Hi Pj,

Thanks for your compliment! It is a strong message which we often forget, me included. Focus on positive emotions will bring positive and effective results and depends on the quality of the questions we use to get there.

Thanks for your comment!

Comment from Marc van der Linden
Time October 31, 2011 at 8:39 pm

Hi Wendy,

Today was an wonderful day and it is great to see you here.

Thanks for your focus on this post :-)

Comment from David Stevens
Time November 1, 2011 at 12:15 am

Thank you Marc,
Negative emotions can become all consuming. One can then live only as a “victim” of these emotions. Walk into the light and seek out the positive ones, like the ones you have listed here. Great job.
be good to yourself
David
David Stevens recently posted..The Imagination series (episode 6)My Profile

Comment from Marc van der Linden
Time November 1, 2011 at 6:51 am

Hi David,

It is indeed very simple to become to dwell on negative emotions and feel and act as victim, We can choose for better, positive ones.

I like your expression: ‘walk into the light’.

Thanks for commenting!

Comment from Gabriella
Time November 1, 2011 at 10:23 am

Hi Marc – great post! I do find that focusing on a negative emotion can really effect one and the way their mindset ends up. Also, focusing on the bad will keep you from progressing and experiencing the good that you should be doing!

i wish more people would focus on the positive energies around them… the world would be a lot better if we would not mope at every failure or disappointment…and some people are negative with no valid reason even.
Gabriella recently posted..Disney Signs Streaming Deals With Amazon And NetflixMy Profile

Comment from Marc van der Linden
Time November 1, 2011 at 4:31 pm

Hi Gabriella,

Yes! I would be very happy if more people would focus on the positive energies around them too. It would not only better for themselves, but also for the world around them and the whole world we are living in.

Thanks for sharing!

Comment from Evelyn Lim
Time November 2, 2011 at 4:26 am

Hi Marc,

I love this article. I enjoy how you have broken down the various positive emotions and offer some useful questions to increase our attention on these. I especially like the part about using dreams for inspiration. Thanks so much for sharing!

With love,
Evelyn
Evelyn Lim recently posted..10 Inspiring Facebook Banner QuotesMy Profile

Comment from Marc van der Linden
Time November 2, 2011 at 6:56 am

Hi Evelyn,

It’s great you love it! Using dreams for inspiration is also one of my favorites – we can do it all in a very natural way.

Thanks for sharing your comment!

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