Keeping A Positive Mental Attitude

Discover the relationship between a “positive mental attitude” and “positive emotions.”

Hi and welcome to this video. In this video, I’m going to talk about emotions. And it’s funny because I *love* emotions! I love emotions. And the reason I love emotions is because the more I’ve studied them, the more that I’ve worked with them, the more I’ve learnt about them. There’s just so much more richness that becomes available.

And so the reason that I’m making this video is actually in response to one of the comments posted on an earlier YouTube video. Let me show that here for you. And this video I made a few days ago which was about “positive emotions.” And in this video I talk about a variety of things including the two models of Ontological Coaching and Dr. Robert Plutchik’s “Wheel of Emotions” with 32 different emotions.

And one of the comments that I got here was from Himanshu and he just wants me to elaborate, in my own words, perceptions and experiences upon this blog post which is titled, “The Dangers of Thinking Positive.”

The Energies Of Emotions

And so this is what I want to share with you is that emotions have an energy. They have an energy to take a certain kind of action. That’s because the root of the word “emotion” comes from that French word, [“émouvoir”] which means “to put into action; to move into action.”

So emotions literally move us to take action. And in this case we’re going to take actions that are going to generate results. Now whether those results are positive, or meaningful, or have value and satisfaction in your life, is an interpretation, is an assessment that only you can make.

And this is where I want to thank you very much, Himanshu, for allowing me to share my perspective. And I also want to give you a caveat here is that this is only my perspective. Because the invitation here for you is to understand what this means specifically for you.

And so let’s go back to this blog post again. It’s talking about the dangers of thinking positive. So let’s go back and find out for yourself what does it mean to be thinking positively for yourself? Do you have an idea about it? What kind of other associated emotions do you interpret as being “positive?” Is joy a positive emotion? Is anger a positive emotion? Is happiness a positive emotion? Is curiosity a positive emotion?

The reason I mention all of these is, once again, you are the unique observer in your life. It is you who interprets every situation, every event, and every conversation that you get into in your own way. And that way is created for you by your framework of beliefs that gives life to that unique observer that you are.

Keeping A “Positive Mental Attitude”

And so in this blog post, “The Dangers of Thinking Positive.” This is what was written; and the concept of “positive thinking” came around the 1930s. And I believe this is what is stated in the Wikipedia. It’s about that- having that positive mental attitude.

So it’s not so much about having a positive mental attitude as it is about noticing what emotions you associate as being “positive” and choosing to wear those emotions on a day-to-day basis in your life.

Because what’s “positive” for you may be something else entirely for me or anybody else that you meet. Every single one of these emotions has a meaning, is interpreted differently by each of that unique observers we are in this world.

So having a “positive mental attitude” I think is fabulous. But I also invite you to consider those emotions that you choose to label as “positive.” What kind of actions do they allow for? And what kind of actions do they NOT allow for?

Now in this article, the author writes that, “Every situation demands a different kind of response isn’t it?” And “if you develop attitudes of positive thinking or whatnot, it may work well in one situation. But in another kind of situation you’re going to do a stupid thing.”

Now I’m not going to use the word “stupid” or “positive” or “negative” in that sense because the outcome is what becomes relevant in your life.

An Example Of The Variety Of Possible Actions

Let me give you an example to illustrate this. And I want you to imagine yourself just walking down the road. And all of a sudden a giant dog comes out in front of you. And there are so many emotions that are possible in this situation, in this event. Now you could be in an emotion of “trust” in which case you going to do one kind of action. Another emotion that you can wear, or that can visit you, is the emotion of “surprise” because you are walking down the road  and minding your own business and surprise! There’s a giant dog running at you!

Another one could be of “fear.” And that emotion of “fear” is going to have a totally different response than “trust” or “surprise” or possibly even “anger.” Because if, let’s say, you are already in an emotion of “anger” and this dog jumps out at you, you may just growl right back!

Now in all of these situations, I described four different kinds of emotions that are possible. For every single one of these emotions that visit you, you may or may not assess them to be positive. Now those emotions that you might typically consider as being “positive” em- emotions such as “joy” or “trust” or “surprise” even, those emotions and that the range of possibilities of actions may not give you that the desired outcome in the situation of this dog jumping out at you. Because, for example, perhaps you don’t know it but this dog escaped from the pound, it’s a rabid dog, and if it does bite you, you know you’re going to have to be treated for rabies, you’re going to have to be taken to the hospital and so on so forth.

Now if your intention was to put yourself in harms way, then in fact this outcome might be a desirable outcome. It might be- It might actually have meaning and value for you. But if you’re just walking down the road and you’re going to—you know?—go to lunch or something with your friends and this dog jumps out at you and bites you, those emotions that you consider to be positive may not have served you at all. In fact a better outcome would have been possible if you had used the actions possible within that emotion of “surprise.” And that emotion of surprise would have caused you to jump out of the way perhaps. Or even a run to the other side of the road! And of course there, we get a little bit of “fear” as well.

So once again the invitation is to ask you:What does it mean to you to have a positive emotion? What does it mean to have a positive mental attitude?

And it’s all well and good what kind of emotions that you want to clump together as being “positive” or “negative.” Then I invite you to notice yourself further and ask yourself: How have these emotions, these positive emotions, how have these emotions helped you at school perhaps? Or with your friends? Or with your family? How has being “positive” helped you in the last 24 hours?

And of course, in the last 24 hours, how have these positive emotions NOT helped you? That is to say: What did you miss? What kinds of actions were NOT possible because of you having this positive attitude, this positive mental attitude and these positive emotions?

And I really want to emphasize that an emotion is not right, is not wrong; there’s no judgement on that except for the assessment, except for the judgement, that you as a unique observer can make upon the results based on the possibilities of action within that emotion.

Does that make sense for you? Does that clear up a little bit more about what it means to have a “positive” emotion say or a “positive mental attitude?”

Quick Recap Of Learning

So just to quickly recap: all emotions have a certain energy. And that energy gives way to a range of possible actions. Now you and I, based upon those range of actions, we’re going to do something. And that “doing something” is going to lead to a result, is going to lead to an outcome. And that outcome may or may not be desirable to us, may or may not have meaning value or satisfaction to us, depending on what it is that we want in our life.

So emotions are neither good nor bad, they just create some sort of result. And those results are what I invite you to take a look at. How have positive emotions in your life—or at least what you assess to be “positive” emotions in your life—how have those created those desirable outcomes in your life? How have negative emotions created desirable outcomes in your life? And how have these positive or negative emotions created outcomes in your life that you actually did not want?

And so once again I’m going to throw this back to you, this invitation back to you, and ask you not so much about what emotions you consider positive or negative but, more to the point, what kind of life do you want to create for yourself?

And this life that you want for yourself, these outcomes that you want in your life, those outcomes are the result of actions you take. So what actions do you want to make possible in your life? And then going one level deeper: What emotions are necessary for you to create those possibilities of action that will give you the results that you can interpret, that you can declare “satisfaction” that you can declare “value,” that you can declare “meaning” out of.

So I hope this has been helpful to you and has cleared up a few points for you about “positive emotions” or having a “positive mental attitude.”

An Invitation To Take My Udemy Courses

Now I realize that there is quite a bit of information here and that’s why I want to invite you to take a look at a couple of my courses. And you can find a link to these courses in the description box below at a very special price. Just $19!

Now this one is my most recent course, “How To Intelligently Manage Anger And Take Control.” This is 2.5 hours of lecture material with 41 lectures. There are a whole bunch of PDFs that you can use that will ask you to explore anger through the emotion of anger, its opposites, and also any related emotions that are present.

Now anger for me is a tremendously powerful emotion because it has a wide range of uses. It is an energy that you can harness, it has a range of possibilities that you can harness, to create those outcomes that have meaning value and satisfaction for you.

And going on with the theme of emotions, I also want to introduce you to my other course, “Master Emotions - Declare Happiness And Satisfaction In Life.” Once again you can find the direct link to get this course at a very discounted price of $19.

This course is 4.5 hours long, has 64 lectures and is very, very comprehensive in the way to take a look at how emotions show up in your life to create that range of possible actions that you can take that will eventually lead to outcomes that you determine to be satisfactory, that you determine to have meaning and value in your life.

So once again I hope this is been helpful. And you can always find the links to these courses, “Master Emotions - Declare Happiness And Satisfaction In Life” as well as “How To Intelligently Manage Anger And Take Control” in the description box below.

So take care of yourself, have a beautiful day and I’ll see you in the next video.

Bye-bye for now!

Click to watch on YouTube: Keeping A Positive Mental Attitude And A Few Thoughts On “Positive Emotions”