Teenagers who embrace positive emotions have lesser risk of depression, stress and suicide, better coping skills and better heart health even in adulthood, writes Dr Anuradha HS

Positivity means focusing on the good things in life and having a positive approach to life’s challenges.

A study published by the International Journal of Research Studies in Psychology in 2012 assessed 467 adolescents and found that the three main sources of a teenager’s happiness were…

1. Relations with others (50.1%) events concerning their families and friends
2. Self-fulfillment (32.67%) consists of events related to achievement, the use of leisure time, and money
3. Relation to God (9.63%) consists of spiritual events that involve the relations between teenagers and God.

This study provides the insight that family bond remains an important factor.

Happiness is one of the most powerful positive emotions that can give meaning to a teen’s life. Nobody can go through life without experiencing positive as well as negative emotions. Unfortunately, very often teens experience negative emotions much more than positive and this imbalance leads to depression and anxiety.

How do positive emotions help a teen?

Positive emotions have powerful benefits. While negative emotions narrow down our focus and prevent objective thinking, positive emotions increase our attention, boost our memory and capacity to learn new things. Positive thinking is closely linked to optimism, which is the key to physical and psychological health.

Teens who embrace positive emotions have lesser risk of depression, stress and suicide, better coping skills and better cardiovascular health even in adulthood. They are also less likely to engage in harmful behaviour like substance use, violence and high-risk sexual activity. Research shows that teens do their best when the positive emotions they feel are three times more than the negative ones.

So how does one teach a teen to develop positive emotions?

1. Choosing your mood: The first step is to identify the mood or feeling and put a name to it like “I am feeling sad” or “I am feeling lonely”. Next comes accepting the way you feel. Then try to change it to the way you would actually like to feel, depending on the situation. For eg, if you are feeling too bored and angry to get down to studying, you can try to change this to being interested, alert and confident, which will be more helpful in achieving this goal.
2. How to work towards resetting your mood? According to the Nemours Foundation for kids and teen health, one should think ‘P’ for positivity and focus on the following six things:

   P-Purpose: Which is the task I want to accomplish?

   P-Place: What kind of environment will help me reset my mood?

   P-Playlist: What music playlists can I create for different moods? Music has a profound effect on changing the mood.

   P-Posture and physical activity: Certain yoga postures and exercise can have a tremendous calming effect and help to change your mood especially when you are preparing for exams.

3. If you are unable to focus, reboot your mood by doing something different like a puzzle or
4. Worksheet to increase positive emotions: Pick two positive emotions for every week and practice. Notice and give a name to your emotions. Think of an activity or event that made you experience those emotions and write it down next to it.
5. Self-affirmations: These are helpful in situations when you feel down and need to boost your self- confidence.

Positivity treasure chest

Sometimes negative emotions are so overwhelming that we may forget our way to positivity. A treasure chest is a collection of things or a folder, which reminds us of our positive experiences. This brings back good memories that we associate with that event and helps us rediscover this path. Some examples of this collection include:

• Gifts, notes and greetings from special people
• Trophies and medals of accomplishment
• Artwork
• Childhood mementos
• Photos of people who inspire you
• Place all these in a case and look into it when you have difficult times

Teens should be encouraged to actively work towards inculcating positive emotions in their daily life and this will set them on the road to emotional well-being.