Positivity: Groundbreaking Research Reveals How to Embrace the Hidden Strength of Positive Emotions, Overcome Negativity, and Thrive
Written by Barbara L. Fredrickson, Ph.D.
Narrated by Kimberly Farr
3.5/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
World renowned researcher Dr. Barbara Fredrickson gives you the lab-tested tools necessary to create a healthier, more vibrant, and flourishing life through a process she calls “the upward spiral.”
You’ll discover:
- What positivity is, and why it needs to be heartfelt to be effective
- The ten sometimes surprising forms of positivity
- Why positivity is more important than happiness
- How positivity can enhance relationships, work, and health, and how it relieves depression, broadens minds, and builds lives
- The top-notch research that backs the 3-to-1 “positivity ratio” as a key tipping point
- That your own sources of positivity are unique and how to tap into them
- How to calculate your current positivity ratio, track it, and improve it
With Positivity, you’ll learn to see new possibilities, bounce back from setbacks, connect with others, and become the best version of yourself.
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Reviews for Positivity
31 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is an excellent book! It is filled with thought provoking materials and step-by-step guides to help listeners own the material it contains. The related website is also very useful.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book helped me bring my positivity up and helped my relationship so much! Also helped me bring my team
Together at work. Amazing. - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Admittedly, 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 frequently (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.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I don't know why I am so hostile towards this book. I think it might be very helpful, but I just became angry reading it, so my 2.5 stars might be unfair. The premise of this book is that the ratio of positive to negative moments in your life makes a big difference in how expansive and fulfilling your life can be. The author, an internationally respected professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill says that she has discovered a "tipping point". If your positivity/negativity ratio is above 3, you prosper. Below that, you don't. The first half of the book focuses on validating her theory and proving to her general audience that she arrived at it through rigorous scientific testing. And interactions with other very famous people. It took a long time, with somewhat repetitive writing to make that point, although this is by no means a long book. By the time I got to the second half of the book, I was already angry. Maybe that means this book is written for someone exactly like me! The second half of the book has practical suggestions for decreasing your negativity and increasing your positivity so that your ratio rises above 3. While some of the suggestions are useful, I remain skeptical. On the other hand, after taking her positivity ratio test, it seems I am in need of some positivity, so perhaps I will try to follow her advice for a month and see how it goes. Not particularly well-written but potentially helpful for people who need to make just a bit more effort to get the most out of their lives.
1 person found this helpful