Being Positive Makes Us Smarter

Emotions have the ability to influence many of our mental processes. Do we learn in the same way when we are sad than when we are happy? Do we make decisions equally in a positive or negative state? The answer is no.

Being positive makes us, interestingly, smarter. As Dr. Julius, an expert in the study of anger, says,  all emotions influence our thinking. They influence our memory capacity and our intelligence. That’s why negative emotions will reduce this memory capacity while positive emotions will increase it. Why?

Be positive: reason or heart

What should I be guided by? By reason or by heart?  What can more, the brain or the heart? It depends, there are decisions that we make exclusively with the heart and there are decisions that we make only with the head without considering the heart.

The ideal is to maintain a balance between them, to be able to unite reason and heart in a more adequate way. Why? Because, on many occasions, feelings and emotions see things that reason cannot see. That’s why it’s so important to train both academic and emotional intelligence.

Does this mean that we should only be guided by our instincts? No. We must find a balance. Let one part of us let the heart speak, but another part give voice to reason. From these two voices, we can make a better decision.

negative or positive emotions

Negative emotions cause reasoning ability to decline. This is because the brain is more attentive and more focused on its own emotional state of sadness or upset, paying less attention to decision making or the goal of identifying creative ideas.

Thinking positively improves creativity and clarity of ideas when we are most excited. This does not mean that we have to be very happy all the time, but rather in a state of balance, inner peace and optimism. Since our brain is not under stress, we see everything better, more clearly.

When we are well, calm and at ease, we feel more confident. And  when we are more confident we usually learn much better. Our brain is not subjected to tension or stress or states of fear. Staying optimistic and in a state of inner peace helps us learn and empower our minds.

1. Annoyance

Boredom inhibits the ability to think about anything else. You can only think about the upset, what she caused, the anger she produced, what they did to you, etc. You can’t think of anything but boredom, which nullifies your ability to make decisions of any kind, and hinders any predisposition to learn.

Also, like fear, it consumes a lot of brain energy. And when the brain consumes energy in the negative emotional state, it pays no attention to other cognitive functions. So if you control your emotions, you control your mind.

2. Wrath

Anger is the most destructive emotion in the mind. Let’s not waste energy by getting angry. When we’re upset, we use up to 37 muscles that tense and contract. However, when we smile we only use seven. By using more muscle we are wasting more energy, something valuable that shouldn’t be wasted. Then smile!

Don’t make decisions if you’re sad, don’t promise if you’re happy

When we get carried away by too much emotions, we don’t think clearly. We only think through emotions. If we are sad we will not be able to make adequate decisions, because the decision we make will go along with the sadness we feel. If otherwise we are very happy, we can think about doing many things, reaching certain goals, and keeping certain promises that we may not be able to keep. When we move from this extreme state of happiness to a more normal one, we find ourselves with the reality of not being able to deliver on what we had promised.

Therefore,  getting too carried away by our emotional states is not good for our mind. We must find a middle ground in which we can feel these emotions, but not get too carried away by them. If we cannot do this because, as we already know, emotions are very strong, we must adopt the most correct posture: as the saying goes, if we are sad, we avoid making decisions, if we are happy, we move away from promises.

We cannot avoid all the moments when we feel bad, discouraged and upset. But we can control the duration of these feelings. We have to make our inner strength emerge to overcome the ups and downs. I feel discouraged, yes, but I’ll stop feeling like that as soon as I can. This is very important. We must be aware that this state will not last long. As we have seen, this changes our world.

What if we have to study or work? Should we get carried away with boredom, get distracted and not yield enough? No. Of course we must accept the fact that we are upset, but we cannot allow that to stop us from accomplishing things, making decisions and, above all, that it prevents us from being smarter.