Six Ways to Start Early and Lift Your Mood

"Want to stay current with Arthur's writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. This column generally focuses on how to become happier. But over the years, I've found that the questions I most often get from readers are less about getting happier and more about becoming less unhappy. People inquire about how to resolve relationship disputes, quit a job they hate, or deal with anxiety and sadness."

"Getting happier or less unhappy might strike you as equivalent efforts, but they aren't. Indeed, neuroscientists have found evidence that certain positive and negative emotions are produced in different regions of the brain. This makes sense when we understand that emotions exist to alert us to opportunities and threats, and parts of the limbic system specialize in producing each type of notification."

"Having below- or above-average intensity in positive and negative moods-which psychologists call affect-has been a topic of a lot of research, and it has led scholars to develop a test called the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. You can take the test yourself and learn whether you are above average in both positive and negative affect (the so-called Mad Scientist profile), high positive and low negative (the Cheerleader), high negative and low positive (the Poet), or low on both positive and negative (the Judge)."

Positive and negative emotions arise from different brain regions, reflecting evolutionarily distinct alerts to opportunities and threats. Different limbic areas specialize in producing positive versus negative notifications. Positive and negative affect can vary independently in intensity. Psychologists measure these dimensions with the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), which yields profiles: Mad Scientist (high positive and high negative), Cheerleader (high positive, low negative), Poet (high negative and low positive), and Judge (low on both). Well-being challenges differ by profile: some people must focus on increasing happiness, others on reducing unhappiness, and some on both. Common concerns include relationship disputes, quitting unwanted jobs, anxiety, and sadness.

Read at The Atlantic