Most of us live in a culture where we send others positive wishes.

“Happy Easter”, “Merry Christmas”, “Good Morning”, “Pleased to meet you”, “Nice to see you”, “Warm wishes on your anniversary”, “Have a generous Ramadan”, “Sending you peace” – and on and on and on. 

We use those positive words, words like: 

• Happy
• Merry
• Good
• Pleased
• Nice
• Warm
• Generous
• Peaceful

Yet, did you know that because positive emotions take one’s mind off immediate needs and stressors, they were once thought to have no immediate survival value? 

One of the world’s most cited researchers on positive emotions, Barbara Fredrickson, says this, “Positive emotions aren’t easily explained. From [an] evolutionary perspective, joy, serenity and gratitude don’t seem as useful as fear, anger or disgust. The bodily changes, urges to act and the facial expressions produced by positive emotions aren’t as specific or as obviously relevant to survival as those sparked by negative emotions. If positive emotions didn’t promote our ancestors’ survival in life-threatening situations, then what good were they? Did they have any adaptive value at all? Perhaps they merely signaled the absence of threats.” 

That question almost over 25 years ago sent Fredrickson down a path that led to researching a theory built on repertoires.  

The dictionary defines repertoire as “all the things that someone can do, all the methods that someone can use, etc.”

The repertoire Fredrickson describes is our Thought-Action Repertoire or TAR.  The folks at PositivePsychology.com say, “our TAR is the range of actions we can perceive and choose to take. The larger our TAR, the more perceived options we have available to make progress towards what’s important to us—which correlates with our sense of wellbeing. Fostering positive emotions helps us expand our TAR and build long-lasting physical, social, intellectual, and psychological resources that make us more resilient. And so the real value of experiencing positive emotions isn’t in how they make us feel in the moment; it’s in how they help us build functional reserves we can draw on to improve coping as and when we need it.”

They go on to say, “At the crux of her theory, Fredrickson argues that while negative emotions narrow thought-action repertoires, positive emotions broaden these repertoires, enabling us to draw on a wide array of possible cognitions and behaviors in response to emotional stimuli.

Through this lens, positive emotions leave us free to be creative, playful, curious, and experimental, and from these behaviors flow opportunities to gain new physical, social, and intellectual resources.

These resources may subsequently serve us long after the emotions that led to their acquisition have passed.”

Her well-researched and well-cited theory is called “Broaden and Build.”

Broaden as in widen, expand, enlarge, increase, augment.

Build as in construct, raise, boost, strengthen, improve, invigorate.

So, yes, Wikipedia tells us “Positive emotions have no immediate survival value, because they take one’s mind off immediate needs and stressors. However, the skills that broadened behavior strengthens over time enhance survival. For example, curiosity about a landscape becomes navigational knowledge, pleasant interactions with a stranger become a supportive friendship, and aimless physical play becomes valuable exercise. According to Fredrickson, the resources gained through positive emotions outlive the emotions from which they were acquired. 

Resources build up over time and increase the individual’s overall well-being. This forms a positive cycle: increased well-being leads to more positive emotions which lead to higher resilience, which leads to increased well-being. Happiness, then, is not only the result of success and high-functioning behavior, but also a precondition for it.”

Happiness is not only the result of success and high-functioning behavior, but also a precondition for it. 

So, on that note, Happy Easter!

I can’t wait to hear about how you’re broadening your Thought-Action Repertoires and building your resources for yourself.  And if you need help with it, let me know!

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