Our hearts are sensitive to our emotional states, responding in ways that can significantly impact our overall health. Since the 1960s, research on the mind-heart connection has focused on the negative impacts of stress-related emotions and “heart breakers.” Since the rise of Positive Psychology in the 1990s, mind-heart scientists have focused on the effect of more positive, expansive, and pro-social emotions on heart health. I call this collection of human emotions the “heart wakers.”
“Heart wakers,” a term I coined, refers to emotions and traits that awaken the metaphorical heart, which is vital in enhancing heart health and overall well-being. These emotions “wake” and lift the spirit, encouraging a shift out of our routine, automatic state of living. These include gratitude, optimism, kindness, generosity, joy, laughter, purpose, compassion, and love. It’s important to emphasize that these heart- waking emotions are not reserved for those naturally born with these tendencies. These skills can be learned and cultivated.
By reducing stress and promoting joy and calm, these emotions help quiet the nerve signals and hormones related to heart symptoms and diseases to stimulate other emotions that promote healing, health, and happiness. This chapter explores the evidence supporting the benefits of these powerful, health-promoting emotions.
From the beginning, clarifying a common misconception about emotions is essential.
While they are often classified as “positive” or “negative” based on their immediate impact on our feelings, this distinction does not imply a good or bad value judgment. Emotions serve as vital signals, alerting us to significant events or changes in our environment. The tendency in popular culture to “accentuate the positive” or to strive for “good vibes only” can be misleading.
Psychological health involves acknowledging and understanding all our emotions, not just the pleasant ones. Ignoring or suppressing our genuine emotions, rather than addressing them authentically, can intensify them and leave more profound imprints on our psyche and physical well-being. Therefore, it’s wise to approach all emotions, whether labeled as “positive” or “negative,” with attention and respect.
In our conversation about emotions, Susan David, PhD, a Harvard psychologist and author of Emotional Agility, spoke candidly about the potential pitfalls of forced positivity. She isn’t opposed to the experience of pleasant emotions; she even mentioned her contributions to the ninety-chapter “Oxford Handbook of Happiness.” However, she expressed concerns about using positivity as a mask to avoid confronting the multifaceted nature of human emotion.
She described attempts to “just be positive” as “forced or false positivity.” Further, when discussing the trend of dismissing others’ challenging emotions with platitudes of “just stay positive,” she emphasised, “When you tell someone to ‘be positive,’ you’re essentially saying to them, ‘my comfort is more important than your reality.’” She terms this phenomenon “toxic positivity.”
Evolution has primed us to be more alert to potential threats than opportunities (the “negativity bias”). Still, it is essential to understand that this doesn’t discredit the authenticity and importance of our emotions, positive or otherwise.
With this nuanced understanding and acceptance of the value of the whole spectrum of human emotions, let’s explore the benefits of so-called positive emotions on physical health. They have been closely associated with improved outcomes, including heart health. These emotions aid us in making informed decisions, enabling a broader perspective instead of merely short-lived desires and aversions. They expand our attention and cognition, enrich our physical, intellectual, and social capacities, and positively influence our health behaviours and physiological reactions, like reducing blood pressure and stress hormones.
In a world with many potential dangers and threats to human safety and survival, why would evolution have favoured humans who experienced these positive outwardly directed emotions? Barbara Fredrickson, Kenan distinguished professor of psychology at UNC-Chapel Hill, is a pioneering researcher and writer on the power of positive emotions. She offers an answer in her “broaden-and-build” theory, which she contrasts with the “fight or flight” response associated with more self-centred emotions.
This theory suggests that our emotional state directly impacts our ability to connect with others – by affecting our attention, perception, and interpretation of life events, among other reasons – and generate creative solutions to life’s challenges. Fredrickson describes our capacity to respond to each moment as our “thought-action repertoire.” Specific “positive” or “pro-social” emotions (those related to healthy connections with others) enable us to discover new thoughts and actions that might otherwise elude us.
In the subsequent sections, we will examine these “heart wakers” – gratitude, optimism, generosity, joy and laughter, purpose, compassion, and love – as well as their effects on our heart health and overall well-being, drawing from scientific studies, expert insights, and real-world examples from clinical practice.
Even as I began to practice mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) techniques and slowly noticed my stress levels lessen, something was still missing. While learning valuable skills to navigate life’s challenges, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I wasn’t experiencing the joy and happiness I remembered from childhood. Recovering from chronic stress and pulling back from the edge of total burnout, I discovered, was not the same as living fully. To live life to its fullest, I had to learn how to manage stress, seek positive emotions, and engage in positive experiences. That’s where the study of the science of happiness helped me.
When we speak of “happiness,” what comes to your mind? How do you define or measure happiness in your life? Reflect on this as we explore the anatomy of happiness and its various facets.
At one time, I was coming out of my most profound depression, and I wondered, Can I become a happier person? I was surprised to learn that the emphatic answer from science is yes! Neuroscientific research has overthrown the adage that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks. Our brains exhibit neuroplasticity, which enables neural pathways to shrink or grow based on their use. This means we can rewire our brains and alter how we respond to stress, cravings, or daily interactions, changing our life experiences and outcomes.
Before we dive into the heart-awakening emotions and states, it will help to explore the broader context in which these live – the experience and science of happiness. Strictly defining happiness is a challenge philosophers and scientists have struggled with and disagreed about for thousands of years. Take a moment to reflect on your beliefs about happiness. What are the causes and conditions required for your satisfaction? What gets in the way?
Aristotle and other ancient Greek philosophers had a name for the temporary pleasure of sensual experiences like a delicious meal: “hedonia.” While some may argue that fleeting pleasures are superficial or meaningless, our ability to experience this type of momentary happiness or hedonic pleasure depends on our ability to notice and savour these moments amid the distractions and stressors of daily life.
Rick Hanson, PhD’s teachings have profoundly influenced my journey toward greater happiness. Hanson focuses on neuroplasticity, mindfulness, and positive psychology as a psychologist. In his book Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence, he introduces the concept of “taking in the good,” which involves deeply savouring experiences to enhance well-being.
His message that we can rewire our brains through what he calls “self-directed neuroplasticity” particularly resonated with me (Hanson et al. 2023). Hanson suggests that we can significantly improve our mental state by regularly and intentionally engaging in this practice of embracing positive experiences. This idea of actively shaping our brain’s pathways to foster a more positive outlook offers a hopeful and empowering approach to personal development and well-being.
On the other hand, according to the Greeks, “Eudaemonia” represents a deeper, more enduring form of happiness derived from a sense of life purpose or meaning when we reflect on our lives. The Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman provides an interesting perspective on these two forms of happiness (2013). He suggests that we have two aspects of our identity – the “experiencing self” that appreciates temporary pleasures and the “remembering self” that creates and holds onto narratives about our past experiences.
Finding the balance between these two aspects of our identity is critical to experiencing true and sustainable happiness. To accomplish this, we can strive to strengthen our “experiencing self” by attuning to our physical bodies, the home of all our feelings. We should also engage our minds to address inaccurate thoughts or beliefs and intentionally focus on moments of pleasure and meaning.
Consider this fundamental question: Is happiness a choice? And if not, how much control do we have over our level of happiness? Research suggests that the answer is yes and no. Our happiness levels are determined by a mix of genetic factors (around 50 per cent) and environmental exposure (about 10 per cent), leaving the rest up to us by monitoring and choosing our actions and interpretations (approximately 40 per cent).
Excerpted with permission from Just One Heart, Jonathan Fisher, HarperCollins.
