Barbara Fredrickson

(46) I tried. I really tried. I even took the positivity ratio test a bunch of days in a row. I intrinsically agree with the premise of this book written by a positive psychology researcher at UNC of all places. It's just the tone. The painful tone of writers of self-help books. I don't have the words. Its this combination of smugness, mixed with false modesty, dashed with a tinge of elitism, and topped with 'I'm so happy I can help you be happy.' It actually generates feelings of negativity show more in me. But I am sure this says more about me, rather than the book.

I like that she gave many different options for generating heartfelt positivity - permission to do things that bring you joy, mindfulness, nature, noticing, connection. Those are things I can relate to. There is nothing worse than being told there is only one way - i.e. you must meditate, you must keep a gratitude journal or any journal for that matter, and please, please don't make me make a 'positivity portfolio.' That's what the Apple Photos 'curated for you'' feature on your phone is for.

Despite my snarkiness, I do think I took some things away from this book. Negativity is contagious and I definitely choose to indulge in it with my colleagues more than I should. I can change my mental habits which will likely change my outlook, productivity, and relationships. But I actually think that engaging with art and literature has done this more for me than reading a dry dumbed down scientific self-help book any day. show less

Barbara Fredrickson teaches at UNC-Chapel Hill, where I got my PhD in another field; I've been aware of her work in positive psychology for years because a handful of my students took her classes--and they all LOVED them. I recently ran across an interview with Fredrickson and liked her discussion of how imprecise a term "happy" is and how inadequate various measures of it are, so I decided to read her book.

I probably should have read her scholarly articles instead (and I probably will, show more eventually). I totally agree with her message and think her research is extremely valuable, but the book itself tries so hard to reach a nonspecialist audience that it sometimes seemed to be written for not-very-bright apes. I found its vagueness about methodology frustrating during the first half, which mainly reports on a whole bunch of studies: it does have footnotes, thank heavens, but I was bothered by the fact that I found them much more interesting and compelling than the main text.

If you are already committed to meditation/mindfulness, and especially if you're familiar with lovingkindness meditation, and/or if you've read books along the lines of Jon Kabat-Zinn's Full Catastrophe Living, I doubt you'll be especially surprised by the findings or strategies this book presents. show less

I heard about this book at a UU church service and decided to check it out. It does offer a completely different take on "love" which is worth considering. I took notes, but I confess I have not followed through on the recommended exercises- yet. I still may. It is certainly worth a reading and reflection.

Admittedly, 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 show more 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. show less