Even Happier

1- YOU ARE CROSSING A STREET and a car is about to hit you: do you stop and think before you jump to safety? Fortunately you don't... We can figure things out and act accordingly way before we are even aware of it. Gut feelings can instantly steer us right.

2- Puppy dogs playfuly fight each other. They have fun, and they prepare themselves for real fights in the future. Human beings do that too: we use fun to learn. In short, fun is not only pleasant, it also put us in a frame of mind in which we are open to new information and experiences, which in turn might became lifesavers in the future.

3- We have 1000 thoughts every day: I need to finish that assignment, call mum, buy milk, discuss with Tom our project,…Emotions tells us which thoughts really matter to us. We also say very many things every day: pass me the salt, please stop, I like you, let’ go there together,… Emotions tell others what’s really important to us. In short, feelings express the personal significance of otherwise cold information.

4- Emotions have a time dimension associated with them: we are sad about a loss in the past, angry about damage in the present, and afraid about possible events in the future. If we occasionally associate feelings to a wrong temporal dimension (e.g. angry about the future, or afraid of the past) we have an opportunity to improve our life via working on our emotional literacy.