As this is the beginning of a new year, we would like to draw attention to one important ritual that often gets too little attention — celebration. Traditionally December is a time of reflection, we celebrate holidays, family, the end of the year and many other gifts, traditions, accomplishments and relationships. Celebration as a key facet of reflection is critical to any positive person.
In contrary, the negativity bias, also known as the negativity effect, refers to the notion that, even when of equal intensity, things of a more negative nature (e.g. unpleasant thoughts, emotions, or social interactions; harmful/traumatic events) have a greater effect on one's psychological state and processes than do neutral or positive things. In other words, something very positive will generally have less of an impact on a person's behavior and cognition than something equally emotional but negative.
While it is important not to overlook areas of failure to try and learn how to prevent them in the future, we neglect to appreciate the things that have worked well. Especially as - according to the theory of the negativity effect – the impact of positive things is lower than that of negative things, shouldn´t we at least try to compensate that by paying extra attention to the positive things in life and give life a positive undertone?
Look at what you’ve accomplished in the past year. Take time to go back in thoughts and ask yourself, “What did I get done? What relationships did I strengthen? What problems did I solve? Where did I shine? Where did I stand out?”
If you look carefully, you’ll discover that there are many things that at this point you have forgotten that you accomplished, or if you’ve had a particularly busy year, even things that happened just recently in fall may have slipped from your mind as you got busy on other activities and the next goal in front of you. If you always look towards that next thing, you may never really feel that you achieve success. Taking time to look back and appreciate your progress this year, you recognize your achievements and know that your efforts are having an impact on yourself and the people around you.
Look both within (what were my particular strengths, my gifts, my achievements, what obstacles did I overcome?) and also at your surroundings, your relationships with your partner, relatives and colleagues that helped you succeed. Where were my relationships particularly strong, where did I work particularly well with someone, what new relationships did I establish, and how did I manage to do that? You recognize not only your individual strengths, but also how you worked well with others.
Take that positive energy from 2017 and charge the coming months of 2018 with it. We wish you a great 2018 full of health, love and happiness!
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