How To Trigger Positive Emotions (that will create ACTION!) with Megan Porta

Triggering positive emotions sparks creativity and most importantly it propels us to act..

..on all those things we want to accomplish! Not only can emotion directly create action, it can do so indirectly, as well. Stirring up positive emotions can reduce stress, increase coping skills, encourage healthy behaviors and habits and promote good physical health. All of these byproducts can encourage action!

If you keep hitting a wall on your way to fulfilling a specific dream for your life, you are likely falling short with discipline. You lose steam once planning is underway and your habits and productivity skills fall short. Giving up on your dream is not an option! Re-engaging with the emotion that set your dream in motion in the first place will bring you to success.

Ways to trigger positive emotions:

Music —

Listening to music that inspires you is such a great way to evoke emotion and saturate your soul with motivation and inspiration. Crank up the tunes!

Clear your mind with REGULAR self care and exercise —

We are constantly inundated with noise in our lives, which literally sucks positive emotion from our souls. You absolutely have to be able to find clarity in order to make space for the positivity. Regular exercise and self care work miracles in this area!

Engage in creative outlets —

Engaging in creative outlets can trigger positive ideas and emotions. Grab your paints or colored pencils and start filling up that white canvas or piece of paper. If you’re not sure where to start, ask a nearby kid. Seriously, this works for me every time. My boys are overflowing with creative projects that range from creating origami elephants to creating a monkey made entirely of washi tape to putting together construction paper Halloween costumes for stuffed animals. Once you immerse yourself in a single creative projects, you’ll tap into the magic flow of creativity and you won’t want to stop. The positive benefits that emerge are immense!

Reconnect with things that made you happy as a child —

Step into your own personal vessel that takes you back in time. What activities lit you up when you were a child? Did you love spending time in nature? Did you love blaring the stereo and dancing your head off? Did you love getting up early with your mom to watch the sun rise? The things that light us up as children still light us up today, but we allow the noise to get in the way. Connect with those activities or sounds or feelings that made you feel ALIVE as a kid and incorporate them into your life now!

Create a dream board (pinterest, scrapbook, photo board, cycle through dream photos on desktop or mobile —

This is one of my favorite ways to stir up positive emotions for the dreams I have for my life. Create a dream board that caters to your desires. Print out pictures of places you want to visit, foods you want to eat, the enormous island you want in your kitchen, the puppy you want to have, the healthy figure you wish to have again or the salary you plan to make. Put the visual depictions of your visions together to create a dream board and place it somewhere you will see it every single day. It is fun to put together a physical photo board, but also consider Pinterest boards or scrapbooks you can flip through. One of my favorite things to do is to cycle my dream photos through my computer’s desktop. Every two minutes I am reminded of another one of my dreams.

Visualize a future you and create anchors —

I love closing my eyes and visualizing a scene in the future that completely fills me up. I look around and take note of EVERYTHING in the scene: who is present, what I see, what I’m wearing, how I feel, etc. I allow myself to feel the peace and complete joy from deep inside myself and I imagine that roots are growing from the bottoms of my feet deep into the ground below. The roots anchor me to the ground, to that place where I feel so much joy and peace. And this is a place I come back to often, when I need to be reminded about why I’m so excited about that vision for my future.

Journal daily —

I cannot think of a better place to start when trying to connect with emotion than by writing in a journal regularly. Ideas, places, events and people that light us up with emotion can so easily be discovered through writing. Give this some time! It can take a few pages/day before the magic is revealed to you.

Daily focus on written inspiration, such as reading the Bible or other books filled with encouragement —

All it takes sometimes is hearing that perfectly-worded quote to trigger emotion and set you on a path toward success. A few lines of inspiration can ring so true with one person and not do a single thing for the next. Fill your life with inspiration and eventually that perfect-for-you bit of encouragement will set a fire under you and get you moving. Browse through Pinterest, take out your bible, read a book packed with inspiring stories or read encouraging blogs.

Listen to audiobooks or podcasts that light you up —

What you listen to will either build you up or tear you down. That goes for the people you surround yourself with and any voices you allow to enter your ear canals. While you are cleaning or driving, turn on a podcast or audiobook that inspires you and lifts you up.

Make note of those times when life is just GOOD, figure out the factor that made it good and add those things into your everyday life —

Start paying attention to those times when you just feel GOOD. You know what I’m talking about. You stop in your tracks and you say to yourself, WOW. LIFE IS GOOD. When that happens, figure out what exactly about that moment made you stop and say that? Was it a smell? A sound? A sight? A touch? Or maybe a combination of those? Maybe it happened when you saw a rainbow and breathed in the smell of rain at the same time. Or maybe it happened when a child wrapped his arms tightly around your neck and said, “I love you, mama.”

Whatever that “thing” was that made life so good? Do more of that.

Express gratitude —

This is a simple yet powerful one! How often do you express gratitude as you trudge through your days? Do you tend to see that the world is against you? Or that it is working in your favor? Because guess what?! IT IS WORKING IN YOUR FAVOR. Every single moment. The more often you are able to see this and acknowledge it, the more likely you will get in touch with those emotions that bring you back to a joyful, peaceful place.

Spend time in nature —

I love this quote by Mary Davis: “A walk in nature walks the soul back home.” There is such truth in these words. Ditch the ear buds and audio books and take a hike through the woods. Walk your dog at dusk. Or just sit and observe the beauty in the outdoors. Allow yourself to really SEE the complete miracles that surround you, that we so often miss seeing because our lives are filled with noise and clutter. This simple act will connect you with your true self and your truest desires.. the ones that fill you up with peace, joy and clarity.