The View from Here

"The first core truth I've shared with you is that positivity opens us. Now you know — despite the often flowery language of emotions — this isn't simply a metaphor. Data from a wide range of experiments show clear causal connections between people's emotional states and their outlooks on life. The more positivity courses through your neural circuits and your veins, the broader your mind will be. Positivity literally expands your peripheral vision, allowing you to see more than you typically do.

"As positivity expands the scope of your visual attention, it also expands the conceptual connections you make. You come up with more and better ideas. And when you face problems, positivity makes your solutions better. What's more, your positivity and your openness feed on and reinforce each other, creating a buoyant upward spiral within you.

"Positivity also alters how you see your connections with others. You think we instead of me. You look past things that separate you from others — like racial difference — to appreciate the uniqueness of strangers.

"The sense of oneness that positivity brings also inspires you to do what's right for others. You break out of your cocoon to lend a helping hand. As you do so, your positivity begets further positivity, in you and in those around you, creating even larger upward spirals that surround you and infuse your community.

"Positivity connects you to your full humanity, the full humanity of others, and the great mysteries of life itself.

"Positivity opens us. With a new appreciation for the science that backs up this bold claim, you can have more faith in the value of your efforts to cultivate heartfelt positivity in your own life."