It’s fair to say Americans are conflicted about positivity. Our Declaration of Independence guarantees “the pursuit of happiness” as one our core rights. Yet messages abound that our happiness is located everywhere but our core.

The cultivation of positivity is a practice and, at times, may seem too simplistic to be true. Rest assured this is not a “fake it till you make it” practice. It requires effort, but it will be worth your while. Try it out. Be your own experiment/experimenter.

Positivity is not about putting on a happy face. It’s about resilience. Positivity consists of a range of emotions from appreciation to love, amusement to joy, hope to gratitude, and then some.

Here are some of the most common anxiety-fueled thought patterns, plus some specific ways you can recognize and dispute them. If some of these sound familiar to you, put them in your mental tool kit so you can take them out when you need them.

By learning how to self-generate love, you can raise your vagal tone. And with higher vagal tone, your actions become more agile, more attuned to the people in your midst. You become better able to forge the interpersonal connections that give rise to positivity resonance.

Our body, sculpted by the biological forces of natural selection over millennia, was not designed for abstractions of long-distance love. It hungers for moments of oneness.

Love is the micro-moment of warmth and connection that you share with another living being. It’s deeply wired and blossoms virtually anytime two or more people, even strangers, connect over a shared positive emotion – be it mild or strong.

Exploring how kindness and appreciation flow back and forth in couples, Barbara Fredrickson, Ph.D, examined how people habitually express appreciation to their partners. Turns out some people say “thanks” better than others.

Cognitive psychologists have found that the process of identifying and disputing irrational thoughts is a very effective way to short-circuit the anxiety cycle so we can regain our equilibrium, think more clearly, and feel a lot better. So the next time you’re feeling anxious, walk…

Patanjali teaches that when you enter the stage of perfect wholeness, there is a calmness and a clarity that reflect prefect presence. The antidote to impatience is allowing yourself to reenter the flow of things, that is, to be in sync with the speed with…