Our attitudes affect our creativity, health, and well-being. When researchers Erika Rosenberg and Paul Ekman studied the connection between angry facial expressions and myocardial ischemia, an abnormal cardiac response in heart disease patients, they found, as expected, that hostile “Type A” behavior is toxic to our hearts. But they also found something else--an equally strong connection between unhealthy cardiac reactions and phony smiles.

We pay a price for being too nice. A phony smile may fool others, but cannot fool our bodies. Rosenberg’s and Ekman’s research shows that pretense—repressing our frustrations beneath an acquiescent smile--puts us under excessive stress.

Real positive emotions, on the other hand, help us become healthier, happier, and more creative. As psychologist Barbara Fredrickson explains in her book, Positivity, love, joy, elevation, and gratitude strengthen our immune systems, making us physically healthier, while broadening our vision and building our resources. Positive emotions expand our perspective, helping us see more clearly, discover new possibilities, build connections with other people, who share ideas and insights, supporting us in our creative work. In order to truly flourish, Fredrickson says, we need at least a 3-to-1 ratio--three positive emotional experiences to one negative one each day. As she explains in Positivity, once we reach this point, we will experience greater energy, inspiration, and insight, opening us up to greater creative accomplishment and joy in life. To find out more about Dr. Fredrickson’s research check out her video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds_9Df6dK7c

You can track your own positivity ratio on her web site, https://www.positivityratio.com/

You can begin building greater positivity by:

• Practicing mindfulness.
• Meditating
• Doing what you love
• Pausing to give thanks
• Playing
• Reading inspiring books.
• Laughing
• Exercising
• Being with people you love
• Doing your creative work

Our greatest natural resources are our hearts and minds. You can begin making a positive difference in the world by strengthening your creativity, building your personal resources by embracing greater joy--right here, right now.

Staying Creative in Challenging Times: An Interview with Michelle Chappel

All the news on the media these days seems to be bad news. Negativity clouds our creativity. To keep moving forward as creative artists, we have to keep our spirits up.

Michelle Chappel is a Billboard-winning singer-songwriter with a Princeton Ph.D. in psychology. She’s also a creativity consultant who teaches personal growth classes and conducts innovation workshops for Silicon Valley companies.

Drawing upon her psychology background, she offers songs of hope on her new CD, “Shake It Up,” available on her web site, http://www.michellechappel.com/. In a recent interview she shared a powerful key to maintaining our creative momentum.

The key is controlling attention.
When #@$% happens, or we’re surrounded by bad news, we can easily get stuck in the negative. We ruminate, going around and around in a downward spiral that drains our energy. But there is a way out. “Try to see the bigger picture of what’s going on,” says Michelle. Referring to classic research in cognitive psychology on the figure-ground effect, she calls this process “figure/grounding” it. As the classic illustration shows, we can see either the central vase or the two profiles as the figure. We have a choice.

“We always have a choice,” says Michelle, “no matter what is going on. There’s always a background. When I’m stuck in a negative thought, I figure/ground it–and something else comes into the foreground.” Shifting our attention gets us unstuck. We can revive our spirits and become re-energized by focusing on what is going well in our lives.

Try this for yourself the next time you’re feeling overwhelmed by bad news. Remember: you always have a choice. And as creative artists, it is our duty and destiny to keep our spirits up so we can participate in the ongoing creation of a new reality for ourselves and our world.