Have you ever seen ‘la vie en rose’?

We sometimes hear the expression seeing life through rose-tinted glasses. The translation in French ‘voir la vie en rose’ makes me think of Edith Piaf’s fascinating song. When I listen to ‘La Vie en Rose’, I have a feeling of lightness and pleasure. Piaf makes life appear delightful . Her words convey a deep joy of life. What strikes me is her positivity. And it arises from love. Love of people and of life. This a pretty romantic vision which can seem to ideal but shows how lovely life can be when it’s filled with positivity. Here are the song if you want to hear it:

In our everyday life it’s less romantic and more realistic.

The world is not only rose but also dark, blue or simply grey. Such as a painting it’s made of different colours. However any painting as a prevailing tint, that could be a positive one after all. I’m not thinking that life should only be pink. In fact, joy would not exist without the contrast of sadness so positive emotions wouldn’t either without negative ones. But a more positive life is just more attractive. And it’s the same with people. It’s so pleasant to spend time with a positive person, it makes you feel good. On the other hand when you are surrounded by sadness or anger, your mood usually goes down… Here is some tips to feel better!

Negative emotions, sadness, anger, hopelessness, fear … make us complain.

I guess you’ve already heard about the cliché that French are grumpy, I can’t say that it’s completely false. Hearing a French complaining about anything
and everything is quite common. I think it has even become an habit. But finally after having met people from different places, I think that everybody tends to naturally remember more the negative events. It can come from a survival need because those are dangerous and our lives depend more on avoiding them than having pleasure. Even though, we sometimes react negatively without purpose. Like those days, when we completely freak out and later on realize that we had no reason to do so. It’s just that at that moment the fear completely blurred reality… How could we come back to reality?

1. Let the negative emotions go. It is not pleasant but it can be useful.When we are aware of the clouds disturbing us, we can do
   something against them.
2.  Breath and calm down. Take a time to be aware of what’s going on inside to be conscious of our feelings and thoughts.
3. Think about solutions and act instead of going in circles and procrastinating. When the mind is less foggy it’s easier to take action. But well, the concrete solutions depend on the situations.

Positive emotions, joy, gratitude, serenity, love, … We flourish.

It is said that for every negative emotion, 3 positive are necessary to cheer us up. Indeed with negativity we languish more than we flourish. And usually we close ourselves. Being positive suggests openness. With hope for instance we open our mind and heart. When we become more open we get ride of the rigid expectations that we can have and we are more thankful. Plus, good news, being thankful seems to improve our health. Some studies showed that gratitude is bound with a better sleep, amelioration of blood pressure and stronger immune system.

1.  One way to be more grateful is to write in the evening things that you are thankful for. It’s writing down what did you like, what interested you, what amused you or what inspired you, … It’s quite similar to the morning and evening rituals we can find in  some philosophies and religions. Actually that can be really pleasant and beneficial to take those moments to reflect on each day.Once the negative emotions are away the positive ones can come in.
2. And in the morning, I learnt that the Stoics wanted to remind themselves of what they were going to face today, so they would be prepared and less anxious about it. Well, why not trying to clarify our mind before setting off. And if we see some positive events it will had some rose shades to our glasses.

 

Some interesting articles if you want to read more about it:

• Barbara Fredrickson – Pursuit of Happiness
• Top 10 Positive Emotions
• Why We Need Both Negative and Positive Emotions

Do you use rose-tinted glasses?