Feeling Positive

Mich Writes: >>What I'm saying is that a positive mood is better for creativity than negative mood<<

Jocelyn Replies: Hi Mich, I found it interesting that you would mention the concepts of "positive and negative" because I have been writing about these for the past few days.

It seems we are increasingly “loading” our language and boxing ourselves in with slogans rather than engaging in real, honest to goodness communication with each other. And in the process are becoming somewhat mindless, rather thoughtless, automatons in our conversation with clouded understanding, shrunken vocabularies, and a vastly reduced capacity for critical thinking.

Using the words "positive and negative" in reference to emotions is an excellent example of this.

Look up these words in a dictionary, and see what they mean. They have to do with energy and electricity. They are polar opposites of each other. However, when we use them in reference to such things as emotions, conversation, being absolutely certain about something, good, bad, optimistic, pessimistic, affirming or non-affirming, we are using them as slang terms which can be extremely vague. After all, being absolutely certain about something is definitely not the same as being optimistic about something, and it would not be the polar opposite of pessimistic or bad. But we frequently use the words "positive and negative" (in slang usage) as polar opposites of each other, an erroneous usage to say the least.

So, when you say that being in a "positive mood" is better for creativity, are you saying that feeling optimistic is better for creativity? Or are you saying that feeling absolutely certain about everything is better for creativity? And wouldn't the term "feeling absolutely certain" be somewhat oxymoronic, since absolute certainty would need to be based on facts and not something as biased and abstract as feeling an emotion?

Shouldn’t we just say what we mean using words relevant to the conversation, and leave the positives and the negatives to the electricians, and physicists?