#26 Celebratory Love

In the last couple +1s we talked about the power of Gratitude and Grateful Flow.

(You try them out yet? 😃)

Today, let’s talk about something Barbara Frederickson calls “celebratory love.”

First, quick backstory: Barbara is one of the world’s leading researchers studying well-being. She wrote a book called Love 2.0 where she tells us that, from a scientific perspective, love is really all about “micro-moments of positivity”–moments in our everyday lives in which we connect with someone over a shared positive emotion.

We’ll talk about that more soon.

For now, I want to focus on two different types of love: compassionate love and celebratory love. Compassionate love is when our hearts open up to feel someone’s pain and we wish them a sense of well-being. Celebratory love is, as the name implies, when we see the awesomeness in someone else and CELEBRATE it with them.

Barbara calls celebratory love “gratitude’s generous cousin.” (← I love that.)

We appreciate SOMEONE ELSE’S good fortune when we practice (yes, it’s a practice!) celebratory love.

We can do this all day every day. See someone with a spring in their step and a smile on their face? Take a moment to celebrate their apparent happiness and beam them a silent, virtual high five! Barbara silently says to herself, “May your happiness and good fortune continue!”

And, perhaps most importantly, when a loved one (or friend or colleague or anyone) shares a story about their success with you, CELEBRATE IT!!!

Barbara tells us that most counseling focuses on helping couples and families deal with the challenges in their relationships. But, she tells us, it’s actually WAY more important to get REALLY good at celebrating the POSITIVE stuff!! (If we can’t do that, our relationship is really in trouble.)

Let’s move from theory to practice.

Spend a moment thinking of the three people you love most in the world. Who are they?

1. ___________________________
2. ___________________________
3. ___________________________

Wonderful.

Now, what’s one thing you can appreciate about each of them?

Name → Awesomeness

1. ___________________________ → ___________________________
2. ___________________________ → ___________________________
3. ___________________________ → ___________________________

Fantastic.

I celebrate you and your awesomeness!

Now, let’s make that a habit!