Positive emotions are political.

Which is to say, access to positive emotional experiences is political.

So when marginalized folks share that their joy is an act of rebellion, I want you to understand all the dimensions of what that means.

A thread.

A little background, I'm currently studying to get my certification as a Positive Psychology Practitioner — someone who guides clients through interventions to increase their experiences of psychological wellbeing.

So I'm readin' a lot of research lately.

There is a psychological theory called the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (Fredrickson, 1998; Fredrickson & Cohn, 2008).

The idea is that positive emotions serve a survival function. They exist to help us build up emotional, social, and cognitive resources.

It's commonly accepted that negative emotions have an evolutionary function of alerting us to danger, allowing us to narrow our focus and shift our physiology to deal with a threat or situation.

But positive emotions? They expand our focus, creativity, curiosity, and attention.

"Positive emotions produce novel and broad-ranging thoughts and actions that are usually not critical to one’s immediate safety, well-being, or survival. Over time, however, these novel experiences aggregate into consequential resources that can change people’s lives."

"For example, idle curiosity can become expert knowledge, or affection and shared amusement can become a lifelong supportive relationship. Positive emotions forecast valued outcomes like health, wealth, and longevity because they help build the resources to get there."

The research I'm talking about is here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3126102/

HEALTH, WEALTH, AND LONGEVITY could be predicted by consistent, cumulative positive emotional experiences.

You know what interferes with consistent positive emotional experiences?

Discrimination. Inequity. Violence or fear of violence. Microaggressions. Any number of -isms.

If positive emotions are what (evolutionarily-speaking) allows us to build up the social, emotional, and cognitive resources to sustain mental wellbeing... which are the building blocks for RESILIENCE...

Joy becomes a matter of SURVIVAL, not frivolity.

And not just joy, either. Passion! Excitement! Novelty! Transcendence!

These are the ingredients we require to, overtime, accumulate the resources we need to remain healthy. And not just mentally, either. Our physical bodies are impacted by these positive experiences.

Studies have shown that people who had recent, consistent positive emotional experiences were actually able to recover from a sudden elevated heart rate back to their baseline FASTER than those who didn't recently have those experiences or simply had neutral experiences.

Our nervous systems, our autoimmune systems, our stress responses all impact our physical health and our mental, emotional, AND physical resilience.

So when we talk about joy being an act of rebellion, it is. For marginalized people who are not set up to thrive or even survive.

Conversely, if we have folks experiencing oppression and violence that denies them consistent, cumulative positive emotional experiences, we wear down their resiliency and their capacity for building up essential resources.

And those resources impact whether or not someone feels connected, capable, and confident in their ability to thrive, problem-solve, and persist through difficulty.

Research also shows it changes our bodies and our minds.

THIS IS IMPORTANT.

Negative emotional experiences, conversely, will literally change our physiology and our cognition, from a broad, creative, and flexible mindset to a narrow, fixated mindset that is prepped to respond to danger.

Rightfully so. There is very real danger in an unjust society.

That kind of acute, repetitive stress brought on by inequities will replicate the same hierarchies of access and privilege in society... because access to EMOTIONAL, COGNITIVE, and SOCIAL RESOURCES is no longer equitably experienced.

When those are the same resources that predict whether or not someone will have health, wealth, and longevity... we have a big fuckin' problem on our hands, don't we?

This is why mental health itself will always be political. ALWAYS.

There's a common refrain in activist spaces, about how "if you're not angry, you're not paying attention."

But there's a case to be made, too, for those actively impacted by oppression especially, to unapologetically protect their joy and wellbeing.

The rebellion comes from a world that wants to exploit marginalized people and is not set up for them to thrive.

And there is a social imperative to care about mental health, because without equitable access to mental health, there is no social justice.

Consider: This is why reposting graphic videos that retraumatize Black folks, dragged out accountability processes that do further harm, and performative allyship requiring more emotional labor aren't justice. A hostile climate for Black folks is still racism and still harm.

Consider: This is why when ANY marginalized person taps out of a conversation and is unwilling to engage, it's actually a powerful act of self-preservation that DISRUPTS cycles of cumulative trauma and the acute stress that does objective harm.

The rhetoric around social justice has long focused on diminishing or disrupting harmful experiences. But we also need to be thinking about building up positive, restorative, healing experiences and practices for vulnerable communities.

Access to joyful, supportive, connected experiences quickly become extensions of privilege when there isn't equitable access to those experiences due to a hostile, oppressive society, nor equitable access to the resources that are foundational to resiliency.

Which isn't to say we're supposed to be positive all of the time! But if we aren't having enough consistency to build up our resources, that compounds the harm already being done to marginalized folks.

So. To give you a few questions to ponder:

+ ALLIES, what are you doing to lessen the burden on marginalized communities and protect the energy, time, and emotional resources of vulnerable communities you claim to be aligned with?

+ ALLIES, what are you doing to change the culture around you — at work, in your neighborhood, in your community — to allow for these positive emotional experiences to flourish for the folks immediately around you?

+ MARGINALIZED FOLKS, where do you find joy? How are you PRIORITIZING joy? What makes you feel positively and how much spaciousness are you allowing for that in your life?

Where might you create even *more* spaciousness for that?

+ MARGINALIZED FOLKS, what protective actions can you take to ensure that you can continue to have sustained, consistent positive emotional experiences, both by yourself and in community?

Suffering is part of the human condition, but who's shouldering, under what conditions, and who has the emotional resources to recover from it is absolutely a political issue.

We can't forget that.

This is why I'm getting my certification and why I've started doing coaching. Many of us who are marginalized are having to reteach ourselves how to have these experiences, because they are antithetical to the world in which we live and the messages we've received.

Anyway, I'm learning a lot and it's reminding me about the many layers that we aren't always perceiving when it comes to injustice.

Mind your emotional health. Rebuild your resources. Step back as often as you need to.

And allies? Step up.