I am a fan of Brian Johnson’s Philosopher’s Notes (optimize.me), and recently he wrote about “celebratory love”, a term coined by Barbara Frederickson, who refers to celebratory love as “gratitudes generous cousin”.

In my InSpire for the next 6 weeks, let's find out more about this fabulous term and how we can integrate it as a habit into our lives, if it is not already there, or enhance its use, if it is there…

How Brian Johnson describes it…

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.

She describes 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.

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. 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 counselling 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!!

Let’s move from theory to practice.

Spend a moment thinking of three people you love very much. Who are they?

Wonderful.

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

Name → Awesomeness

Fantastic.

I celebrate you and your awesomeness.

Now, let’s make that a habit!

As we bring positive clear energy into our own lives, we are affecting the global picture as well. Let's dedicate our practice for our own growth and deeper understanding, as well as extending it out to our families, friends and the wider community.

Namaste