Using Emotional Power to Envision the Impossible

Key points

Negative emotions cause us to focus on failures and threats.

The emotion of awe can create a broad, creative focus.

Feelings of awe can promote the ability to envision the impossible.

Emotions are powerful. They can radically change the ways that we think, feel, and act in just fractions of a second.

The world can often feel chaotic and out of control. In our daily lives, we can become stuck in cycles of anger and grief . Our circumstances, whatever they are, can feel completely entrenched, as if there is no way out and no hope. Often in these times, we feel alone, as if no one understands or, even worse, that other people are helping to create the terrible situation.

These feelings might or might not have a basis in reality, but we experience these situations as very