The Emotion of Elevation
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and I am definitely feeling love in the air. My friends and I like to celebrate holidays together, and I think we would all agree that there is something so elevating about a day dedicated to recognizing the love shared either between two people, a group of friends, or a whole community.
Credit: Twelve Women With Birds. Emily Balivet, 2006.
In The Positive Emotion of Elevation, Jonathan Haidt describes how a woman felt the “emotion of elevation” after witnessing an “unexpected act of goodness”. The woman was a passenger in a car with several other people on a snowy day. When the car passed by an elderly woman shoveling her walkway, one of the men in the car asked the driver if he could be let out. The woman first assumed that the man was just interested in getting home, so when she saw the man approach the old woman, asking her if he could shovel her walkway, she was shocked.
The way in which the woman described her emotional response to watching the man’s act of kindness was very interesting to me. She writes, “I felt like jumping out of the car and hugging this guy. I felt like singing and running, or skipping and laughing. Just being active. I felt like saying nice things about people. Writing a beautiful poem or love song. Playing in the snow like a child. Telling everybody about his deed.”
I wonder if I would have felt the same powerful uplifting of the soul if I had been in her place. I think I probably would have felt a similar emotion, because I often feel extremely inspired and optimistic after witnessing or performing acts of kindness.
I find that, in the cold wintery season we are currently in, it’s so important to hold onto and spread both literal and symbolic warmth. Symbolic warmth, to me, represents helping those in need, holding space for others, feeling grateful for and acknowledging the abundance of love in the world.
Credit: Chacruna: "Building a Psychedelic Community During the War on Drugs
I strongly believe that there is a ripple effect when people do good. Haidt’s conclusion that “elevation broadens and builds” resonated with me, because it makes sense to me why people who feel elevation after witnessing good deeds are more likely to do good themselves. I hope that the good and loving deeds to be done on Valentine’s Day promote a feeling of elevation for the entire Wheaton College community, so that we can all have enough warmth to get through the rest of winter.
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