When you have positive emotions soaring through you, you feel good. Who doesn’t want to feel amazing and live each day to the fullest? If you want happiness and live a healthy life, you want to experience the good things like joy, peace, contentment, and love.

Many benefits link to positive emotions, such as good health and an optimistic outlook on life. These are the emotions that make all your struggles seem bearable and worth it. Plus, you can consider them the spice that adds the pop of flavor to your existence. Can you imagine cooking without herbs and seasonings?

Of course not! So, life would be pretty crazy if you didn’t have these feelings that make the journey even more memorable.

25 Positive Emotions Everyone Needs to Feel

When you consider all the positive emotions out there, the list is nearly endless. The feelings listed here are not scholarly by any means, but they are things that people experience every day. Here are some of the most positive emotions you’ll encounter on life’s journey.

1. Serenity

The best way to describe serenity is that tranquil and calm feeling that gives you peace. You’ll feel this when you accept yourself and are proud of the person you’ve become. Some may describe this as the feeling of sitting near the ocean hearing the waves crash on the shore, as an overwhelming sense of harmony encompasses you.

positive emotions

2. Pride

You feel pride when you’ve accomplished something great. You find that your skills have a sense of approval, and you beam at your achievements. You feel pride when you get a promotion at work or do the impossible, or you may experience this when your spouse or children does incredible things.

3. Elevation

Your soul and spirit feel elevated when you show kindness to others. A sense comes with aspiring to do good and accomplish it. Some might say it’s the feeling you get after volunteering to help the homeless or cooking for a soup kitchen during the holidays.

4. Joy

Joy is an overwhelming sense of elation when something good happens in your life. You will experience joy on your wedding day, when you welcome a child into the world, or when the sun seems to be shining bright on you. Joy and contentment run together, as does the feeling of joy and excitement.

5. Satisfaction

When you experience a sense of pleasure and contentment, you’re feeling satisfaction. You’ll feel this way when you fill a need for your family, like buying your first home. You can also experience this emotion when you reach those long-term goals you’ve been working towards.

6. Affection

You’ll experience affection when you develop an emotional attachment to someone you love. A feeling of love and happiness often accompanies this, but it can also be associated with warmth and friendliness.

7. Relief

You know the feeling of relief, as when that situation you didn’t think would turn out good came out better than expected. Some folks feel comfort once they do their taxes each year or pay off a massive bill hanging over their heads. Relief is a break from the tension and strain that makes you feel like your load just got a little lighter.

8. Happiness

What does it mean to be happy? Well, it’s a feeling that you’re satisfied and that life is going your way. You’ve stepped from existing to living. To be happy means that you’re experiencing contentment and joy.

9. Gratitude

A heart of thanksgiving shows gratitude. You will also feel positivity coming from other accompanied feelings like humility. Being grateful for the things you have will change your life, and it will help you find contentment.

Having an attitude of gratitude means everything. A blog post on Linked In confirms that having gratitude is a huge deal. Many people don’t realize that it’s part of your relationships, your association with the Universe, and it affects how you view humanity.

10. Euphoria

Euphoria is one of the intense feelings you experience. It’s an overwhelming sense of joy or pleasure, often felt when something very encouraging and exhilarating occurs. Some folks have these feelings when they’re in love.

11. Interest

Your interest is a sense of curiosity or attraction that demands and grabs your focus. You experience interest in a good television program, movie, or person you want to enter a relationship with.

12. Inspiration

Inspiration is often an engaged, heartened, and encouraged feeling that occurs by something you observe. You might feel inspired by someone who overcomes impossible odds and comes out on top. Additionally, you might feel inspired when you connect with your spiritual side.

13. Love

Some would agree that, hands down, love is the greatest of all emotions. Though some say love is a choice, it’s an intense and all-encompassing feeling. To love someone or something means you elevate them above yourself, including their needs.

positive emotions

14. Hope

When you feel hope, you have good energy and optimism. You embrace positivity, and there’s an anticipation of good things. You have hope when you are on a journey of better health and that something in your strained relationship will work out.

15. Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm is a feeling of pleasure, accompanied by inspiration and engagement. You might feel enthusiastic when you get a job promotion or get married. It also runs hand-in-hand with a feeling of joy.

16. Cheerfulness

You feel joyful and chipper when you’re cheerful. Your views change from negative to optimistic, and it seems as if everything is going your way. Simply put, the world is your oyster, and you feel like you can conquer anything in your way.

17. Awe

Awe is an emotion that is aroused when you observe something magnificent, spectacular, or astounding, and It’s a feeling of complete overwhelming appreciation. You might feel awe the first time you look into the eyes of your newborn child or when you meet one of your heroes or idols in person.

18. Confidence

Confidence is essential as you can’t do anything without it. Indeed, having faith in yourself and believing you can conquer all the challenges you face. This emotion is linked directly to your self-esteem and how you view yourself as a person.

19. Altruism

Altruism isn’t a word you hear commonly, but it’s associated with a feeling of selflessness and generosity towards other folks. Some might feel altruistic when they help others or give back. It’s a feeling or word that connects to philanthropy.

20. Amusement

Amusement is one of the positive emotions you feel, associated with pleasure or enjoyment. Good energy comes from being humorous or watching something that you find funny on TV. Amusement is entertaining and always comes with laughter and pure fun.

21. Abundance

When you have everything you need and some to spare for others, you feel the overwhelming peace of abundance. This emotion makes you feel good because you have so much that you don’t have to worry about running out of things. While most people would want this feeling attached to money or their finances, some would say it would be better to have an abundance of food or friends.

22. Blissful

When you’re blissful, you’ve reached a state of deep or improved satisfaction or gratification. Some feel blissful around the holidays, while others think this when they have true joy inside.

23. Dynamism

Dynamism is vitality and vigor; you will feel this excitement when you reach a goal or conquer something that’s overwhelmed you. When you experience this emotion, there’s been a shift in your favor, and you’re ready for the next challenge. When you graduate from college, you may share this and are prepared to face the world with your degree in hand.

24. Freedom

Freedom is the sense of having chains taken off you. The chains are a proverbial feeling of something that holds you back. Some may feel freedom when they break free from a toxic relationship or a job that made them miserable.

25. Goodwill

When you desire only good things for someone else, you feel goodwill. You don’t care if they think the same way about you, but you want to see this person happy, healthy, and fulfilled. Goodwill Ambassadors go to different countries, promoting global brotherhood and helping one another.

According to UNICEF, they stand up for human rights and do nothing but good. UNICEF is the organization that sponsors these people.

positive emotions

Final Thoughts on Positive Emotions Everyone Needs to Feel

As you looked through this list, you probably recognized all the emotions mentioned, whether you’d experienced them or not. Still, the greatest of all these feelings is love. When you have an enduring affection for someone that supersedes material things and your needs, it’s a feeling like none other.