Empathic care and empathic distress cluster nicely into positive and negative affective connotation.

The group of researchers discovering the different systems involved in empathic care and empthic distress, also conducted a cluster analysis on the associated feelings:

“a negative feeling cluster, including sadness, empathic distress, anger, fear, disgust, and negativity, which were correlated on average r = 0.80 ± 0.02 (SEM); a positive feeling cluster, including happiness and positivity, which were highly correlated at r = 0.95; and a bivalent cluster, including empathic care and surprise, which were correlated at r = 0.56” (emphasis added).

Thus, developping empathic care appears to be one way in which you can modulate your internal affective experience towards the positive end of the spectrum.

Consider the inclusion of surprise in the spectrum of positive emotions. Being surprised, at least for a good part of individuals, is one factor for positive emotions. If you’re one of these people, and your environment offers little surprises (or only particularly bad ones), your emotional spectum may already be thrown off balance without anything else occuring. This research also backs, why people living alone appear to be at a disadvantage with regard to chronic conditions and depression: The absence of empathic care leaves a hole in the spectrum of positive emotions, what may in turn throw off your sympathicomimetic balance.

If you don’t want to go down the “empathy towards all people” path of the Buddhists, there is another remedy: Cultivate enthusiasm. Dive into any subject that you may find interesting. Although tied to more primal systems, seeking/enthusiasm are also on the positive end of the spectrum. And if you ever encounter anybody who is enthusiast, don’t kill it unneccesarily. You create brute force distress.

Source: http://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(17)30415-4?_returnURL=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0896627317304154%3Fshowall%3Dtrue