Science has identified three emotions that have the power to heal both body and soul: gratitude, love, and faith. These feelings can be gently cultivated to invite more happiness, creativity, deeper relationships, and even stronger resilience against illness. In his work The 3 Emotions That Heal, Emmanuel Pascal shares how these emotional energies become pathways to inner transformation.

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What Are the Emotions That Heal?

Here are the three core healing emotions, each surrounded by related states of being that help evoke them:

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Faith

Lightness, prayer, optimism, hope, courage, surrender, flow, trust, openness, doubt, devotion, and a sense of divine protection.

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Love

Courtesy, honesty, respect, service, understanding, kindness, compassion, sharing, selflessness, tenderness, forgiveness, healthy attachment, and unconditional love.

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Gratitude

Thankfulness, the feeling of being loved, acceptance, honoring grief, blessings, contentment, recognition, heart-opening, smiling, simplicity, laughter, wonder, contemplation, and joy.

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The Three Dimensions of Emotion

Emotion is not merely a thought—it is a full-bodied experience with multiple layers:

• Neurophysiological:
  Emotions flow through the autonomic nervous system, traveling via hormones—chemical messengers in the bloodstream—that influence distant receptors and shift our physical state.
• Expressive:
  Emotions are visible and tangible through body language and facial expression.
• Subjective:
  Emotion is shaped by our personal history and perception. Two people may experience very different emotions in response to the same situation. Unlike thought-based feelings, emotions are physiological and outwardly perceptible. Feelings often follow emotions and can, in turn, trigger new emotional responses.

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How Can We Use These Emotions to Support Healing and Happiness?

We humans have a beautiful ability: to summon emotion through thought. Just as remembering a painful moment can bring tears, recalling a joyful one can rekindle that warmth in the heart. Whether the memory is real or imagined, what truly matters is the emotional vibration and its felt intensity.

When you consciously observe and welcome a positive emotion, its healing frequency grows stronger. Your brain loves comfort, and it will return to that emotional state more easily over time.

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Add Coherence to Multiply the Healing

Practicing heart coherence (a regulated, rhythmic breathing practice) amplifies the benefits of positive emotions. It balances the nervous system and fosters inner calm. When you pair heart coherence with emotions like gratitude, love, or faith, you create a physiological reward loop—your heart, your brain, and your whole being begin to crave that serenity.

Just as a joyful child becomes more joyful when we laugh and play with them, your emotional system begins to rewire itself for peace, compassion, and lightness.

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What Happens in the Brain?

You are strengthening the neural pathways connected to that specific emotion.

In other words, you are clearing and widening the trail that leads to joy, peace, and connection.

Over time, this emotional path becomes familiar. It becomes easier to follow. Eventually, it becomes your new default state. So healing emotions like softness, contentment, trust, and gratitude begin to shape your personality in beautiful, lasting ways.

Healing becomes your second nature. Like many who practice heart coherence, you may notice a gentle side effect: a reduced tolerance for negative emotions. Not necessarily for negative events themselves—but for the toxic emotional reactions that no longer feel natural to you. When we’ve learned to rest in inner peace, chaos becomes less comfortable—and less attractive.

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Example: Cultivating the Feeling of Being Loved

Brain imaging has shown that feelings of altruism, compassion, and rejoicing in others’ happiness—central to Buddhist practice—activate the left prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain associated with well-being, positive emotions, and emotional resilience.

Traditional Buddhist meditation begins with self-compassion, and gradually extends outward: first to loved ones, then to neutral people, then even to those we struggle with—until all beings, human and beyond, are included.

This echoes the teaching of Christ: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

At its root is a powerful truth: self-love is the foundation of universal love.

Psychology confirms it—healthy self-esteem supports all balanced relationships.

We can only love well when we have first received love and truly felt what it means to be held in tenderness.

The world’s great spiritual traditions—Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and others—each speak of unconditional divine love flowing toward all living beings.

In Buddhism, compassion and altruism are keys to happiness. In Christianity, love for one’s neighbor is the doorway to the kingdom of God. These spiritual pathways are intertwined with the experience of being loved, and with the spirit of gratitude.

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The Science of Love and Immunity

At Harvard, Dr. McClelland asked participants to meditate on all the people who had ever shown them kindness, tenderness, or care. The result? Their T-cell count (a marker of immune health) increased significantly.

Like them, we too can pause and reflect on everyone who has ever shown us love or care—even in small ways. Sitting tall, with deep and rhythmic breaths (ideally at a six-second inhale/exhale rhythm), we reconnect with that emotional memory.

In doing so, we elevate our well-being—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

And in that sacred space of love and gratitude, we heal💚.