Yet positive emotions seldom occur in life-threatening situations. As such, a psychological process that narrows a person’s momentary thought-action repertoire to promote quick, decisive action may not be needed. Instead, I have argued that positive emotions have a complementary effect: They broaden people’s momentary thought-action repertoires, widening the array of the thoughts and actions that come to mind. Joy, for instance, creates the urges evident not only in social and physical behavior but also in intellectual and artistic behavior. Interest a phenomenologically distinct positive emotion creates the urge to explore, take in new information and experiences, and expand the self in the process. Contentment, a third distinct positive emotion, creates the urge to sit back and savor current life circumstances and integrate these circumstances into new views of self and of the world. And love-which I view as an amalgam of distinct positive emotions (e.g., joy, interest, and contentment) experienced within contexts of safe, close relationships-creates recurring cycles of urges to play with, explore, and savor our loved ones. These various thought-action tendencies-to play, to explore, or to savor and integrate-represent ways that positive emotions broaden habitual modes of thinking or acting.