When you are in a relaxed state—well rested and with your emotions tempered—you have much easier access to beneficial emotions such as love and gratitude.
You have greater ability to use executive function—reasoning, lateral thinking, and creativity.
In a reflective state you can apologize for an emotional overreaction. You can reach out a hand to someone less fortunate. This is rather remarkable, and a powerful human trait.
But you need to be in the right emotional state to access those higher order rulesets. And it takes practice.
Most of us have situations or physical locations that are particularly beneficial for tapping our prefrontal cortex’s extensive rulesets.
Think about places and situations where you do your most creative thinking (unfortunately, you can’t spend all day in the shower, but you get the idea).
