The focus of Act Happy Week is to educate the public about purposeful actions you can take to create chemical shifts in your body that drive Positive Emotions. Here is today’s exercise:
I remember when my children were younger and we were trying to get past the childhood disease phase, we’d send the boys to hang out with friends who had chicken pox, hoping they’d get infected.
Emotions are more contagious than viruses. I’m sure you’ve had the experience of having a roomful of people shift within moments after someone with a really heavy anger issue enters the room – or conversely, when an infectiously upbeat person arrives.
If you’re having a “mood” that just won’t quit, consider who you’re surrounded by. Studies show that friends and family influence us in many invisible ways. “Your friends make you fat” was the headline of a recent study on nutrition and exercise – friends and friends of friends influence how you think and behave.
Your friends also make you happy – or scared, or angry, or joyful! A quick way to shift to a more positive emotional space is to find and spend time with others who are already there.
CHEAP TRICK for the weekend: A Night at The Movies. Research shows that watching a movie with a happy ending will lift your spirits for up to 48 hours after watching – even if you’ve seen the movie before! Thus for the cost of one movie rental, you can “hang out” with a happy crowd.
(NOTES: 1) sad movies have the same affect, so be careful what you watch when you need to feel happy. 2) Sad movies may also cause you to eat dark chocolate, which sort of offsets the downside <grin>)
I am very happy
So glad to hear that, Quannell. It’s a choice!