Catch the happiness bug

image from here

Did you know that happiness is contagious?
Yep, those guys at Harvard have done it again by showing that if one person is happy, it creates a ripple effect in the people around them, even if those people are complete strangers. It's a concept called "Emotional contagion" and has been studied and documented since 1994. Until this study, emotional contagion research dealt mainly with negative emotions, showing how contagious destructive emotions such as fear, sadness and anger are.
And if you think about it, emotional contagion is a fundamental pack survival instinct, going back to cave man days where if a tiger was running towards your camp, you would have to sense the danger and fear of your other cave men to have even a small chance of survival. So just as you can catch happy, you can catch stress too.
So still don't think you can catch happiness?
Well not to fear, the Harvard guys say that is it possible to learn how to be happy. It's all about emotional management. One trick I use is positive affirmations. Every morning look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself that you ARE HAPPY. Yes, it sounds stupid, but it works and is a hell of alot cheaper (and better for you) than vallium! And who knows, maybe you'll be the first one to start a happiness epidemic in your house, neighbourhood and work place.