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Happiness spreads like a virus
Filed Under The way I see it
That makes sense I thought as I read this from Positive Psychology News.
research shows that within a social network, happiness spreads among people up to three degrees of separation. That means when you feel happy, your friend’s friend’s friend has a higher likelihood of feeling happy too. And, it applies in both real and virtual worlds.
We all know people who are mostly happy and others who are mostly unhappy. I try to avoid people who are always unhappy. They really drag me down. Being with people who are mostly happy is energizing, while being with people who are mostly unhappy just sucks the energy out of me. Who needs that!
It’s encouraging to know that happiness can spread like a virus and affect people we aren’t directly in contact with. I kind of like the idea that when I am happy my students can catch my happiness and spread it to others they know, etc., etc.
As far as happiness in the virtual world, I can see that happening too. I find that when I read blogs like Mathew’s or Tracy’s or listen to a podcasts like Jason’s or watch the TED videos that have a positive, happy tone, I can’t help but feeling happy. I’ve never meet any of these people in person, but it doesn’t matter. I’m still happy after our virtual meeting. Imagine all the happiness that gets spread this way.
I imagine that all the doom and gloom we hear in the media affects us negatively and spreads to our social network, too. Scary. I wonder if I should stop being a news junkie and listen to jazz more often. Listening to jazz makes me happier than watching the news. In fact, I’m listening to jazz.fm as I write this post and I’m feeling pretty happy. That, is a good thing.
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3 Responses to “Happiness spreads like a virus”
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Elona, I love this post.
It’s all about doing what we need to do to be happy – and happiness affects us in all areas of our lives! As you wrote, it also affects those we come into contact with.
My first supervising teacher, when I was a student teacher, told me, “you’ll attract more bees with honey than with vinegar”. When I am having a particularly tough time I try to remember that, to change my outlook because how I see things has such a profound effect on the things I see.
Have a great day!
Tracy
.-= Tracy Rosen´s last blog ..Who tells you how to teach? =-.
We need more people that are happy!!! ehhehe
One of my students went to China this past holiday, and he brought me back a gift: it was a good luck chime. I placed it above my desk in the Science office. My colleagues call it the positive energy chime…it;s actually kind of funny..whenever someone is negative, I just tap on the chime as a joke, and it makes people laugh…so, these lucky chinese wind whimes do bring some positive energy to our department
.-= Mirjan Krstovic´s last blog ..Literacy Reflection: It’s all Greek to me! =-.
Hi Elona,
I just stumbled upon your blog and love this post! I couldn’t agree more. Thanks for sharing a message about the importance of happiness in teaching. I’ve linked your article to my organization’s Facebook Fanpage!