A new kind of germ

I had the best customer service welcome EVER yesterday. Our twins and I spontaneously decided to stop at 7-Eleven (can't say I've ever actually written that out...) for a treat. We chatted normally as we walked in the door, but were greeted by the most surprisingly cheerful gasp and a jolly middle-aged cashier exclaimed, "Oh, HI! WELCOME!!" Not sure if he just wasn't expecting customers that afternoon, or if he was truly that excited to see us, but either way it immediately put (even bigger) smiles on our faces. It was the best!

Science says there's a reason why this happened. Psychologists call it emotional contagion, and it means we can literally infect each other with our emotions! This can happen for positive or negative impact.

Has this happened to you? I know I've seen it in both ways.

A person who is genuinely happy just seems to lift others with them, and a person who is down in the dumps can bring others a level down just by their emotional energy.

Now, this doesn't mean you need to put on a fake smile and speak in exclamation points (!!) just for the sake of making others happy (if you're doing it with people close to you, it probably won't work anyway). It could actually be harmful to your own emotional health if you're doing it for an extended period of time. 

That said, if you can do the work to process negative emotions and genuinely shift them, the energy that people around you feel as a result can actually make your life more positive, which spirals upward. 

Amazing, right??

It also means that, once we're aware of this, we can sanitize our (emotional) hands and avoid being as strongly affected when others are dealing with hard things. Rather than sinking with them, we can stay on stable ground and offer a supporting hand -- letting them be positively boosted by our "joy germs".

I love learning about how we can add more freedom and joy to our lives with powerful little shifts like this. Adding this one to our "back to school" packing list, for the kids to take as a tool in their social backpacks (and my own, so I can manage my own emotions in a way that boosts their energy rather than weighs them down).