When I was younger, I heard a story that I found quite ludicrous - in fact a placebo for those with no science to back their thoughts.
Allegedly, long, long ago, there was a man travelling from one town to another, and midway there stopped at a roadside well for a drink and espying a man seated in the shade of a nearby tree asked this stranger whether he knew anything about the town ahead.
The stranger thereupon asked the traveller how he had found the town he had just left, and the man replied that he had found the town arrogant, cold, selfish, and not at all a happy place. The stranger then told the traveller that he could expect pretty much the same from the town ahead. The traveller, cursing, left, heading to the town anyway, but even unhappier and expecting the worst.
Not long after, another traveller vending his way from one town to the next also stopped at the roadside well and while having a drink, saw the stranger under the shade of the tree and approached him with a smile, and asked if he needed help or was lost. No, the stranger told him cheerfully, he had only stopped to enjoy a drink himself and a bit of shade under the tree.
"How is that town ahead?" asked the second traveller of the man in the shade.
"How was the last town?" questioned the stranger.
"Oh! It was the best!" replied the traveller. "I was in fact loath to leave. The folk were kindly and quite friendly, plied me with much food and drink, and I never laughed so hard - they were cheerful and happy people - about the happiest town I've seen - and I've seen a lot!"
"Well, my dear friend," said the stranger then, "Expect more of the same at the next town. In fact you may even find it the happiest town you have ever visited so far."
"That's wonderful!" said the traveller and immediately made ready to leave. "That's good news for I have business there, and I'm sure now to do well."
This story of course sound a bit of a parable - an Old Mother's legend handed down, as I said, in the fashion of a traditional placebo to placate the unhappy, and spur the happy.
But then Science stepped in.
In the last decade, neuroscience has taken off - and with the advent of fMRI, a huge amount of information on how and why the brain functions as it does is coming to light. Some of these findings are mind-blowing - for instance the fact that Happiness is communicable. Yes, emotion is infectious - which means unhappiness is also an emotion that spreads as fast. Bonding through negativism, or positivism, is driven along at the same speed, but by different parts of the machine.
For example - if you have a happy friend who lives within a mile of you - your chance of Happiness increases by 25 percent. And that is just one finding published in the
British Medical Journal from a study that analyzed data on almost 5000 people in the Framingham Heart Study. A partner who is a 'happy type' can raise their live-in partner's happiness by 8 percent, happy siblings that live nearby can boost happiness by 14 percent, and if you have happy neighbors, that figure can rise as high as 34 percent. A happy friend that lives within half a mile of you gives you as much as a 42 percent greater chance of Happiness yourself. The closer they are, the happier your brain gets.
Quantum mechanics, and relativity, actually seem to agree . . .
The authors of the study - a social scientist from Harvard, and a political scientist from the University of California concluded that
" . . . changes in individual happiness can ripple through social networks and generate large-scale structure in the network, giving rise to clusters of happy people."
In fact, the same is true of depression.
Clinical psychologist Michael Yapko, for instance, identifies bad relationships as the problem in spreading depression, and urges readers to develop the social skills necessary to build good relationships in a 2009 book titled
Depression Is Contagious: How the Most Common Mood Disorder is Spreading Around the World and How To Stop It.
People resonate with one another. If it's cool to get the joke and be happy then you must. If it seems cool to be negative - then everybody jumps on the bandwagon - it's easier to complain, than to appreciate.
But putting aside the 'cool' for a moment - I think the hottest truth to come out of findings like this is that there is no question the people you choose to associate with, can either lift or lower your spirits.
Choose wisely.
I wish you all Happiness my friends . . .
👍 It's actually really cool when you smile.
