It’s still winter, and around here the cold is being passed around again.  All it takes is one person in a crowded place and one well placed sneeze, and that cold gets spread to lots of people.  Then those people go on to spread the same sickness to almost everyone they run into.  The cold spreads quickly, and can infect an entire city from just one person.  And you know what else?

Happiness is just as infectious.  Happiness is infectious.  Have you ever made eye contact with a total stranger and seen them smile at you?  It feels like a sudden ray of sunlight enters your day.  Have you ever had a stranger go out of his or her way to help you?  I bet you walked away thinking how nice that person was, with a slight spring in your step.  Have you ever spent time with someone so positive that their mood rubbed off on you, making you happy too?  This is exactly what I mean.  There may be several billion people in this world, but we all have the opportunity and ability to influence the people around us.

Unfortunately though, there’s a flipside to this.  Negativity is just as viral.  If you’re in a bad mood, it’s very easy to spread that bad mood to others around you.  You can especially hurt those you are closest to without realizing it (and sometimes if you are especially negative, on purpose).  And of course you don’t just hurt those around you – you hurt yourself.  Negativity causes stress which has been proven to raise blood pressure and lower immune response.  That’s why people who are overly gloomy and down seem to get sick more often – they do get sick more often, because of the negative contribution from their mood.

So what can you do?  The first step is to start with you.  As the saying goes, “every cloud has its silver lining.”  Sometimes the worst situations you find yourself in are the best opportunities for growth.  I believe that a true optimist can find something good about even the worst situation.  What to do next is to get out there and spread the happiness virus.  Smile.  Do something nice for the sake of doing something nice.  Be enthusiastic about how good things are.  You might make a difference in someone’s day.  You might even immunize someone against viral unhappiness.  And these people will go into the world a little happier, some perhaps passing on their good mood further.  You make a positive contribution to the world, which makes the world a little brighter, a little happier, a little safer, and little more peaceful.  If you help people, it might even come back around and have someone help you.  And everyone likes to surround themselves with happy people.

But what if someone tries to spread their unhappiness to you?  Simple – be that much nicer to them.  The nicer you are, the more likely it is that instead of unhappiness spreading to you, your happiness will spread to them.  Besides, doing something like arguing isn’t the best way to get things done – if you take an opposite stance, others will consider you “against them,” which makes changing viewpoints difficult.  Instead, try agreeing with them, which should keep you from appearing opposite them.  You might even see that they relax their viewpoint somewhat.  But how to avoid argument is subject for another post.

So what are you waiting for?  Go out and make a positive impact in the world!  What goes around comes around – it might even make difference for you one day.  In my words, build up some positive karma today!

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