So I have been absent due to finals and packing but I guess that’s never an excuse. Won’t happen again. Today I traveled back home to Bogota to spend the holidays with my parents. It should be fun. I bought some magazines, reading I have also nelgected due to recent life management crisis, like Time. And found this article about something I have always known but is nice to see researched. The happiness effect, is how emotions and behaviors spread through social networks like contagious deseases. Conclusion? The more happy, positive people with good habits and high hopes you have in your life the more likely you are to emulate.
It may mean that an individual’s well-being is the product not just of his behaviors and emotions but more of the way they feed into a larger social network.
So… how can you make this benefit you?
Be selfish. Stay away from negative, whining, cynical people. Some may be family, so I am not saying to cut them out of your life entirely. Just don’t be with them so much; be there without becoming their constant shoulder, because listening to them whine is not going to help them either.
Accept the fact that your mom was right. Peer pressure is not that evident but it is nonetheless existent. So if you want to be healthy, hang around people who enjoy cooking, playing sports, who don’t smoke or do drugs. It is common sense yet until scientific data shows it most of us remain skeptic. Now it is here so it is time to surround yourself adequately.
