Happiness Blog July 22, 2019

Emotions can be contagious. The more people in our lives who are genuinely happy, the more likely we are to feel happiness. The same goes for joy. Look at the people in your life and ask yourself, do they seem joyful? It does not need to be Pollyanna level joy, but they do need to register to you as joyful. As you do this, ask yourself: how did these people come to be in your life? What type of people are you attracted to? To be clear, you can be dark and still have a sense of joy. Having a dark sense of humor or fighting for social good does not mean a person is joyless.

A lot of very serious people have joy in their life. The key to this exercise is to determine whether you feel joyful when you are in their presence. Often, how we perceive someone is how they impact us. If you perceive them to be joyless, you will most likely not feel joyful around them. Our perception shapes our reality. As we craft a more joyful existence, paying attention to the energy around is vitally important. The energy that we have around impacts our psychology and colors the lens through which we view our life. Our lens and perceptions directly affect our beliefs about how joyful life is.

Spending more time with the people who seem joyful will help encourage a more joyful outlook. It is important to be careful that the joyful people are not overwhelmingly joyful. Another aspect to consider is how they impact your energy levels. If you find people in general to be draining, balancing time spent with people against time spent alone is important. Don’t overextend yourself, because that will reduce your emotional resilience. The goal is not to maximize your time spent socially but rather to examine the energy of the people you spend time with.

Posted on Monday: 22 July, 2019