Have you ever felt really down in the dumps, and then some gives you a smile and feel instantly better? Have you ever seen someone crying and started crying yourself? Have you ever been around a high energy, positive person and you left the conversation feeling more uplifted and happy? It is not in your head; emotions are contagious.
EMOTIONAL CONTAGION
The phenomenon of an emotion being contagious is called emotional contagion. Emotional contagion means that you "catch" someone's emotion like you would a sickness. The process starts with you subconsciously mirroring someone's mannerisms, expressions, or overall attitude. By mirroring that emotion, the act of mimicking causes the emotion to be evoked within you, thus feeling like the emotion was contagious.
Gratitude operates in the same way! Gratitude is so contagious.
It is so powerful to realize that gratitude is truly contagious, and spreading it can start with you. There is power in realizing our personal gratitude practice can pass our gratitude along to people we interact with. We should feel encouraged knowing we have the power to spread gratitude to our family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, strangers on the street, customer service reps on the phone, grocery clerks-- this truly means everyone.
THE POWER OF GRATITUDE BEING CONTAGIOUS
There is power in expressing your gratitude and saying thank you or I appreciate you. Our words can be just as powerful as actions and there is such a need in today's society for people to feel appreciated. We all have the ability to fulfill this need for someone, and create a domino effect of gratitude!
There is power in showing your gratitude, too, and making it actionable. You can do this by making cookies for someone you love, giving a big hug, being polite and kind, listening intently, or sending someone a note in the mail. The beautiful thing about gratitude is that there are so many forms of the emotion and feeling, and they can be both actions and words.
Finally, to keep spreading your gratitude, remember that it all starts with you. Keeping a gratitude practice for yourself is so important if you want to spread gratitude to those around you. If you want to be a catalyst for a brighter, more positive world, spreading gratitude is such an easy way to help accomplish this.
There is no right or wrong way to have a gratitude practice. It is personal and unique, just as every person reading this is different! Whatever serves you and helps you have a more grateful heart is going to be the best gratitude practice for you. It can be daily, weekly, every morning and night - but the key with a gratitude practice is consistency.
Keep practicing an attitude of gratitude, and spread that gratitude into the world.
If you are interested in learning more about gratitude, you can also explore the symbol for gratitude in this blog post!
