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Change The Energy In The Room Using Emotional Contagion
June 11th, 2021 by Audrey Weidman
Did you know emotions spread through communities just like the flu? A single happy person makes the people around them happier by 34%. Those affected in turn make others happier by 15%. The ripple keeps spreading, with the next layer happier by 6%. I’m guessing you’d like to be that person – the catalyst for happiness.
If you want to see exactly how contagious emotions can be, check out this video.
We are energetic beings and our hearts emit the strongest energy field. In an experiment, trained volunteers were in high heart brain coherence. The electromagnetic signal they radiated made the test subjects heart coherence increase too. The trained volunteers didn’t even touch the test subjects. They were just in the same room!
In case you think this is a bunch of woo woo, think back on a time when you’ve entered a room and felt the “vibe”. Maybe it felt good, you loved being there and enjoyed the company. Maybe it was bad and you couldn’t leave fast enough.
Unfortunately negative people spread contagion too. Even more so than positive people. It’s the way our brains are wired. Our ancestors survived by paying more attention to negative information. This allowed them to avoid danger and increase their chance of survival. The negativity bias is strong for many of us – me included – because that is how we evolved.
And that negative bias is contagious. For example, being around someone who is stressed can increase your own stress levels. The effects are more strongly correlated the more of a connection you have with that person.
So if you are trying to reduce your stress stop and look around you. Is your boss, coworkers, spouse stressed? If so, their stress could be compounding your stress.
And you don’t have to be in close proximity to for emotional contagion to work. Social media, movies, music and the news all are purveyors of emotion. This serves as a caution to be aware of what media you consume and who you follow on social media.
Play upbeat music that puts a spring in your step. Select television programing that lifts you up. Follow people on social media who lift you up and make you feel good about you.
When I had my heart attack, it was right before the 2016 election. Politics then (and now) was toxic. I was already shell-shocked, reeling from having a heart attack.
I paid attention to how I was feeling and decided to stop watching the news. Many people asked me, “How I could do that?”. I would be uninformed of world events! You know what? If something big happens, people will tell you. I knew I didn’t want to contribute to the negative energy that was spinning all around me.
Some other things I did was I controlled my social media. On Facebook I unfriended people who were offensive to me. People say things on social media they would never say in person and it can bring out the worst in them. I didn’t need that.
Next, I followed thought leaders I enjoyed and had them show up first in my feed. That way I could still enjoy social media when I wanted to go online. You have more power than you think! Create an environment for you to succeed in being happier and less stressed.
You can put the power of emotional contagion to work for you. Make a list of the happiest people you know and make a plan to get together with a least 4 of them in the coming month.
Whenever you hear a bad news story that upsets you, do a web search for contradictory evidence (e.g. “Good news about….”). This will help to put the bad news in context.
Finally, learn to create your own heart-brain coherence and change the energy in the room. A very effective tool I use is a biofeedback device from HeartMath. HeartMath is a leading researcher of the heart-brain connection. When we lead with our heart, we create coherence and positively affect others.
By clipping a little blue tooth device onto our ear, connecting it to an app on our phone, we can see what’s going on inside of us! We learn how to shift towards renewing feelings such as appreciation and compassion. This little tool was a game changer for me. Learn more about it right here. Should you decide you’d like to get one, I will help you set it up.
If you found my blog post informative, please leave a comment below and let me know what information was new or transformative. And please share it with someone who needs to hear this.
For more information on stress busting techniques, you are invited to like and visit my Facebook page. I also invite you to schedule a conversation with me to see if I can help.
Having feedback from our own physiology is really important. It’s not about what works for others, but tuning in to our own blips and beeps
Absolutely. Awareness is key. Then we can start our own ripple.