If Happiness Is A Virus, Lets All Get Sick Together

This post is dedicated to my grad school classmate Yunhui Wang who made me aware of the article that is the inspiration for this post.

The article can be found here

This article makes amazing points about how happiness spreads through social networks and how happiness spreads much easier than unhappiness. Serious kudos to the author.

I would consider myself a friendly person however up until recently I had a tendency to be quite shy around people I did not know. After reading works by Norman Vincent Peale and Joel Osteen I realized that in order to make this world a better place and continue to be blessed I must easily share the happiness I have inside with anyone I come in contact with.

I started to say hello to as many random people as I could. The two largest samples being at the Lakeshore Foundation and the bike path I push on a weekly basis. I have seen many positive responses to my random hellos and some not so positive responses. I have found it is paramount to be thankful for the good ones and forget the less then good ones. Sometimes people are not on the frequency to be friendly and that is fine because that is their god given right.

My advice is never stop trying because you never know when you might pass along the happiness bug. Up until Sunday I had not been on the bike path for several weeks due to traveling and injuries. I was pleasantly surprised when a lady I said hello to many times without much response in return gave me a wave and a smile before I even fully recognized it was her.

I challenge you to figure out a way to pass on happiness today. It will make the world a better place for all us.

Thanks for reading!
Chris