Our Attitude is Contagious!

Do you ever have those days where you’re not quite feeling it? You know, you wake up and you’re in a bad mood and everything is sort of irritating? Well, we could look for all sorts of answers for why we have all had these days. There can be any number of reasons at any given moment to be feeling down in the dumps.

Now, do you let it carry throughout the rest of your day? Or do you nip it in the butt and toss it away? Although, it may not be easy, it’s important we give it a toss. Once we’re in that state of unhappiness it’s contagious. Whether you like to admit it or not, your energy bounces off everyone you come in to contact with. So remember if we’re having a rough day, what right do we have to take someone who is having a great day and pull them into our negativity? On the other hand, the complete opposite is pure gold. When we’re in a good mood the same thing happens. We pass on our energy to others adding value to their day rather than taking away from it.

For the most part, when we’re not quite feeling it, we are focused on what we don’t have, what we’re missing out on and even what we don’t want to do. If we’ve found ourselves stuck in this mindset, we can flick a switch to begin turning our thoughts.
I’m currently reading a few books. One in particular is “The Art of Happiness” by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler. M.D. Here is an excerpt from page 25 that relates to today post.

“Researchers have conducted a number of experiments demonstrating that one’s level of life satisfaction can be enhanced simply be shifting one’s perspective and contemplating how things could be worse. In one study, women at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee were shown images of the extremely harsh living conditions in Milwaukee at the turn of the century or were asked to visualize and write about going through personal tragedies such as being burned or disfigured. After completing this exercise, the women were asked to rate the quality of their own lives. The exercise resulted in an increased sense of satisfaction with their lives. In another experiment at the State University of New York at Buffalo, subjects were asked to complete the sentence “I’m glad I’m not a …” After five repetitions of this exercise, the subjects experienced a distinct elevation in their feeling of life satisfaction. Another group of subjects was asked by the experimenters to complete the sentence “I wish I were a …” This time, the experiment left the subjects feeling more dissatisfied with their lives.”

So, the morale of this post and the above excerpt is that, when we are feeling down, we should reflect on the things we do have and be grateful for these things. Once we flick that switch and begin to be thankful for our health, for the roof over our head and the great family and friends we have you can wash away those thoughts that placed you in a bad mood. Let’s face it, we don’t enjoy those moments of self doubt and insecurity. By monitoring our thoughts we can slowly but surely change the way we think and finally be in control of our destiny!

Scott Wain