The Gift of Happiness
How to Have Happy Holidays in Tough Times and Good OnesLooking for holiday gift ideas and homemade Christmas Gifts to help create happy holidays in these tough times? Why not give the gift of happiness? New research shows that happiness is infectious.Happiness is ContagiousA recent study by Professor Nicholas Christakis from Harvard Medical School and Professor James Fowler from the University of California, San Diego, analyzed data collected in the Framingham Heart Study to find out if happiness can spread from person to person and if clusters of happiness form within social networks. It turns out that not only does happiness spread from you to your friends, but your friend’s friends benefit too. The really good news for tough times is that misery does not spread as easily as happiness.The study found that direct, casual social contact with a happier person increases the probability of happiness by 34 percent. Casual, direct social contact with person 2 increases the probability of increased happiness in person 3 by almost 10 percent, and person 4 by 5.6%. The scientific principal behind these research findings is called emotional contagion. Study author Nicholas Christakis says that human emotions appear in clusters, behaving like stampeding animals. One unusual aspect of this research is that happiness seems to spread most through same sex relationships that are more casual. While a spouse’s increased happiness does make a difference, it is only about 8% compared to 34% for a friend. The pattern also does not seem to apply at all to work relationships. Predicting HappinessDr. Daniel Gilbert, in his book Stumbling on Happiness, points out that human beings are not always very good at predicting what makes them happy. During tough economic times, people think that cutting back on material gifts will dampen the holiday sparkle and feelings of good cheer, but science shows this does not have to be the case. It turns out that you can make the season bright just by showing up at the party and being happy and joyful, even if you do show up empty handed.Happiness is a GiftHappiness is homemade gift. You do not need to buy it. You can create it by doing an activity you both enjoy. Perhaps you will play a game or sing carols together, or just remember good times past and have a good laugh. When the season is over, this holiday gift will keep on giving good memories and good feelings to the giver and recipient.So this Holiday Season, give the gift of happiness and not only your friends, but your whole community will feel better for it.
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