• 19/01/2023
• By wizewebsite
• 362 Views

Help, I grabbed the mood.The good and the bad one is infectious<

When twenty students of the police school in Sokolov collapsed this year before the holidays during the festive end of the school year, the first skeptical reaction of many people was: "Did the youth wear something to celebrate."

However, the police ruled out alcohol and drugs. Also food poisoning and leakage of gas or other harmful substances. She even contacted the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, but even they did not report any anomalies in the weather. Doctors concluded it was hyperventilation caused by stress.

Social Contagion

The collapse of one or two girls probably triggered a suggestive reaction. A kind of emotional chain was created between the students. It's called social contagion, and a classic example is yawning. You know it: one person yawns and within five minutes half of the people around are yawning. You literally "catch" a yawn.

The founder of analytical psychology, Carl Gustav Jung, already spoke about the contagiousness of emotions. Since then, scientists have discovered that drinking alcohol, smoking, mental health, habits, musical tastes, political preferences, obesity (yo, you may have "caught" those extra pounds from a reciprocating friend) spread through this mechanism, but most often that's how the mood spreads.

Daniel Colemanpsychologist

And because we have advanced technology, a particularly bad mood can be transmitted over long distances. Social networks in particular are teeming with its sowers. Plus, this isn't just a bad mood, she's just… stupid.

The term "suffocating and stupid mood" was first used by Václav Havel in autumn 1997 in a Rudolfinum speech to describe the social atmosphere. The expression caught on as an apt terminus technicus and settled in our almost everyday vocabulary.

But so that we don't spread this suffocating monster, the good news is that according to research, positive emotions spread faster and easier than negative ones.

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“It was at the beginning of the Vietnam War. A platoon of American soldiers sat around a fire in rice paddies, in the middle of a raging battle with the Viet Cong. Suddenly they saw that six monks were approaching them in a row on the raised bridges that separated the individual flooded fields. Completely calm, the monks walked with dignity to the battle line," psychologist Daniel Goleman describes the iconic story in the book Emotional Intelligence.

“They did not look to the right or to the left. They went straight through. It was really strange because no one was shooting at them. And when they crossed the bridge, all desire to fight suddenly left me, at least for the day. It must have been that way with everyone because they all quit. We just stopped fighting," US soldier David Busch told Goleman.

This is, however, an example of an extreme manifestation of the transfer of emotions. This is because it usually takes place on a much subtler, almost imperceptible level. "It happens completely unconsciously. That's why a conversation with some people is encouraging, while other conversations seem to pour poison into our veins," explains Daniel Goleman and deals with how feelings actually spread.

Monkeys make monkeys

Neither viruses nor bacteria are behind it, but most likely so-called mirror neurons. Have you heard of them? This is one of the most recent discoveries in neuroscience!

In experiments with macaque monkeys, scientists discovered that there are cells in their brains that are activated when the monkeys perform a movement, but also when they observe another monkey performing this movement. In this way, the behavior of others is actually mirrored in their brain, as if it were their own.

Well, given the similarity of the macaque brain to the human brain, there is a high probability that these neurons are also found in us.

“It means that we can really get infected by someone's mood. Not only do we observe it in someone else, but thanks to the activity of mirror neurons we actually experience it on our own skin," explains Miriam Akhtarová, a leading British expert on positive psychology.

When the editor asked her in an interview how she deals with this finding in her practical life, she simply answered: "I watch comedies that infect me with humor and avoid depressing news." It sounds trite, but let's face it , that it is the advice of one of the world's greatest experts on the science of happiness, i.e. the science of happiness!

Or as her compatriot Ralph Smart says in his motivational videos: "You become what you surround yourself with." Energies are contagious. Choose carefully. Your environment becomes you.”

Stickers for emotions

In connection with macaques, the Czech language offers a convenient expression "apečit se". Professionally, this is called empathic mimicry, and it is about subconsciously imitating the expression, way of speaking, posture, gestures and other behavior that we see in our immediate environment. Again – we mirror. They say it's mainly out of convenience, because imitating the behavior and actions of others is simply easier than resisting them.

And the more often we see the person in question, the closer they are to us spatially and emotionally, or if it is our superior, for example, the more we resist. Women are generally weaker individuals in such emotional resistance, as they are more receptive to non-verbal communication.

You probably can't change your gender or genes, but you can change your job, friends or environment. Before you decide to do it, try to track your reactions to the moods of the people around you. There are eight basic emotions: joy, sadness, fear, disgust, surprise, anticipation, anger, and trust. Be neutral about them, don't label them as good or bad.

The second step should be to try not to identify with them automatically. Realize that maybe this mood/emotion came from someone else and quite possibly will go away again in a short time.

Acclaimed leadership lecturer Stephen Covey had a special mantra for this: “We are not our feelings. We are not our moods. Not even our thoughts.” He also taught that we are not just a product of our environment, we are the result of our decisions. That our greatest strength lies between stimulus and response. It's called freedom of choice.