Catch It If You Can-And The Good News is You Can!

It seems that happiness is not merely a function of individual experience or choice, but is also a property of groups of people, in other words a collective phenomenon. It turns out that it is contagious. This is wonderful news with huge implications. It means we can all be carriers. They say misery loves company, but the same may be even more true of happiness. According to a study published by the British Medical Journal, scientists from Harvard University and UC San Diego showed that happiness spreads readily through social networks of family members, friends and neighbors. They found a “statistical relationship not just between your happiness and your friends' happiness, but between your happiness and your friends' friends' friends' happiness."

Knowing someone who is happy makes you 15.3% more likely to be happy yourself, the study found. A happy friend of a friend increases your odds of happiness by 9.8%, and even your neighbor's sister's friend can give you a 5.6% boost. There you have it: Three degrees of separation.

"Your emotional state depends not just on actions and choices that you make, but also on actions and choices of other people, many of which you don't even know," said Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, a physician and medical sociologist at Harvard who co-wrote the study. Go here to read more about this study, and then make a resolution for the New Year to be a “happiness carrier.”
http://www.webmd.com/balance/news/20081204/happiness-is-contagious