A recent study has shown that stress COULD actually be passed on to other people in a similar way to passing on a common cold. So be careful who you associate with.
Since her first published book in 1969,Professor Elaine Hatfield of the University of Hawaii, has been academically researching many aspects of human behaviour. One of the latest studies she has commented on was to do with how easily we can catch stress from each other. She has suggested that we could even be likened to emotional sponges, meaning we can absorb the emotions of those around us.
Professor Hatfield found that not only
do we take on other people's negative thought patterns, we can also subconsciously take on other people's stressed out body language,
causing us to hunch our shoulders and furrow our brows when we talk to
them. As we begin to absorb these feelings, we could find that we become stressed ourselves. Marie Claire reported Professor Hatfield as saying 'Women are more at risk because they tend to be more in tune with other people's feelings,'
It's not all bad news though. The flip side of this is that just as we can all be influenced by the negative energy in our peers, we can also be influenced by the positive. If you spend time in good company talking in a positive manner (you can still acknowledge all your negative issues in a positive way), using positive body language you could 'catch' a stress-free disposition.
Obviously things like meditation and exercise are an important factor to keep your mood elevated. There may be times when we feel like 'the gods are against us'. Being aware of these difficulties is important, finding solutions to things which cause us emotional or physical suffering can be done in a pro-active way. We need to take responsibility for our own problems and sharing problems and working on solutions together is great, be aware of the fact that it can effect those around you.
If you would like to talk about any of the issues brought up in these posts, you can either post a comment or contact me (click on the front page).
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