But you would be wrong on both.
Human beings are, if nothing else, social animals. We interact with others constantly, we require it to stay sane. There’s a reason that solitary confinement is a punishment for criminals who are already being punished, and that infants that develop with little or no human interaction are, in many cases, irrecoverably mentally damaged. We need to interact because it fulfills a basic human need.
So there should be little doubt that our happiness affects others, and the happiness of others affects us. There’s research that estimates that the happiness, or conversely the depression of a spouse or life partner makes the other spouse or life partner almost 40% more likely to also be happy or depressed. Family, friends, colleagues, and even acquaintances all have an effect on us to one degree or another. The closer you are to the person, the more likely they are to affect you in a big way.
Which means two things:
- You owe it not only to yourself but to the people in your life to try and be happy. Just being a happy, positive person in someone else’s life can make a big difference to that person.
- You should avoid chronically negative people, the ones who are completely determined to make life miserable and find the very worst of any situation. Of course you could look at it from the other side, and say that by being close to that person you may change them for the better, but just like some people are determined to be happy, whatever the circumstances, there are people who refuse to be anything other than grumpy and depressed, and it might be better to save yourself, rather than stay on a sinking ship.
Above all though, think happy and be positive, and be one of the people who drags the happiness of the people around them up a bit, rather than one of the ones who drags everyone else down.
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