Emotion is contagious. So is motivation, mindset, and social talent. One of the first things that a psychologist will ask you when they are trying to determine why you feel sad or negative is who you surround yourself with, because your mental health is not just related to how your mind works – it is also related to the people you surround yourself with.
For a person that finds themselves frequently struggling with both negative emotions and behaviors, it may be a good idea to take objective inventory of the people that you surround yourself with:
- Do you find that the people around you are frequently negative about themselves or others?
- Do you find that you struggle to get support that you expect?
- Do you find that your friends and family are unmotivated, or not reflecting positive values?
- Do you find that becoming the people in your life could make your life worse, not better?
- Do you find that you don’t know many good parents, hard workers, or people with positive outlooks?
On the surface, sometimes even negative influences may seem like positive influences. For example, perhaps you have someone close to you that has the life you want (rich, big family, etc.), but the values and character they reflect isn’t something that you should strive for. You may also have people in your life that do activities you want to do (travel, work hard) but are otherwise mean or negative in some form.
Catching a Happier Life Through Positive Role Models
If emotions are contagious, then those you want to be close to should be the ones that have the emotions you seek. That is why it is helpful to surround yourself with positive role models, and to also find people in your life that you can look up to and model yourself after in a good way.
Positive role models help teach us how to find the path towards who we want to be and how we live our lives. Identifying these people and gravitating towards them is a great way to see what we can learn and how we can grow. Often you’ll find that when you’re near those that are living lives as truly positive people, you will find yourself feeling happier and more positive as a result.
