When you practice joyful appreciation (mudita) or similar attitudes like kindness (metta) or compassion (karuna), it makes you happier. This happiness has a ripple effect on your social circle. Your friends become happier because you’re happy, their friends become happier, and so on. This spread of happiness works like a positive virus through your social network.
Though it might sound unbelievable, there’s solid evidence for this effect based on a large study conducted by Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Diego. James H. Fowler, a professor of Medical Genetics from San Diego, and Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD, a social scientist from Harvard, have been studying social networks for years. They used data from the Framingham Heart Study, which has been tracking the health, behaviors, and attitudes of tens of thousands of people since 1948.
The study measures many aspects of health, including happiness. Participants are asked questions like, “I feel hopeful about the future” and “I feel happy.” It also tracks social networks, allowing researchers to see how attitudes and behaviors spread among people.
Fowler and Christakis discovered that if you have overweight friends, you’re more likely to be overweight. If your friends don’t smoke, it’s easier for you to quit smoking. If your friends are unhappy, you’re more likely to be unhappy. Conversely, if you’re happy, it increases the chances of your friends being happy by 15%. This effect spreads to your friends’ friends and even to their friends. While the effect weakens as it spreads, it remains measurable even in these extended networks.
In Buddhism, there’s a beautiful analogy that fits this idea. A traditional Buddhist altar has three offerings: candles (symbolizing enlightenment), flowers (symbolizing the unfolding of teachings), and incense (symbolizing the spread of positive attitudes). Just like incense smoke drifts beyond the room you’re in, the positive changes you bring about in yourself spread out to those around you and beyond.
From this, you can take away two important points. First, by meditating and practicing loving-kindness, compassion, and appreciative joy in your daily life, you’re transforming the world around you. This positive influence is real and impactful. Second, consider who you spend your time with. If you struggle with depression and some of your friends are unhappy while others are happy, try to spend more time with the happier ones.
In short, practicing positive attitudes doesn’t just benefit you; it has a broader impact on your entire social network. So, keep spreading the joy!