Those Emotions Look Nice On You

BAYOUHEALTH | BY SHANNON DAHLUM

How we present ourselves to the world affects how others perceive us. We often choose our outfits because we want to be viewed in a certain way. The clothes we wear, the way we style our hair and the makeup we apply all have an impact on how we feel about ourselves and also the image we project to others. When we get dressed in the morning, though, we often don’t think about the part of ourselves that makes the most significant impact on how we affect those around us and how we’re perceived, which is the energy we project.

Energy is contagious. Have you ever noticed that being around certain people feels exhausting? Their incessant negativity leaves you feeling drained and your mood suffers. On the other hand, being around someone else who is vibrant and happy feels uplifting for you, too, right? This is called entrainment. The emotional energy they’re projecting affects your emotional energy, too.

If you stop and think about it, it’s pretty obvious how our emotional states affect our energy levels. We even use language to describe what emotions do to our energy: sadness leaves us feeling “down,” “heavy,” or “low.” When we’re overwhelmed with responsibility, we feel “the weight of the world on our shoulders.” It’s very apparent that these emotions pull our energy down, leaving us feeling exhausted and unmotivated.

On the flip side, when we’re falling in love, we feel like we’re “walking on air,” we’re “on Cloud 9” and have an extra skip in our step because we‘re so full of energy. We might even say we feel “high” on life. Positive emotional states makes us feel lighter and full of energy. The way we’re feeling doesn’t only affect us, though; it can affect the way those around us feel, too.

A 2007 study done at the HeartMath Institute showed that the energetic projections from one person can change the energy of another. During the study, the heart rate and heart coherence of a blindfolded meditating man, Dr. Leskowitz, were monitored. Heart coherence is a state associated with increased alpha brain wave activity and is produced by positive emotions like love and gratitude. At random intervals unbeknownst to him, other expert meditators were given a signal to enter heart coherence themselves, and when they did, Dr. Leskowitz’s heart coherence also increased. The meditators were able to shift his heart- brain function simply by shifting their own, without even touching him.

The energy fields of our hearts and brains are synchronizing with those around us all the time. The energy projected by our emotions are contagious. The famous Framingham Heart Study even found that the happiness projected by one person can boost the happiness of another for up to a full year!

Your emotional state depends not only on your own choices, actions, and experiences, but also on the choices, actions, and experiences of those around you. In addition, the energetic frequency you produce naturally connects you with others who resonate with you. It works the same way with sound vibrations- pluck the G-string on one guitar and the G-string on another next to it will begin to vibrate, too. Do you find that the people around you tend to be negative or critical of others? If so, ask yourself how you might be attracting them to you. If you’d like to attract more people into your life who project love, acceptance and positivity, work on projecting more love, acceptance and positivity yourself. Get “in tune” with that emotional frequency.

Ideally, we’d all avoid being around other people who pull us down, but that isn’t always possible. The good news is that the likelihood of negative emotions “spreading” are slightly lower than that of positive emotions. So when you do have to be around others who exude negativity, rather than being sucked down with them, try to lift them up to your level. Because of emotional contagion and something called mirror neurons in the brain, giving them eye contact and a smile or compliment will make it nearly impossible for them to not return the gesture and feel a lift themselves.

Tomorrow when you choose what to wear, make an effort to consciously choose the emotions you feel, too. You have the ability to spread happiness and raise other’s emotional energy everywhere you go simply by maintaining your own sense of love, compassion and gratitude. This is how changing yourself can literally change the world around you.