Happiness is contagious and we can literally create a domino effect of happiness and joy by simply spreading good news.
For example, studies reveal that reading other people’s positive social media posts triggered happiness in 64% of people. Communicating good news with another person also heightens the impact on us of our positive experience because we get to relive and feel the effects of our good news again as we share it.
Good news can also cause concrete positive changes in our lives by the thoughts we think. Our thoughts change our biochemistry as our hormones, cells, brain circuitry, and even our genetics and are all affected by our thoughts. Scientists are discovering that we can positively ‘rewire our brains’ by resolving to focus on things we appreciate, instead of things we fear or dislike.
On the flip side are the effects that bad news can have on us, such as the reports of people feeling depressed or worried after watching the news when it is dominated with a 24-hour cycle of stories about violence, disaster, corruption and war.
The bible teaches, ”For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7), and that “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.” (17:22). That’s because God knows the importance of focusing and filling our hearts and minds with good news and things that encourage and give us hope. He wants us to pay attention to those things that are good for where there is good news there is joy; where there is joy there is hope, and where there is hope, faith is activated and then all things become possible.
With all the positive and beneficial effects of good news let’s make a decision to focus on and look for good news and those things that generate joy. When we listen to and read the news feeds or paper let’s look for the good news stories; when in conversation listen out for the good not the bad, and when we hear or experience something good share it. The world is an amazing wonderful place and God is all around us in the very air we breathe. He is working, healing, restoring and releasing the miraculous every single day, but if all we look for and focus upon is the bad news we can miss Him working, or not believe or recognise His hand at work right in front of us.
Today look for and spread some good news, because God is good, happiness is contagious, and the world is waiting for us to spread some joy around.
Prayer: Lord help me to be good news focused instead of bad, and that I would attract and be like a magnet for good news, positivity and the miraculous so that I can share it with others today. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope”. (Romans 15:13) In Jesus Name Amen.
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