ANGER & LAUGHTER ARE CONTAGIOUS....

By Olivene Godfrey

If you're around angry people for any length of time you're more likely to be angry, too. So says investigators who made a study of anger a few years ago. They claimed that hostility and aggression are as contagious as any virus.

And, you'll be much more likely to keep your temper if you stay away from people to are constantly on the verge of losing theirs.
I rarely become very angry. And, even then, I try to keep my sense of humor as it helps me cool off. Humor also helps when dealing with an angry person.

As sociologist, Joyce O. Hertzler notes in, Laughter: A SocioScientific Analysis" in such situations, "the laughter of the individual, like profanity, at least momentarily relieves him in a serious situation which threatens his well-being. It keeps him from blowing his fuse."

It's also pointed out that aggressive laughter serves to get the resentments and antipathies, which the other person has generated, out of one's system.

Then, studies have shown us that the person who goes through life with a chip on his shoulder is actually mad at himself.
A person's attitude toward himself tends to be projected to others. As one authority observed, the extent to which a person likes or hates the world around him, depends on the degree to which he likes or hates himself.

Sometimes we read, usually in fiction, that when a person’s gripped by fear, anger, joy, etc... - time "stood still.
Actually, according to studies, time is more likely to "stand still" for you when you're lost in thought. Thinking seems to entail a far greater sense of timelessness than feeling.

See you next time.