The Straits Times carried an article from Washington Post on 6 December 2008 on a 20-year study of more than 4,700 people. The study found that if a person is happy or becomes happy, there is a 8-34% chance that people around them (friends, siblings, spouses, neighbours) will be infected with the happiness too.
But really, if you had the experience of happy babies smiling at you, or smiley cashiers attending to you, you do not really need statistics to convince you that you felt more wonderful then, do you?
This study brings to mind the Gross National Happiness index, a term coined by Bhutan's former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck in 1972, in response to Bhutan opening up to modernisation. The GNH measures a nation's well-being and happiness through 7 metrics that include physical, mental and environmental well-being (click on title link for more).
I was quite often asked why I chose "Big Grin" for the company. Well, we all want happiness regardless of who we are, isn't it? Every action that we take is for the sake of wanting to be happier. As founders of BGO, we enjoy taking actions in creating well-being, both for environment and for people.
And let's hope this :-) gets more infectious than the dreaded flu bug.
If you haven't smiled to anyone today, hey, you have got nothing to lose and everything to gain. ;-) :-) X-D
