Science has finally proved it… good vibes are contagious!
Ahh finally, science backs our holistic training method up! It turns out emotions are officially contagious, from pain to concern to you guessed it, happiness, motivation and good vibes! In recent years, there’s been a LOT of focus poured into empathy research and it turns out other people’s thoughts and feelings can affect our own thoughts, feelings and even behaviour. Here are a few quick-fire facts from a range of social neuroscience studies for the next time you need a good conversation starter, or a little motivation to get your cute butt out of bed and into your next fitness class (maybe even at Bondi's Pink Palace)...
The quick facts on empathy
One study showed that when someone in a small town became happy or sad, that same emotion rippled through the entire town.
Another showed that if you work in the same room with people who are driven, your attitude improves, but if you’re in a room with people who are bored or uninterested, you’ll end up the same, no matter how much you love what you do!
Sit within 8m of a high performer at work and your performance can improve by up to 15 percent, but sit the same distance from a low performer can hurt your performance by 30 percent.
Emotions can spread virtually too… receiving a sad text, or reading a sad post can bring your mood down. Likewise, a genuinely happy text or post (note it has to feel authentic!) can shift someone’s mood in a positive direction.
But it’s the motivations and emotions of others you experience in person that can reallllyyy shift your mood – and it turns out that exercising in groups of happy, engaged people can completely turn a bad mood upside-down, not just in the moment but over the following days and if you do it regularly, can become a potent part of who you are.
This is why we always say we exist for one simple reason – to create truly uplifting, fun, music-fueled experiences that focus on lifting your mood, not just your calorie burn, because it’s those positive experiences with a great community, combined with endorphin-releasing movement and emotionally stirring music that make every day just a little bit happier, helping you to feel beautiful, become unstoppable and choose a fearless mindset more often. We're here to make every day just a little bit sparklier for you, so in turn you can spread those contagious good vibes wherever you go.
You can click here for a more in-depth article from Outside Online on some of the findings listed above, or here for another neuroscience study we found super interesting. If you're a Bondi babe, train at our group fitness studio on Bondi Road!