Mirror neurons it's no question that how we feel is influenced by the people around us. Most people don't realize how powerful those influences are though. Our brain is designed to learn from others and mirror those around us. And it's referred to as social learning. babies do this. In our brains, we have something called mirror neurons which fire when we observe actions performed by someone else, and that triggers us to do the same action.

And example is that our physical body will mimic someone else when we observe them crossing their legs or yawning. yawning is contagious, right? This is because of mirror neurons. Our brains assess other people's emotional states and then reflects or mimics what is being observed, and this is influencing how we feel. This is empathy. It also seems to prove that empaths are a real thing.

I'm glad to know that because I am an empath. I feel the emotion have others around me literally. Some of us are more influenced by this than others though, depending on their level of empathy, you probably have noticed that when someone around you is extremely excited, it makes you excited to or you can feel their excitement. Or maybe you have found that when you talk to someone who is really depressed you walk away feeling sad to emotions are contagious. This is very important to understand. How powerful is this influence?

There have been some studies done, there was one study where participants were found to be influenced by seeing an image for only 30 milliseconds. That's not even enough time for someone to see the image consciously, which means they are not actually aware of what they are seeing, but their unconscious minds could interpret the image and react to it. In the experiment, participants were shown a face with either a happy angry or a neutral expression. Since it was only 30 milliseconds. They were not aware of what expression they were being exposed to, when they when they were shown images displaying happy As their bodies reacted by increasing electrical activity in the muscles needed to smile. This also happened for those who were exposed to images of anger.

The thing that's amazing is that the participants were only seeing the images for 30 milliseconds. Imagine the impact that the people around you who are experiencing a strong emotion have on your body's reaction. Another study found that we were also influenced by observing another person experiencing physical sensation. In this study, they showed participants videos of a hand that is placed into either visibly cold or visibly warm water. What they found is that the participants hand temperature changed based on what they saw in the video. These studies among others, really shows that the people around us can influence us at a very deep level.

If you feel you are an empath the next time you're feeling unhappy, stop and think about who may be influencing you. Who do you interact with a lot? What emotional state do they tend to be in? What can you Do to limit your exposure to people who negatively affect your emotions? How can you surround yourself with people that mirror an emotional state that you want to experience more of