Breaking the Cycle of Emotional Contagion: Spreading Positivity and Peace

Empower yourself to cultivate positivity to change the world.

Beth Bradford, Ph.D.
8 min readOct 19, 2023
Photo by Mei-Ling Mirow on Unsplash

A woman came up to me yesterday while I was working at my laptop at Starbucks.

“Excuse me, is that your white Juke outside?”

For a moment, I was startled, thinking she might have hit it.

“Yes, it is.”

She seemed relieved to have found me. “I drive a white Juke, too,” she said. “And I noticed your sticker that says, ‘Just be kind.’ My sticker says, ‘Be nice.’ I had to take a picture of both of our white Jukes next to one another with positive messages. We need more positive messages like these.”

She’s not wrong.

On the other hand, a man who repaints the apartments in my complex has a huge sticker that spans the top of his windshield — “Move over.” It also has arrows pointing to the right.

Seeing that sticker for the first time put me in a bit of a sour mood. And I would imagine anyone driving in the left lane seeing this truck tailing from behind would be put off, too.

It doesn’t stop there, either. He also has a sticker on the back that essentially says the same thing — rudely telling people what to do.

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Beth Bradford, Ph.D.
Beth Bradford, Ph.D.

Written by Beth Bradford, Ph.D.

Former TV person, college professor and media researcher. Ironman triathlete, meditation teacher and yoga instructor. https://www.brad4d-wellness.com

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