Choosing to Reset

I get teased a lot for saying good morning to everyone. I recently got teased for saying good morning to a dog on a walk.

I tell my dogs good morning, I tell my husband good morning, I tell shop clerks good morning… I say good morning a lot.

Some of you have shared funny stories about your family hearing my good morning and imitating me. I’m glad I bring some smiles to you and yours.

I am not planning to stop saying good morning because one thing that this Instagram account has shown me is that we need to see a smile and hear something positive, even from a stranger like me.

Saying good morning:

• Connects us with others. This is important because we are social beings who thrive on having positive relationships with other humans.
• Makes us feel good. Feel good hormones are released when another person smiles at us. Our self-esteem is massaged when others acknowledge that we exist.
• Takes our minds off our problems if only for a moment. Making eye contact, smiling and saying “good morning” forces us to focus on something other than what makes us sad, angry or frustrated. It literally hijacks your brain and reroutes those thoughts.
• And it’s good for me! By saying good morning to you I’m energizing myself, releasing those feel good hormones so my day starts off positively.

According to research crazy people like me who like to start the day with a friendly greeting are on to something.

New research has shown that greeting people, particularly strangers, with the two words “Good morning” and exchanging some friendly chat can actually be beneficial for our own happiness.

The study, published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, looked at the behaviours of 60,000 people – 40,000 of them from the UK, concluded that “momentary interactions, greeting and thanking” can increase wellbeing by establishing a sense of belonging.

Ascigil explains, “Having a sense of belonging involves feeling like you are accepted and valued by other people – it is often considered a fundamental human need.”

And Kate Jopling, an adviser to the UK-based non-profit organisation Campaign To End Loneliness, notes that “These things help to make us feel like we belong. They cost so little, but are worth a lot.”

Greeting people with a simple “good morning” may not be something you put much thought into, but it’s something that is being encouraged around the world to help combat the problem of loneliness. For example, northern Swedish city Luleå has introduced the Säg hej! (Say hello!) campaign to tackle social isolation.

Recent research has begun to provide some answers. And it turns out that loneliness can affect your perception and cognition.

But it’s not as simple as that. Feeling lonely can also induce social withdrawal and types of negative thinking, which can make it harder to connect with people.

Studies have identified differences in brain areas associated with loneliness. In lonely young adults, areas of the brain related to social cognition and empathy have less dense white matter (a large network of nerve fibres that allows the exchange of information and communication between different areas of your brain). In other words, lonely people have a harder time feeling empathy. I love the book “A Man Called Ove”. Tom Hanks was in the screen adaptation where they changed Ove to Otto. That story exemplifies how loneliness can affect a person and how connecting to others can change a person.

 I love this quote by Tim Ferriss: “If you win the morning, you win the day.” And it’s true — how you start your morning sets the tone for the rest of your day.

So, my challenge for you is to say good morning with a big smile to those around you especially your coworkers. Check out this Stanford University article. You could be making your workplace a more joyful place!

Have a great day!

I love hearing from you,

Karen