Charles Starrett

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Culture consultant & social tech teacher/facilitator at SoulCo & Northeastern University. He/Him. Dad, Harvard and NEC alum, visual thinker, dabbler in ukulele, electronic music, 한국어, and TTRPGs.

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Emotions are contagious

We humans are sensitive to our environment. Even if we’re not conscious of it, we pick up little signals from everything and everyone around us. Especially from our fellow humans.

The hardness or softness of our tone of voice, a look that conveys gratitude or disapproval, a joke that uplift or that sting, our driving behind another car patiently or impatiently.

We can spread feelings like comfort, anxiety, anger, joy, belonging, and separation without any conscious effort. It just comes out of how we do what we do and how we are around others.

What takes conscious effort is choosing what we spread. Taking the time to notice our thoughts and feelings and how our thoughts and feelings influence our attention, words, and actions. And then making a conscious choice to listen, speak, and act in a way that reflects what matters most to us, rather than how we feel in that moment.

We can choose what we spread, but we have to choose again and again in each moment. And what we spread are the seeds that grow to become the world of the future.

So what will you choose to spread in this moment? It’s up to you.

18 June 2022

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