How to deal with a very negative coworker is one of the most common questions we get in workshops, and it’s one of the toughest questions to answer because people are complex.

Attitude, mood, and even behaviors are contagious at work. We are strongly influenced by each other. When you are around your colleagues, you’re influenced by their attitude and behavior.

Negativity bias is a term that scientists use to describe the fact that we give more weight to negative or threatening things than we do to positive or happy things. We are wired to pay attention to the negative, and give more emphasis and focus on the negative.

Very few of us work alone these days. Most of us work with other people. The question is how effectively are we working with other people? Mirror neurons help us build better relationships, and science says that relationships are an essential factor in happiness for most of us most of the time.

Join Scott Crabtree of Happy Brain Science in a 3 minute guided body scan mediation.

In Scott’s last video about mindfulness, he explained what meditation is and many benefits that come from it according to science. In this video, Scott will guide you through practicing meditation.

Mindfulness is simply paying complete attention to the present moment without judgment. That might sound easy if you’ve never done it. Those of us that have tried mindfulness, such as sitting down and meditating for a few minutes, which is essentially a mindfulness workout, if you will, those of us who’ve tried mindfulness know that your brain does not naturally focus on one thing and keep its attention there.

Why would we encourage you to “fake it til you make it” at work? Well, because sometimes you need to be in a better mood than you actually are.