sparkles with happier, high-energy people. They are standing closer,
laughing more sincerely, and reaching out to one another. I feel like Im
attending a terrific bash thats been going on for hours.
Technique #6
Hello Old Friend
When meeting someone, imagine he or she is an old friend (an old
customer, an old beloved, or someone else you had great affection for).
How sad, the vicisitudes of life tore you two asunder. But, holy macerel,
now the party (the meeting, the convention) has reunited you with your
long-lost old friend!
The joyful experience starts a remarkable chain reaction in your body
from the subconscious softening of your eyebrows to the positioning of
your toesand everything between.
Not a Word Need Be Spoken
The Hello Old Friend technique even supersedes language. Wheever
youre traveling in countries where you dont speak the native tongue, be sure
to use it. If you find yourself with a group of peple who are all speaking a
language unknown to you, just imaine them to be a group of your old
friends. Everything is fine except they momentarily forgot how to speak
English. In spite of the fact you wont understand a word, your whole body
still responds with congeniality and acceptance.
Ive used the Hello Old Friend technique while traveling in Europe.
Sometimes my English-speaking friends who live there tell me their
European colleagues say I am the friendliest Amercan theyve ever met. Yet,
wed never spoken a word between us!
A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
An added benefit to the Hello Old Friend technique is it becomes a self-
fulfilling prophecy. When you act as though you like someone, you start to
really like them. An Adelphi University study called, appropriately,
Believing Another Likes or Dislikes You: Behaviors Making the Beliefs
Come True proved it.Researchers told vounteers to treat unsuspecting
subjects as though they liked them. When surveyed later, the results showed
the volunteers wound up genuinely liking the subjects. The unsuspecting
subjects were also surveyed. These respondents expressed much higher
respect and affection for the volunteers who pretended they liked them.
What it boils down to is love begets love, like begets like, respect begets
ooja
(Ooja)
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