What do you do when something exciting happens in your life? Do you share it with someone close to you, someone who will understand and celebrate with you? Have you ever noticed that after you’ve shared your good news you don’t feel as excited as you did before you shared it? It’s as if by sharing your secret you burst the bubble that contained the happiness and let all the joyful feeling escape.

Maybe you should have kept that secret.

I thought this was just something that happened to me until I read an article in a magazine, Psychology Today, which shed some light on the issue. We share bad news because it lightens the load and elicits support; it makes us feel better so we naturally assume the sharing of good news will have the same effect. But it doesn’t work that way. This is because sharing news doesn’t make us feel better – it diminishes what we’ve been feeling. 

And who wants their happy feeling to be diminished?

Not me! I have a delicious secret. Just thinking about it makes me feel jubilant. My secret is a bubble of joy and excitement within me. I could share it and I will eventually, but not now! I’m holding on to this feeling for as long as I can.

Have you noticed this in your life? Do you keep your happy secrets to yourself?

photo credit: See-ming Lee