Mirroring Happiness

Most of our discussion of time has been based on combating our individual relative feeling of time with the mechanic "clock" time that we use to organize our societal lives.  To me this is very similar to the nature of Revolutions that must originate and proliferate in the hearts and minds of individuals that then go forth and distribute the ideas to the target society.  I can't help but believe that there isn't a clear divide though between the internal, individual decisions and the societal implications.  I have a few examples that led me to this question.

I don't know how many people have heard about "Mirror Neurons" but I find them fascinating.  The following American Psychological Association articles describes them.
http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct05/mirror.aspx
Long story short: mirror neurons are neurons that fire when you witness something happen in the same way that they would fire if you were the person you witnessed.  They do not distinguish between you as an observer or you as an actor in the situation.  These studies and definitions of course have huge ramifications in terms of basic human learning and development as well as our ability to experience extreme empathy.

So where am I going with this?  Mirror neurons show that every moment of our life, our brains are bombarded with information and, unless we are in complete solitude, our mind can easily confuse if the signals are original to our experiences or original to those around us.  Time cannot be an exception.  Undoubtedly, sitting in a class of engaged students makes the class feel faster than one in which every student is asleep.  Of course, the largest source of our internal perception of things is our actual internal perception of things, but mirror neurons point out that there is a gray area of environmental interference.

The second topic that I'd like to tie in is the studies of happiness and gratitude.  Below is the Georgia Psychological Association study and corresponding YouTube video (I suggest the YouTube video for a less-scientific but more engaging approach).
http://www.gapsychology.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=309
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHv6vTKD6lg
Again Long story short: expressing gratitude goes a long way towards increasing your happiness.  In a world where the mind exists in its own closed system this would appear contradictory.  It is not the existence of gratitude that increases happiness, it is the expression of it.  Expression, by definition, is making known one's thoughts and feelings, most often to others.

The idea of Revolutions originating internally and proliferating externally is overly simplistic and excludes the important ramification on the revolutionist's mind from their environment.  Just as Lightman suggested that Einstein's theory was influenced by his uncontrollable dreams, American Founders were influential upon each other, and an unremarkable woman was influenced by a moment to do the remarkable and stay in her seat at the front of the bus.