Happiness & Success both depend on our ability to give
If you’re interested in attaining happiness and success in your life, giving to others can be one of the most powerful ways to do so. There are several benefits that come with giving to others, including lowering stress and depression, increasing empathy and compassion, improving overall health, reducing levels of cortisol in your body, boosting your self-esteem, helping to ease physical pain, and more! Check out this list of benefits of giving to help convince yourself that you need to start giving more often! You’ll be better off for it!
Give without expectations
When we give in order to get, we are assuming that there will be a return. But when our gifts come from a place of pure love and compassion, without expectation or neediness, then they fill us with love and happiness. Think about it—when you do something nice for someone else, how does it make you feel? Don’t expect anything in return; just give because you want to spread joy and kindness.
Make giving part of your routine
It’s often said that altruism is one of the keys to happiness. If you want to achieve happiness in your life, try making giving a daily habit. Don’t wait for an extraordinary event to occur—such as volunteering at a soup kitchen or donating blood—to go out and help others. Take action every day and improve someone else’s life in some way. It could be as simple as helping someone carry groceries or letting someone go ahead of you in traffic.
Give it all you’ve got
Not only do people who are compassionate to others live happier lives, but they also get a serious health boost. Research shows that those who volunteer have lower rates of heart disease, depression, and stress—and higher levels of life satisfaction overall. Plus, there’s no better way to learn empathy than by being charitable toward others. By looking at things from other people’s point-of-view we can be more understanding and kinder in our own daily lives as well.
See giving as a form of receiving
Humans are a social species. Our well-being is directly linked to how we relate to other people, as both givers and receivers. In research studies, people who perceive themselves as givers tend to be happier than those who don’t. You might not think that your job or life gives you opportunities to give, but it does.
Give from your heart, not from obligation
Just as with happiness and success, giving doesn’t just affect other people—it affects us. Researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky says that voluntary activity is particularly likely to lead to positive gains in happiness because we get more personal satisfaction out of it. In other words, our heart is in it when we volunteer—we feel pride and love when we give time or money to something close to our heart.
It’s ok if people don’t like the way you give
Most people have trouble giving because they expect something in return. You may worry that you are asking for a favor and won’t get it—so you don’t ask. Or, when you do ask, you try to make sure that other person will like your idea or reciprocate by giving back to you. This is human nature, but it can inhibit us from giving freely and with no expectations whatsoever.
Give yourself time to learn the art of giving
It can be hard to let go, especially when we don’t have time or money on our hands. And it can be frustrating to feel like we can’t do enough good. But it’s important that we don’t let these barriers prevent us from giving where and when we can. In other words, don’t wait for a time when you have more free time or money – there never will be such a time!
Be inspired by others who are generous
A recent study found that spending money on other people boosted happiness levels just as much as spending it on yourself. This isn’t surprising when you consider that generosity has a large number of benefits for our health and well-being. It can also boost happiness in another way – by inspiring others to be generous too. Our happiness is heavily influenced by how we compare ourselves with others, so if your friends or family see you being generous, they’re likely to start behaving more generously too.
