Some people call it counter-intuitive. Others call it a spiritual principle or a helper’s high.
However you characterize it, science agrees: Generosity does not deplete you. Just the opposite: it increases your health, happiness and longevity.
Every time you buy someone a gift, drop donations into the Salvation Army kettle, volunteer your time for a cause or serve dinner to others, you’re contributing to your own well-being. Giving to others helps others, but it also helps you.
A Pattern of Purpose
You don’t need a fat bank account to qualify. Being generous simply requires a shift in perspective and a desire to offer more of your time, talents and resources to those around you. Simple gestures — such as allowing a car to merge into your lane— are more meaningful than you may realize.
Once you recognize a pattern of purpose in your daily interactions with others, you find yourself appreciative of every little blessing — and more willing to give freely.
Love for friends and family, the respect and kindness we exchange with others, the value of not doing “great things” but small things for a greater purpose — all of that adds up to a rich and fulfilling life. As Pa Bailey shared in the holiday movie classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life,“ “All you can take with you is that which you’ve given away.”
Beyond the feel-good sensations of cinema, science proves that giving is good for you.
“Doing something for another in a way that is felt to be charitable (as opposed to obligatory) leads to the release of brain chemicals that foster more social connectivity, reduction in heart rate and blood pressure, and a sense of well-being,” says Dr. Joseph Baskin, a psychiatrist at the Center for Behavioral Health at Cleveland Clinic. “These are all positive benefits for the individual who is giving, much less all the goodwill towards the recipient and society in general.”
People who give their time to help others through community involvement enjoy greater self-esteem, less depression and lower stress levels than those who don’t, while stingy behavior actually increases stress, research shows.
Generosity even helps maintain and strengthen relationships. Two people who give to each other simply feel better about themselves and each other, making them feel more invested in the relationship, Baskin explains. This goodwill strengthens relationships and friendships while putting you in a giving, relaxed, feel-good state.
Giving and Getting
Mental health and social benefits aside, giving encourages physiological improvements such as lowered heart, blood pressure and breathing rates — all beneficial for cardiovascular health.
Volunteering with empathy leads to longer, healthier lives, according to the journal Social Science & Medicine. Considering that volunteering leads to 38 percent fewer nights spent in the hospital for those over 50, doctors are starting to recommend volunteering alongside diet and exercise for optimum health.
Older adults who volunteered for two or more organizations were 44 percent less likely to die over a five-year period than those who didn’t volunteer, a University of California-Berkeley study showed.
While a giving spirit is encouraged during the holiday season, practicing generosity daily is even better. It feels good to give — alleviating someone else’s problem or easing their loneliness — and that can help inspire generosity all year long.
“Altruism — or giving without thought of what it might bring in return — is a very healthy approach to life,” Baskin says.
Estelle Rodis-Brown is a freelance writer from northeast Ohio. She loves the generous holiday season, and is inspired to prolong that altruistic spirit throughout the New Year.
Develop Your Generosity Gene
We gain when we give.
- Donate used items
- Pick up a piece of trash
- Collect change and give it away
- Compliment a stranger
- Be nice to sales clerks, waiters, and other service workers
- Send a card
- Let drivers merge in traffic
- Pay for someone’s order in the fast food drive-up window
- Allow some to go ahead of you
- Hold a door open
- Listen intently
Source: Thriveglobal.com
