The holidays seem to be a natural time for some holiday magic as well as to help others and pay it forward, but what happens when you help others and pay it forward as part of your daily routine. Michael Steger, a psychologist at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, has always been amazed by how differently people lead their lives. Steger couldn’t help but wonder which behavior makes people happier—seeking pleasure or doing good? They studied a group of grads and learned that the more people participated in meaningful activities, the happier they were and the more purposeful their lives felt. Pleasure-seeking behaviors, on the other hand, did not make people happier.
A Little Holiday Magic
“A lot of times we think that happiness comes about because you get things for yourself,” said Richard Ryan, a psychologist at the University of Rochester, who was not involved in the study. “But it turns out that in a paradoxical way, giving gets you more, and we think that’s an important message in a culture that’s pretty often getting messages to the opposite effect.” So do not be afraid to go ahead and spread some holiday magic yourself.
Something to Think About
In order to make sure that the relationship between happiness and doing good wasn’t the other way around—that happiness instead leads people to do good things—the researchers looked at which tended to come first. They found that the subjects became happier after they did something good, suggesting that happiness does, in fact, come about as a result of doing good things.
Weekly Activity
This week, experience the joy and satisfaction of doing for others, expecting nothing in return.
Words of Wisdom
The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, and to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.- Ralph Waldo Emerson
There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up. – John Holmes
You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you. – John Bunyan
A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal. – Steve Maraboli
The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”- Morrie Schwartz
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