Can Generosity Benefit Health?

Have you ever felt the positive vibe of giving? If not, it is time you do that. When you are giving, you are not just benefiting the person whom you are giving, you are also benefiting yourself. The act of giving does come with a sense of fulfillment irrespective of the nature and cost of the gift. Whether you are giving food to the needy or just offering a car ride to a stranded passerby, the act of extending help to others is a mutually benefiting one.

Why is Generosity Good for You?

By being generous the giver derives a sense of satisfaction of having helped a person in need. It has a positive effect on physical and mental health of the giver. It can bring down stress, support physical health, and fight depression. Research has shown that generosity can even increase the lifespan of the person. By giving you also promote new social connections and improve relations. Take a peep at the physical effects of being generous, and you may find a lowering of blood pressure and betterment of heart health. The fact that these are not just figments of the imagination of a hallucinating person, but real findings of studies, lends all the more credence to being generous.

How Does Generosity Affect Happiness?

Kindness begets generosity. Being generous can encourage one to perceive others in a positive light. It helps to foster a sense of community. It is a kind of confidence builder that also helps in fighting hatred towards others. Focusing on what you are giving creates an outward orientation toward society in general. It has the ability to focus our attention away from ourselves, and this is a forerunner of happiness. As long as you are focusing on yourself, one or the other shortcoming in your life is going to bother you. As soon as you focus away from your condition, you feel happy. Generosity helps the giver turn his attention away from the narrow band of his own success, failure, and materialistic achievements. You can turn your attention away from your own inner voice that scrutinizes every move of yours and creates negative feelings towards others. These thoughts also undermine confidence and thereby harm confidence. If you practice generosity, you can stay away from this inner voice. Seeing someone benefiting from your kind gestures can dispel the negative effects of inner voice and boost your happiness and confidence.

How Can a Person be Generous?

Parting with some of your possessions, however minuscule that might be, for the benefit of someone else who may be in dire need of it, is generosity. Whether you offer food to the beggar, a place to stay to the homeless or just a car lift to a stranded old man, you are being generous. What are the Qualities of a Generous Person? A generous person is energetic, optimistic, and does not have any expectation. He is patient and presents with humility. How do you Express Generosity? There are plenty of occasions to be generous. You can start small by giving away just $1 to charitable organisations online. Practice forgoing one of your specific expenses such as going to KFC on Mondays. Divert the money thus saved to charity.

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Train your brain to form good habits through repetition

The researchers have created a model which shows that forming good (and bad) habits depends more on how often you perform an action than on how much satisfaction you get from it.

"Psychologists have been trying to understand what drives our habits for over a century, and one of the recurring questions is how much habits are a product of what we want versus what we do," said an Assistant Prof.

"Our model helps to answer that by suggesting that habits themselves are a product of our previous actions, but in certain situations those habits can be supplanted by our desire to get the best outcome," she  added.

For the study, the researchers developed a computer simulation, in which digital rodents were given a choice of two levers, one of which was associated with the chance of getting a reward.

The lever with the reward was the 'correct' one, and the lever without was the 'wrong' one.

The chance of getting a reward was swapped between the two levers, and the simulated rodents were trained to choose the 'correct' one.

When the digital rodents were trained for a short time, they managed to choose the new, 'correct' lever when the chance of a reward was swapped. However, when they were trained extensively on one lever, the digital rats stuck to the 'wrong' lever stubbornly, even when it no longer had the chance for a reward.

The rodents preferred to stick to the repeated action that they were used to, rather than have the chance for a reward.

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The joy of giving lasts longer than the joy of getting

The bliss we feel after a specific event or activity diminishes each time we experience that event, a phenomenon is known as a hedonic adaption. Yet, providing for others might be the special case to this standard, suggests a new study.

Scientists found that participants’ happiness did not decline, or declined much slower if they repeatedly bestowed gifts on others versus repeatedly receiving those same gifts themselves.

A researcher said, “If you want to sustain happiness over time, past research tells us that we need to take a break from what we’re currently consuming and experience something new. Our research reveals that the kind of thing may matter more than assumed: Repeated giving, even in identical ways to identify others, may continue to feel relatively fresh and relatively pleasurable the more that we do it.”

In one experiment, university student participants received $5 every day for 5 days; they were required to spend the money on the exact same thing each time. The researchers randomly assigned participants to spend the money either on themselves or on someone else, such as by leaving money in a tip jar at the same café or making an online donation to the same charity every day. The participants reflected on their spending experience and overall happiness at the end of each day.
The information, from a sum of 96 members, demonstrated a clear example: Participants began off with comparable dimensions of self-reported happiness and the individuals who spent cash on themselves revealed an unfaltering decrease in satisfaction over the 5-day time span. Be that as it may, joy did not appear to blur for the individuals who gave their cash to another person. The delight from giving for the fifth time in succession was similarly as solid as it was toward the beginner.

Researchers then led a second investigation on the web, which enabled them to keep the tasks consistent across participants. In this test, 502 members played 10 rounds of a word puzzle game. They won $0.05 per round, which they either kept or gave to a charity of their decision. After each round, members unveiled how much winning made them feel cheerful, elated, and blissful.

Again, the self-reported happiness of those who gave their winnings away declined far more slowly than did the happiness reported by those who kept their winnings.

Further analyses ruled out some potential alternative explanations, such as the possibility that participants who gave to others had to think longer and harder about what to give, which could promote higher happiness.

The researcher said, “We considered many such possibilities, and measured over a dozen of them. None of them could explain our results; there were very few incidental differences between ‘get’ and ‘give’ conditions, and the key difference in happiness remained unchanged when controlling for these other variables in the analyses.”

The researchers note that when people focus on an outcome, such as getting paid, they can easily compare outcomes, which diminishes their sensitivity to each experience. When people focus on an action, such as donating to a charity, they may focus less on the comparison and instead experience each act of giving as a unique happiness-inducing event.

We may also be slower to adapt to happiness generated by giving because giving to others helps us maintain our prosocial reputation, reinforcing our sense of social connection and belonging.

The researcher explained, “Right now we’re testing repeated conversation and social experiences, which also may get better rather than worse over time.”

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The secret to happiness

It's not destiny that decides you'll be a sour face. Happy people work towards being that. Here's how to do it

If you're happy and you know it...goes an old children's ditty. But are you? The pursuit of happiness isn't easy — materialistic goodies do not guarantee a good life; close relationships, work satisfaction and working towards greater good do.

Studies have shown that the tendency to be happy is an inherited trait. Not everyone has a sunny disposition, but experts say we can all learn to bring more joy into our lives.

Sophie Keller, author of the How Happy series, says the secret to happiness is knowing you are already happy. "We're human 'beings', not human 'doings' or 'havings', so happiness needs to be a 'being state," she says.

Here's a simple break-up offered by writer Sonja Lyubomirsky in The How of Happiness: 50 per cent of our happiness levels are genetically determined, 10 per cent are affected by circumstances while the remaining 40 per cent is subject to self-control.

So how do you get happy? Here's a don't-do list to set you on the path to happiness.

Don't look outwards: Seeking external sources of happiness can sabotage your peace. San Francisco-based sustainable happiness expert Dr Aymee Coget suggests, "Focus on controlling your emotional state by choosing happiness and adopting positive psychology principles, build your resilience, follow your heart and meditate into the greatest states of bliss."

Don't hold a grudge: American writer Rita Mae Brown said it right when she wrote, "One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory." Forgiveness doesn't come easy, but is key; anger, antagonism and resentment are detrimental to your self. Dr Vandana Tara, a Delhi-based clinical psychologist, says, "In all probability, the person concerned will go on with life while you nurture ill-will. This bitterness could leave you physically and mentally ill."

Don't mistreat yourself: Happy people know the importance of looking after themselves — they eat healthy, exercise regularly and get enough sleep. Exercise keeps you fit, lets you relax, boosts brain power and improves your body image. Sound sleep lets you focus and increases productivity. Sleep-deprived people fail to recall pleasant memories, but are good at recalling glum moments.

Don't neglect family and pals: Studies have consistently proven that spending time with close ones impacts our happiness quotient. Harvard happiness expert and author of Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert sums up: "We are happy when we have family, we are happy when we have friends and almost all the other things we think make us happy are actually just ways of getting more family and friends." Also, make time only for those who matter; superficial relationships sap mirth.

Don't compare: Keeping up with the Joneses doesn't help the happiness cause. Constant comparisons with people who are smarter, more attractive or successful leads to resentment. "Comparing is a battle, a fight. If you were to look back on your life, you don't want to think you've wasted your time on it," Keller says. Tara says the way out is to compete with yourself. "Easier said than done, but every individual is unique. Another person's weakness might be your asset."

Don't be self-centred: Doing good makes us feel good. Research indicates that helping others ups our sense of self-esteem, setting us on the path to real and rewarding happiness. University of Pennsylvania professor Martin Seligman, in Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being, says, scientists "have found that doing a kindness produces the single most reliable momentary increase in well being of any exercise we have tested". When the recipient of your gesture expresses joy, it acts as a reward, says Dr Samir Parikh, director of the department of mental health and behavioural sciences at Fortis Healthcare. Tutoring your house help's kids or volunteering at a care centre yields the same result: A happy you.

Don't fail to live in the moment: "It is our nature to dwell on past events, especially negatives. We need six positives for our brain to overcome what happened in the past. Training our mind to live in the moment — a sink-or-swim skill — is the way to happiness," Coget says. Learn from past mistakes, but live in the present.

Don't be ungrateful: Being grateful increases satisfaction. Think of three good things that happened to you in a day or keep a journal of what you are grateful for.
The Journal of Happiness study revealed that writing letters of gratitude increased happiness and life satisfaction while decreasing depressive symptoms. "We all don't have things that we want, so it's easy to be negative. Soon, this emotion seeps into our subconscious and takes over our minds," Keller says.

Don't be afraid: Fears of what may or may not happen will persist, but happy people take the first step towards turning their dreams into reality. "Whatever you've dreamed of, get started. Don't wait for that one fateful day when everything will fall into place," Desai says.

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Crochet Cushion covers- Satisfaction

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