Doing good holds the power to transform us on the inside, and then ripple out in ever-expanding circles that positively impact the world at large.
Shari Arison
Do you volunteer your time? Why do you do that? For many of us, we volunteer
Volunteering, or participating in any good action, makes us feel good. Researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky has studied happiness for years. In her work, she’s identified the association between doing good and feeling good.
You might be thinking, “Why would anyone need to study that?” Go ahead and google, “how to be happier.” You’re going to get about 149,000,000 results. We’re living in a time when people are working more and (generally) earning more but are less happy.
Lyubomirsky says there are three reasons doing good makes us feel good.
- When we perform an act of kindness, we feel part of the larger community; we feel part of something bigger than ourselves.
- Helping others can relieve the guilt we might have when we feel helpless to respond to truly tragic or horrific acts.
- Acts of kindness change how we see ourselves.
Being kind to others in whatever shape it takes, gets us out of our own heads. And that can be a very healthy thing.
A simple way to sum this up is:
Social connection + positive feelings + positive thoughts = feeling good because we’re doing good.
Reference (s)
Lyubomirsky, S (2018). Papers and publications. Retrieved December 8, 2018 from http://sonjalyubomirsky.com/
