Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is that giving feels good. If you are
Speaker 1: attempting to buy happiness, spending money on others is a
Speaker 1: very efficient way to do it. If you've recently found
Speaker 1: yourself itching for tangible ways to help others, you're certainly
Speaker 1: not alone. The horrible human toll of the COVID nineteen
Speaker 1: pandemic and the economic fallout, along with recent events drawing
Speaker 1: attention to widespread inequality, have prompted many to want to
Speaker 1: give back to their communities. Fortunately, this itch is one
Speaker 1: you won't regret scratching. Helping others is always a good
Speaker 1: thing to do, and it's also one of the best
Speaker 1: ways to make you feel better about life. In general.
Speaker 1: Research has found that people in every part of the
Speaker 1: world experience an emotional benefit from spending money to help others,
Speaker 1: sometimes referred to as pro social spending. In fact, this
Speaker 1: effect is thought to be one of the very few
Speaker 1: known psychological universals shared by humans worldwide. For example, in
Speaker 1: one study, people who recently made donations reported experiencing higher
Speaker 1: levels of life satisfaction than those who had. This effect
Speaker 1: is seen across income groups, and you don't have to
Speaker 1: spend a lot of money to get this emotional kickback either.
Speaker 1: Another study showed that spending just five dollars on others
Speaker 1: can lead to a measurable increase in the giver's reported happiness.
Speaker 1: Spending to help others has been shown to have a
Speaker 1: greater impact on happiness compared to spending on ourselves. Humans
Speaker 1: are social creatures, and gift giving has long been a
Speaker 1: form of cementing alliances. If you buy yourself coffee, that's
Speaker 1: the end of it. If you treat your friend to coffee,
Speaker 1: you'll probably spend time together enjoying the coffee, and then
Speaker 1: she may treat you in return, which doubles the fun.
Speaker 1: The same emotional benefit happens when we spend on others
Speaker 1: by investing to improve our communities. Some research suggests that
Speaker 1: pro social spending provides the greatest emotional benefit when it
Speaker 1: helps us connect with others, when we can see the
Speaker 1: impact of our giving, and when we feel like we
Speaker 1: have the ability to freely choose when and how we give.
Speaker 1: This may be one reason that people give most generously
Speaker 1: to their own houses of worship. God may command it,
Speaker 1: but you're also there a lot seeing what your money
Speaker 1: is doing, and it helps you feel connected to your
Speaker 1: fellow worshippers. It's also why people tend to feel better
Speaker 1: about giving to organizations where they volunteer as well. Pro
Speaker 1: social spending can take a variety of different shapes, so
Speaker 1: don't feel like you have to box yourself into only
Speaker 1: one form of it. For example, perhaps one week you'll
Speaker 1: decide to spend half an hour choosing the perfect graduation
Speaker 1: gift for your niece and her friends that you've gotten
Speaker 1: to know over the years. The next week, you anonymously
Speaker 1: leave gift cards for a neighbor who's going through a
Speaker 1: rough time. The next week, you choose to donate to
Speaker 1: a food bank because you saw a longer line than
Speaker 1: usual as you drove past. If you have the financial
Speaker 1: resources to do so, making a regular monthly donation to
Speaker 1: a small number of causes you care about is great,
Speaker 1: but make sure you don't treat this as a set
Speaker 1: it and forget it solution. You want to pause each
Speaker 1: month as you give to feel grateful that you have
Speaker 1: the resources to do so. There's a lot to worry
Speaker 1: about in the world, but taking small steps to make
Speaker 1: things better not only helps make things better, it makes
Speaker 1: us feel more empowered rather than helpless, and as we
Speaker 1: feel that way, we start to see bigger challenges that
Speaker 1: we can take on. Happiness isn't a zero sum game.
Speaker 1: There are myriad reason is to give other than emotional satisfaction.
Speaker 1: But we shouldn't view this emotional satisfaction as an embarrassing
Speaker 1: or trivial side effect, like how dare I feel happy
Speaker 1: when people are suffering? The fact that we feel happier
Speaker 1: when we do something to help the suffering is why
Speaker 1: people keep doing it. It makes us feel progress is
Speaker 1: possible and change only happens when enough people feel that way.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod
Speaker 1: that's b E the number four then breakfast p O D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at iHeartMedia dot com That Before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much. I look
Speaker 1: forward to Staying in Touch Before Breakfast is a production
Speaker 1: of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from i heart Radio,
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Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.