The science of giving

The holidays are coming, that means presents, presents and more presents! But maybe this year, you should try to give more presents than you receive. Why? Well... Do you remember the saying: “It’s better to give than to receive”. That’s what my mom always said. I bet she wasn’t the only one. And according to science, they are completely right! 

This blog began on a random evening I lost myself in some YouTube videos. More specific in the content of the Ted X channel. For the people who don’t know Ted X. Google it! But in short, Ted X is a conference held around the world. All lectures and presentations are ‘ideas worth spreading’. The following idea is a perfect example that’s worth sharing!

This Ted X talk, in particular, was about a woman, Jacqueline Way, who learned a fundamental lesson by her father when she was a kid. Her father was a doctor and every Christmas he asked her to sing Christmas songs in front of his patients. Every time she sang, she saw all those smiles and that made her happy. Later on, she understood it was all about the power of giving. That was the reason, she kept doing it, giving made her happy.

In fact, science proofs it. A lot of researchers studied the ‘science of giving’. It turned out our brain automatically react on giving. When we give, our brain releases endorphins, giving us a natural high feeling. Researchers even name this the ‘Helpers High’. On top of that, giving reduces anxiety and stress. This leads to an overall feeling of happiness. So giving does not only help the others, but it also has a positive effect on yourself! 

Now Jaqueline has three kids. So she decided to pass on the knowledge she had. She told her three years old son, Nick, that they were going to do a fun family project. She wanted to give back every day for a whole year. So they took a paper and a bunch of crayons and started to make a list. A list full of ideas to give something to a person, an animal or the planet.

The list went on and on and on and on. And every day she made one give together with her son. They started with small and easy things to do. Just cleaning up your street, or doing something for your neighbor, give some old blankets to an animal shelter, ... it could be everything. It's so simple, even a three-year-old can do it. 

Jaqueline wanted to keep track of everything she was going through. All these gives made her really happy and gave her life a bigger purpose. So she decided to create a blog about it. Surprisingly her blog got noticed by a lot of people and not only her friends and family. This simple 'family project' was growing. 

After a while, this mother-son project went bigger and bigger. They told people what benefits they had of just giving every day. A friend of here, who was director of a primary school, was so interested, she wanted to implement this family project in the schools' curriculum. And yes! It was a success! Nowadays, different schools teach this '365 Give' project.

This project grew into an incredible community that accomplishes one 'give' every day. All these small actions have an incredible impact. Check out the full Ted X story or her website and find out WHAT YOU CAN DO TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE. 

#give #spreadhappiness 

Floowz.