Positive Psychology Week 4
“When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.”
The 14th Dalai Lama (1935) Head Monk of The Gelugpa Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism
Acts of generosity, doing a good deed for someone else, doesn’t just make the receiver feel better, the giver also reaps benefits. This is another example of a positive psychology exercise benefiting our mental health. It has been proven that when we do something nice for someone else or even just hear about good deeds being done, our happiness levels increase. Now there is even more evidence of physical benefits. A recent, well-conducted study in Canada looked at the physical effects of doing voluntary work that benefits both the helper and the helped. It seems to confirm that helping people (in the right way) improves the volunteers’ health – in objective, laboratory-measured ways.
The study: Researchers asked 52 high school students in Canada to volunteer once a week, helping younger students with their homework, sports and other after school activities. For comparison, a control group of 54 students did no volunteer work over the same period.
The researchers then took blood samples from both groups – and measured their body mass index – before and after the study. The blood samples were used to measure biomarkers which predict whether someone is likely to develop cardiovascular disease. At the end of the study, the adolescents who did the volunteer work had greater reductions in all of the biomarkers associated with cardiovascular disease than those in the control group. They also lost more weight. https://www.ox.ac.uk/research/why-doing-good-can-do-you-good
This week consider an act of generosity that you can do for someone else. Examples could be taking a housebound person’s dog for a walk, visiting with a shut-in neighbor, offering time at your local library, making a homemade meal for an elderly person. When we give the gift of time to others, we also put our own problems on the back burner.