A few months ago, I heard Martin Seligman, the father of Positive Psychology say, "if you want to immediately increase your happiness, go outside right now and help someone else." These words stuck and have proven accurate. Giving up my seat on the bus to an elderly woman last week felt great. Spending 5 minutes to talk (really talk) to Nick, my mailman, felt awesome - especially as he described how often he encounters negative people.
A recent study at York University found that being nice to others in small doses increases our happiness and self-esteem up to six months later. Why? According to NYT best-selling author and TED prize-winner, Karen Armstrong, compassion is at the heart of all major faiths. And regardless of our faith or beliefs (or lack thereof), doing for others as we wish to be done to us is a core value that many of us carry. Therefore, when we practice it, we feel human. We feel good about ourselves.
Lyubomirsky suggests how to implement this into our lives. The premier researcher of kindness and happiness, she finds that varying our acts of kindness will keep the concept fresh and that dedicating one day a week to random acts of kindness will increase sustainability of our practice.
So, let's pick a day. Whether it be Monday to cure the "Monday Blues" or a weekend day when you're out and about, if you want to increase your happiness immediately, do some random acts of kindness!
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