Happiness is something most of us would like to have and yet, it can get tricky as we try to capture what it truly means.
Some people define happiness as a moment-to-moment feeling that comes and goes depending on the immediate circumstances. Others define happiness as long-term contentment and satisfaction. I think it can be both. My hope for you is that when you consider all of the emotions you feel in a day, many of them will fall into categories of joy, enthusiasm, and positive anticipation. I believe that when we have enough of those moments in our daily life, we can look back and feel a sense of accomplishment, satisfaction and overall happiness in the long-run.
April is National Volunteer Month and recognizing that April is just a few short days away, our happiness hack of the month is Altruism. Altruism refers to behaviors that benefit another person or alleviate their distress without any foreseeable extrinsic benefit without an expectation of anything in return. Examples of altruism include volunteering, donating money to charitable causes, or just going out of your way to be kind to someone else.
So, how exactly do we help ourselves when we help others? Helping others has been described as providing a “helper’s high” as the acts increase dopamine production. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with reward and pleasure. In fact, this is the same hormone produced through addictive activities that are pleasurable and difficult to break.
When we help others, we get a hormonal reward encouraging us to continue to find ways to add value to the lives of others. Those regular boosts of dopamine can, in turn, reduce your stress, may modulate cortisol levels, can reduce blood pressure and improve overall health. If those aren’t reasons to be happy, I don’t know what would be!
Your challenge for the month is to go out of your way to help someone else. Volunteer for a cause you care about, lend a helping hand to a family member or friend who is down on their luck, or make eye contact and smile at people on the street. It doesn’t have to be a grand gesture, but it does have to be about someone else. You may find that you are doing yourself a favor.
