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Mike
Carruthers:
You know that feeling you get when you do something kind for someone
else?
Stephen Post:
That's actually been well described as the helper's high and even
in 2006 major neurological studies showed that when we even think
about helping others a part of the brain lights up that's associated
with feel-good chemicals.
Stephen Post,
author of the book Why
Good Things Happen to Good People, says helping others brings
a level of happiness that's hard to get any other way.
And all the happiness:
science says that you can't really pursue happiness directly,
you know there's a limit to what material abundance will bring.
In the end it's kind of a by-product of helping others. These
studies that we have starting in the 1920's looking at young
people (the ones who have a nobility of purpose) want to use
their talents and gifts to help others. They're shielded from
depression, and stress-induced illnesses over the entire course
of their lifetimes. And odds are they'll be living a little
longer than people who never quite catch the spirit of being
a giver.
People who volunteer
and give of themselves find not only happiness but often report
financial reward.
There's this
whole theory called social capital, which kind of says that
when we contribute to the lives of others we're like squirrels
burying nuts for winter - you know we can expect some kind of
a benefit back.
You can link
to Stephen's website
from ours: somethingyoushouldknow.net
I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.
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