Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

Good Morning, This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's tip is that giving feels good.

If you are attempting to buy happiness, spending money on others is a very efficient way to do it.

If you've recently found yourself itching for tangible ways to help others, you're certainly not alone.

The horrible human toll of the COVID nineteen pandemic and the economic fallout, along with recent events drawing attention to widespread inequality, have prompted many to want to give back to their communities.

Fortunately, this itch is one you won't regret scratching.

Helping others is always a good thing to do, and it's also one of the best ways to make you feel better about life.

In general.

Research has found that people in every part of the world experience an emotional benefit from spending money to help others, sometimes referred to as pro social spending.

In fact, this effect is thought to be one of the very few known psychological universals shared by humans worldwide.

For example, in one study, people who recently made donations reported experiencing higher levels of life satisfaction than those who had.

This effect is seen across income groups, and you don't have to spend a lot of money to get this emotional kickback either.

Another study showed that spending just five dollars on others can lead to a measurable increase in the giver's reported happiness.

Spending to help others has been shown to have a greater impact on happiness compared to spending on ourselves.

Humans are social creatures, and gift giving has long been a form of cementing alliances.

If you buy yourself coffee, that's the end of it.

If you treat your friend to coffee, you'll probably spend time together enjoying the coffee, and then she may treat you in return, which doubles the fun.

The same emotional benefit happens when we spend on others by investing to improve our communities.

Some research suggests that pro social spending provides the greatest emotional benefit when it helps us connect with others, when we can see the impact of our giving, and when we feel like we have the ability to freely choose when and how we give.

This may be one reason that people give most generously to their own houses of worship.

God may command it, but you're also there a lot seeing what your money is doing, and it helps you feel connected to your fellow worshippers.

It's also why people tend to feel better about giving to organizations where they volunteer as well.

Pro social spending can take a variety of different shapes, so don't feel like you have to box yourself into only one form of it.

For example, perhaps one week you'll decide to spend half an hour choosing the perfect graduation gift for your niece and her friends that you've gotten to know over the years.

The next week, you anonymously leave gift cards for a neighbor who's going through a rough time.

The next week, you choose to donate to a food bank because you saw a longer line than usual as you drove past.

If you have the financial resources to do so, making a regular monthly donation to a small number of causes you care about is great, but make sure you don't treat this as a set it and forget it solution.

You want to pause each month as you give to feel grateful that you have the resources to do so.

There's a lot to worry about in the world, but taking small steps to make things better not only helps make things better, it makes us feel more empowered rather than helpless, and as we feel that way, we start to see bigger challenges that we can take on.

Happiness isn't a zero sum game.

There are myriad reason is to give other than emotional satisfaction.

But we shouldn't view this emotional satisfaction as an embarrassing or trivial side effect, like how dare I feel happy when people are suffering?

The fact that we feel happier when we do something to help the suffering is why people keep doing it.

It makes us feel progress is possible and change only happens when enough people feel that way.

In the meantime, this is Laura.

Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.

Hey everybody, I'd love to hear from you.

You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.

Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's b E the number four then breakfast p O D.

You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.

Thanks so much.

I look forward to Staying in Touch Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio.

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