What makes us happy?
Today, I bring you two methods that seem to be incredibly beneficial for a lot of people. If you inject those into your daily life then you will probably experience a boost of happiness. At first glance they might not seem special but that shouldn't be a reason to not try them. After all, your happiness is at stake.
What is one of the determining factor for happiness? Money, sexs, drugs, food, vacation, cars? Some of the poorest countries on average even happier than some of the European countries or U.S.A. A lot of rich people do it and at the same time even more poor do it. Most of them do it regularly and on a surface level they do not get a lot all of it. Money can help but money is not the determining factor. Helping is scientifically proven that helping others makes us happier. Helping is a thing that we can all do and has no real excuse to not help. Nevertheless there are different forms of helping, some provide a greater benefit to us while others who just slightly improve our mood.
There is a tiny thing that makes huge difference. This tiny thing is intentional. There are a lot of people out there and a lot of helping in some way. For example, Amazon is helpful to me because I can waste money that I am not having on things that I don't need. They are helping me but their intention is to make money and sell product. If the main intention is not to help but to benefit then it is not as beneficial for psychological health and our happiness.
If we want to become happier through helping others, then we actually need to go with to help. Another example would be donations, imagine we see the same charity campaign on television over and over again. Eventually, we might feel guilty for not donating therefore, we pull out our credit card and quickly donate a significant sum but our goal is not to actually help. Our goal is to feel better about ourselves. The feeling of guilt eats us and we desperately want to get rid of it.
The action can be exactly the same but the outcome varies depending on our intention. We all want to reap the benefits of helping. No, it's actually the wrong approach because we want to expect something. We should give unconditionally. We should not worry about our gain. We should not expect something in return. We should make helping our main concern and only then will receive the neat side effect of becoming happier and psychologically healthier.
The second thing that makes us internally happy is solving problems. Do you recall finally grasping something in school? Finally understanding a stupid formula and being able to solve additional equations with these. We don't need to be mathematicians solving some redonkulous equations but if you enter it, even better.
We all experience problems and we all have the chance to solve them. Whether it being more efficient, developing a business plan, working on our financial independence or even managing to grow a garden. There are so many things that we can do. There are general problems and problems specific to our situation. Solving a general problem might be incredibly hard but the result could be a drastic advance in our scientific field. Focusing on problems that are important to us, makes our life so much better and enjoyable.
For me, there is no better feeling than finishing the day and thinking to myself then I accomplished something today. I made some serious progress. If we want to take it to the next level then why not combine the two tips. That would be engaging in meaningful projects. For example, if we think our agriculture system is unfair, then we can improve fair trade projects helping farmers to receive an appropriate loan for their work or maybe we would like to help children in need then we might influance a third world problem.
We might improve food distribution, every tiny bit helps. Lastly we can find animal rights or for mother nature stopping the waste of food and creating more humane conditions for animals or we stop consuming them at all. Those who are some gigantic goals but even small changes have strong impact on our happiness. Some of you might be thinking that why would I go through all this trouble. Surely, there are other ways to become happy. Helping can be stressful and exhausting but there is another thing another tiny benefit that we all need to keep in mind.
Have you ever heard of the six degrees of separation. The six degrees of separation is a theory that we are all connected through six degrees. For example, your best friend knows someone and this someone knows yet another person and at the very end of the chain you and me we are connected through these six degrees. The world is a small place and so called strangers might be connected to us over some degrees.
We are not recognizing at first glance but maybe they know someone who can later on make us a favor. Through some coincidence we might meet someone who catapults our business. Always remember unfortunate events happen to all of us. If we help in advance, people will be more likely to help us later on. You could even see it as a huge tit for tat but then again that would be the wrong intention. I think you've understood what I am trying say. Engage in meaningful work help others and solve problems.
Thank you so much for reading my post. Please stay tuned for more.
your article is just amazing . what you said is so true . happiness is not only money cars drugs blah blah. and also that is so true some poor nations people are happier than some rich individuals in USA & UK :)
A very useful post. That makes me happy is when I can help each other between fellow.