Valentines Day is a day of giving, in my opinion. Whether it’s gifts, time, energy, or finances, or other resources; love is an act of giving! Yesterday was Valentines Day. Yesterday was also the first time I ever ran a 5K. Normally I wouldn’t do such a thing on Valentines Day. Normally I don’t run 5Ks either. But I had a reason yesterday.
I participated in WWF’s Race For Love, where people from all over the world raised funds and ran a 5K, 10K, or 1/2 marathon. What for you might be asking? To raise awareness and to help conserve and protect the planet and all the habitats and species that reside here! So for today’s topic, I wanted to talk about 5 ways giving can be beneficial (for everyone). It truly is a win-win!
Check out the video or read below to find out more!
1) Others
I’m not really going to go into too much detail here because I feel like this one’s pretty obvious. When we are giving to others, we are helping them!
2) Happiness
Did you know that giving can make you feel happier? It’s true! Acts of giving activate regions in our brains associated with pleasure, connection, and trust. When this happens, chemicals like serotonin (the mood mediating chemical), dopamine (the feel good chemical), and oxytocin (which makes us feel compassion) are released. All of these small, almost unnoticeable processes happen just from an act of giving, which in turn elevates our mood and makes us feel happier. Which actually makes us feel more inclined to keep on giving!
3) Gratitude
Receiving a gift obviously makes us feel good, and most often a form of gratitude. We feel grateful for the gift that someone has gotten us as well as for the reasoning and feelings for why they got it for us. But giving is a great way to feel grateful too! Mostly because when we are giving, whether to a charitable organization or an individual, we’re doing it because we already feel gratitude for that place or person. And we want to show it. But also because the more often we give, the more we start to notice all that we have to be grateful for!
4) Mental Health
Studies have shown that people who give or are more altruistic in nature have greater self-esteem, are less depressed, and have lower stress levels. This makes sense when you think about it. But the cool thing about giving and the way that it works in its nature is it goes both ways! Even those with lower self-esteem, with greater depression, and with higher stress levels can actually see positive changes in all of those aspects by choosing to focus on being more giving and altruistic in their day-to-day lives!
5) Physical Health
Believe it or not, the simple act of giving can actually be beneficial and lead to a longer life! A study done on elderly folk shows that those who were giving or more altruistic had lower blood pressure levels and were actually 44% less likely to die at a similar age than those who didn’t or weren’t. And this is after taking into account all of their other health factors like underlying conditions, as well as choice-related conditions like smoking and diet! Plus, sometimes the actual act of giving is in some way related to benefiting our physical health (like the 5K I ran yesterday).
Good Karma
If there’s one thing I believe in, it’s that everything good that you put out into the world will one day come back to you. And same goes for the bad. If you’re not a fan or believer of the ideology of karma, there’s an old adage that goes ‘Give and you shall receive”. Whichever way you choose to look at it, it’s actually been scientifically proven that giving is good for us.
So what do you say? Do you choose to focus on spreading love, kindness, empathy, joy, or whatever else it is that you know you can help spread? If so, please drop a comment below and tell me about what ways you know you can give and the ways it’s benefitted you! And if you’re looking for ways to celebrate the little things in life, check out ETM’s blog (or vlog!) here.
As always, thank you so very much for being a part of ETM’s community! I encourage you to join discussions, interact with Mommas and others alike, and be unapologetically yourself! Until next time, I hope I’m able to help make your life as simple as could be. (:
With all my love, Brandolyn – Earth To Momma
