Today is world happiness day! What a great concept to dedicate a whole day to! So how happy are you on a scale of 1-10? Ten being ecstatically happy and one being life sucks? How can you boost happiness levels in your life?
After doing some research on happiness it seems that happier people are actually generous people. Happy people are people who give to others and serve others. Happy people think less of what they can get, and more about what they can give. There is an old proverb that says;
‘The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are helped.’ Proverbs 11v24-26
Personally in my own life it seems the more I give, the bigger my world seems to get. It’s not that you should give to get, and getting is never my motivation, it seems to just be a by-product? I believe that all that I have has been given to me anyway, and I am just a steward of those things. Like, it’s not actually mine in the first place. So with my finance, my time, my home, my car, my children, my talent, and my spirit I want to bless others, and it seems in turn I am blessed.
Depression is a clinical illness that affects many lives the world over. If you are struggling with depression today, I wanted to set you a little challenge…I am not professing that this will ‘cure’ your illness. Not at all. I am just wondering if setting some time aside today, or this week, to plan to give back to someone else, or something else, could help boost your mood? I heard a cool story once of a lady with depression trying to get a counseling session with her church leader. His diary was full for a few weeks, but he suggested she go away and bake batches of her special cookies that he loved so much, and then give them away to her neighbours and friends. Off she went to bake, she gave away the cookies and never needed the counseling appointment! She’d taken the focus off herself, and her situation, focused on something positive that she was really good at, connected with others as she distributed the baking, and started to feel better. Her giving to others seemed to bring about positive change in her life. So what can you do today? This week? Over the next few months in order to give back and increase happiness within your world? Can you work towards a race and raise money for a special charity? Can you have some friends over for dinner and cook up a real treat for them? Can you send an encouraging text or a bunch of flowers to someone you’ve lost connection with? Giving doesn’t need to break the bank, we all have something we can give to someone else.
Please get in touch with any comments, feedback or stories of how ‘giving back’ and ‘serving others’ may have helped to improve your mood. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Happy world happiness day!
With love,
Lily-Jo
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