Helping Others = Happiness. It’s Pretty Simple.
This weekend my family and one of my daughter’s friends volunteered at the 2016 Food Fight to end hunger at our nearby expo center. Sure the girls are looking for community service hours for school but I don’t think any of us knew how bubbly, giggly and happy we would be at the end of our service period. This event was sponsored by Feed My Starving Children and as a volunteer you help make and pack up bags of MannaPack Rice. This incredibly nutritious combo of rice, soy protein, vitamins and veggies contains about six meals and costs only about $0.25 per bag. Our job (though there were plenty of different things to do) was to scoop the ingredients into the empty bags and then hand them off to the rest of our table where they were weighed, sealed and boxed. Our little ole table of just nine people managed to pack up 47 boxes in 2 hours which equals over 9,000 meals for hungry children!
Knowing we were helping others was reason enough to attend but I cannot tell you how much fun we had together. There was a DJ so we were dancing and singing and there were various challenges along the way to keep us motivated and boy we were motivated knowing our hard work was providing more food to more children! But here’s the thing, sure our event was fun but studies have shown that people who are the happiest are people who give back. You don’t have to feel hungry children to give back. You can donate old clothes or electronics to a good cause, help out a local animal shelter (another one of our favorite things to do), help your elderly neighbor carry in her grocery bags or donate your old prom clothes. You don’t have anything to lose by giving of your time or self but you do have everything to gain!
Worried that you won’t be able to find any volunteer opportunities where you live? Check out the site Do Something. You can choose a topic you’re passionate about, figure out how much time you have and what type of volunteering you’d like to do and it will give you some ideas.
I know lots of you are busy with end of the year tests and exams but when that’s all over, give some thought to giving back and helping others this summer. I promise you’ll have fun, I promise it will look good on your college resume and I promise you will make a difference in someone’s (or some animal’s) life. All those pluses and you’ll end up feeling happy too. What are you waiting for?
3 Things 2 Do Today That R Guaranteed 2 Make U Happy
Being happy isn’t actually all that hard but there are some things you can do every day to guarantee it. Try these three simple things today and watch how much better you feel!
1. Choose to be Happy. Believe it or not, you can actually choose happiness but it does require some actions and reprogramming on your part. So what one thing can you do to be happier? What is your strategy for happiness? Just pick one thing. Maybe it’s choosing to be around upbeat people. Maybe it’s choosing to pay more attention to the little voice in your head that brings you down. Maybe it’s doing one thing you love every day that’s just for you. You don’t have to try to 1000 of these things but figure out what you’re doing that makes you unhappy and choose to do something different. Happiness can just happen and it’s great when it does but you can have more of it in your life when you choose to make it happen.
2. Be Thankful. You’ve heard me say it before and hopefully you’ve heard others say the same but being thankful is a surefire way to be happy. It’s really easy to do too! Just think of three things that you’re grateful for. They can be big things or little things. Your friends. Your parents. Your life. A good grade. A better grade than you thought. The way the sun feels on your face. A little kid laughing. Your friends laughing. Life is filled with tons of things to be thankful for and spending a few minutes to focus on them is an instant mood boost.
3. Forgive. Holding a grudge takes energy and creates a lot of negative energy and creates stress so you need to just let it go. The person you’re not forgiving doesn’t know or care that you’re harboring negative feelings towards them and it doesn’t actually impact them, it impacts you. How do you forgive?
Clinical psychologist Everett Worthington Jr. in his book, Five Steps to Forgiveness, created a 5-step process he calls REACH.
R: Recall the hurt. Figure out what you are or were really upset about. Figure out all the reasons but then move on to the next step.
E: Empathize and try to understand the act from the perpetrator’s point of view. I use this technique all the time and it’s helpful not only for learning to forgive, but can also keep people from getting to you. Maybe someone is having a bad day. Maybe they have an unhappy life. Maybe something really bad has happened to them. It doesn’t excuse their behavior but realizing that it’s not you helps you to let go of things.
A: Be Altruistic by recalling a time in your life when you were forgiven.
C: Commit to putting your forgiveness into words. Write an email, put it in your journal. Write it down on a piece of paper. Just get it out of your head and make it real.
H: Try to Hold on to the forgiveness. Don’t dwell on your anger, hurt, and desire for vengeance.
So there you have it. Three simple things to do every day to be happier. At least, these are the things I do. What do you do to be happy? Share it with other teens!
The Secret Handbook 4 Teens 