Enhance Your Spiritual Life by Giving
It feels good to give back and lift people up. It reminds us that we’re all connected. Compassion takes over and lifts our spirits.
In The ONE Thing, Jay and Gary explain how a person’s one thing isn’t really just one thing — it’s one thing at a time. By taking a hard look at your life, you’ll find that there are seven areas where your one thing should be applied — and your spiritual life is one of them. However, we don’t really talk about that one all that much. We tend to apply more focus on our personal relationships, businesses, jobs, finances, and physical health. But the truth is, a person’s spiritual life is one that spills into each of the other buckets of our lives. (It is listed as the first bucket in the book for a reason.)
When our spiritual lives feel fulfilled, it influences over how we tackle the problems within the other areas of our life. That’s because our spiritual lives are tied to way we think and perceive the world. Spiritual fulfillment can mean the difference between seeing a mistake as a steppingstone for a grand scheme or a mortal flaw — the difference between feeling powerless and taking accountability.
It’s a big mistake to overlook this part of your life. If you’re feeling down, one of the best things you can do is to start giving.
Giving Makes Us Happy
After conducting a survey of over 630 Americans, researchers at the University of British Columbia in Canada developed a hypothesis that the amount of money we have isn’t what makes us happy — it’s how we spend it.
To test this hypothesis, they measured the happiness and spending habits of a small group of employees prior to receiving a profit-sharing check from their company and again in the following weeks. The results backed up their thinking and found that those who had spent more of their bonus on others received a significant boost in their overall level of happiness.
There’s a reason why we associate the holiday season with “good spirit” and “cheer.” We’re happier when we give to others than when we treat ourselves. And the benefits don’t appear to be impacted by whether or not the giving came out of genuine goodwill or responsibility.
Giving Heals
Something happens when we give to others. We feel more connected to our community, and we see the impact we can have when we work for something greater than just ourselves. When we learn to give, incredible changes can start inside us.
In one study, researchers found that widows who provided instrumental support to other widows were less likely to see their grief develop into depression over a year later. The results stood even after accounting for multiple variables including whether they were receiving support themselves.
When we help someone else through a tough time, it gives us a lot of time to reflect about our own experiences. It’s kind of like the adage that “the best way to learn something is to teach it.”
Giving Builds Stronger Relationships
Nothing warms up the soul quite like emotional support. Giving emotional support might be more beneficial than receiving it. In one study, researchers discovered that those who provide high amounts of emotional support to their spouse were half as likely to die during the study period compared to those who reported providing relatively lower amounts of emotional support. Furthermore, they found that receiving support had no influence on morality risk at all.
What’s up with that? Don’t we support others so we can help them? Well, yes, but maybe not always in a way you would expect. In an article on the subject, Dr. Stephanie Brown at the University of Michigan, who conducted the study, suggested that we may tend to form relationships with those who reciprocate the support we provide. That may mean that relationships are strongest with those we need and who we think need us.
This might mean that healthy relationships are built from a “yin-yang” balance. When we’re able to give to our significant others and they’re able to give to us, we’re both receiving benefits within the relationship.
What we can learn from these studies is that giving can enhance our spiritual lives and make us happier overall.
If you aren’t engaged in a community or some kind of vehicle for giving back, it’s worth your time to look for one. This holiday season, think outside the box of how you can give and support those around you. It just might come back to you ten-fold.
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