Experts say this happiness hack actually helps in times of chaos and anxiousness
There’s a simple way to create happiness in your life, especially in times of chaos and anxiety, and it starts with what you do in other people’s lives.
In January, Americans feeling “very satisfied” with their personal lives hit a 24-year low. According to a Gallup poll According to the report released at the time, 44 percent of Americans said they were “very satisfied” with the way their personal lives were going.
“After several challenging years that included the Covid-19 pandemic and persistently high prices, Americans’ extreme satisfaction with their personal lives has fallen to its lowest level in a quarter century,” Gallup wrote in an analysis. “Political discontent appears to have further reduced satisfaction, especially for Republicans.”
So what can we do in these difficult times? A psychologist turned to Generation Z, generally considered those born between 1997 and 2012, for the answer.
There’s a simple way to create happiness in your life, especially in times of chaos and anxiety, and it starts with what you do in other people’s lives (Getty/iStock)
Cornell psychologist Anthony Burrow and researchers from the university’s Goal and Identity Processes Laboratory conducted a six-year project that asked: “If someone gave you $400 to make a difference in your community, what would you do with it?”
Over the years, Burrow and his team have selected more than 1,000 high school and college students to receive $400 and use it to add value to themselves and their communities. Contribution Project.
Preliminary results of the project shared in an article Washington Post Show Friday that at the start of the experiment, those who received funding and those who did not received the funding scored the same on psychological measures such as latent well-being, sense of purpose, sense of belonging, sense of feeling needed and useful, and emotional balance, which is the balance between positive and negative emotions.
But after eight weeks, the time frame in which recipients must make their contributions, those who received the funds scored significantly higher than others.
A project led by Cornell psychologist Anthony Burrow and his researchers found that people who received funds to help their communities scored significantly higher on psychological measures (Getty)
Recipients used the money to pay for hundreds of loads of laundry for community members, donate books to their former high school, plant a tree on campus and create a mental health resource website.
“I think a lot of people in my generation are like me,” receiver Eric Kohut said. Washington Post. “By nature, everyone wants to love and be loved. And I think that comes out very often.”
The results of the project have not yet been peer-reviewed and published, but Burrow believes the principle of his experiment could make a difference in people’s lives.
“Invite people to think about the contribution they want to make and help them [to] make that contribution, and that person may be walking around with a greater purpose than if he or she had not made that,” he said in the Washington Post article.
