A Thanksgiving Contemplation: Helping Others Makes You Happy! Harvard Business School tells us it's so...

A recent paper from Harvard Business School tell us something that Adventures in Compassion readers already know: Helping others makes us happy!

The paper, by Lalin Anik, Lara B. Aknin, Michael I. Norton, and Elizabeth W. Dunn, shows us how:

• Happy people give more.
• Giving is "inherently rewarding."
• "...students who engaged in random acts of kindness were significantly happier than controls."
• "...spending money on others leads to higher happiness than spending money on oneself."
• "...prosocial spending and happiness fuel each other in a circular fashion," meaning, helping others makes you happier, and when you're happier, you're more likely to help others.

This holiday season, consider making a difference for others in whatever way you can. It'll make you happy, and when you're happy, you'll be more likely to help others. Then you'll be happier. And you'll help others even more. And then you'll be happier... *

A Thanksgiving Contemplation: Helping Others Makes You Happy! Harvard Business School tells us it's so...