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Do you like gifts?
Crazy question, right?
Isn’t it the best feeling when someone gives you something thoughtful for no anticipated reason?
I was on the dance floor of an event years ago.
A friend danced up to me and told me she absolutely loved my jacket.
I handed it to her to try on and she went spinning around like a princess.
She looked great in the jacket so I told her she could keep it.
Once she picked her jaw up off the floor she hugged me, then herself in her new jacket, and all smiles continued to spin around the dance floor.
I’m not sure if it was she or I who was more excited.
Aha – enhancing another’s life enhances ours.
We’re wired to help one another.
In an article entitled 5 Ways Giving Is Good for You By Jill Suttie and Jason Marsh, December 13, 2010, the writers cite a 2006 study by Jorge Moll and colleagues at the National Institute of Health, “When people give to charities, it activates regions of the brain associated with pleasure, social connection, and trust, creating a “warm glow” effect. Scientists also believe that altruistic behavior releases endorphins in the brain, producing the positive feeling known as the “helper’s high.”
A 2008 study by Harvard Business School professor Michael Norton and colleagues found that giving money to someone else lifted participants’ happiness more than spending it on themselves (despite participants’ prediction that spending on themselves would make them happier).
“How about them apples?” (as my dad would say) We feel better gifting someone else than we do ourselves.
While it’s important to feed ourselves – life is for living – sharing is in our D.N.A.
Christmas is coming. Surprise a few extra people this year….for you.