5 Benefits of Generosity

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas and I’m anticipating many fun moments and happy times with friends and family.

I want to encourage you to finish the year well, with an attitude of gratitude and anticipation of the good things to come.

Life might be very complex at this time, but we can still find joy in the journey and create happiness in our homes.

What we set our mind on is often what we usually experience, so let’s be intentional about blessing others this Christmas.

Focus on those you can serve or help.

It’s good to remember that if you are fortunate enough to have:

• a home
• a job
• someone to love

...you have what most of the world longs for.

I believe that the secret to living is giving. The benefits are many! Let's look at five of the benefits of generosity:

1. Giving makes us feel good (and happy!). As you help someone or give a gift, your brain secretes “feel good” chemicals: Serotonin (which regulates your mood), Dopamine (which gives you a sense of pleasure), and Oxytocin (which creates a sense of connection with others).
2. Giving improves our health. I believe we are made for giving. Giving can stimulate your brain’s mesolimbic pathway, or reward centre, while releasing endorphins. That can lead to a “helper’s high” that boosts self-esteem, elevates happiness and combats feelings of depression.
3. Giving helps our social connections. It’s easy to like someone generous with their words, actions and attitude. Generosity is both a natural confidence builder and a natural repellent of self-hatred. By focusing on what we are giving rather than on what we are receiving, we create a more outward orientation toward the world, which shifts our focus away from ourselves.
4. Giving evokes gratitude, and gratitude makes you feel happy. It’s quite unexpected how giving evokes gratitude on both ends: both the giver and the receiver can feel grateful in the act. The giver might be expressing their gratitude for something and, at the same time, make the receiver feel grateful as well.
5. Giving is contagious. It sparks more generosity. Research has established that generosity can spread from one to another. A study from 2008 found that "a single person acting as a 'consistent contributor'—someone who chooses to be generous all the time, regardless of other people’s choices— causes other people in a group to be more generous and cooperative”.

I call this the season of giving not because we all buy lots of presents for others but because God gave us His best gift. I encourage you to make time to read the true story of Christmas so that God’s greatest gift is never lost.

Watch this quick video where I tell a story of generosity, it is a reminder of the importance of going the extra mile and the resultant fruit in our own lives.

We rarely regret sharing what we have but often regret missing opportunities to bless someone. Let’s be intentionally generous!

I hope others catch your generous spirit this Christmas.

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