Giving + Positivity = Longevity
At a time when selfishness + negativity = destruction, it’s good to remember that giving + positivity = longevity. The cowardice, violence, putrefied morality and impunity displayed by Trump and his enablers should not cloud the virtuous lives of many people. Here’s a study showing the benefits of service and joy.
If you’ve ever felt valued, or had an opportunity to add value, you know how good it feels to matter. So much so that your health and happiness go up every time you experience these positive emotions. In fact, you live longer and feel more fulfilled when you experience them regularly. You get a sense of meaning, importance, and satisfaction in knowing that your actions make a difference in somebody’s life. As leading social motivation researchers put it, “giving can create a warm glow of happiness, boost self-esteem, increase self-efficacy, and reduce symptoms of depression. It predicts improvements in physical health and even predicts how long people live. It can strengthen social relationships, creating and strengthening social bonds and fostering the sense that one can make a valuable contribution to others.”
When it comes to adding value, we can learn a great deal from people who dedicate their lives to service. Whereas givers in general tend to be healthier than non-givers, some givers live longer than others. Those who experience more positive emotions live longer than givers who do not report as much positivity. This was discovered in a fascinating study spanning over six decades. The famous Nun Study involved an examination of the lives of 678 members of the American School Sisters of Notre Dame. All sisters born before 1917 were asked to participate in the study. When the study started in the nineties, all participants were between 75 to 102 years of age. Their biographies, health, and longevity were explored in this landmark study. The analyses revealed that the higher the level of positive emotions in their biographies prior to entering a convent, the lesser the risk of mortality.
The study found that generosity plus positivity provide a considerable boost to health and longevity. While generosity is first and foremost a gift to others, happiness is primarily a gift to ourselves. In both instances we are adding value, first to others, and then to ourselves. Both gifts are necessary for mattering. If we want to enjoy the benefits of meaning and mattering, we must do both: help others and help ourselves.
Dr. Isaac Prilleltensky is an award-winning academic and author. He is also a coach, consultant and a researcher. His latest book, co-authored with his wife, Dr. Ora Prilleltensky, is How People Matter: Why it Affects Health, Happiness, Love, Work, and Society (Cambridge University Press, 2021). Press here to pre-order.