A Counterintuitive Way to Cheer Up When You’re Down
Five takeaways:
- Research shows that a reliable treatment of unhappiness is to make the effort to bring joy to others. A concerted effort to do so can be a source of well-being.
- Misery loves company, but it creates company too: research shows that unhappy people tend to spread their unhappiness to those around them.
- There is growing evidence that a “fake it till you make it” attitude towards personal happiness can help increase overall happiness. This includes a concerted effort to bring joy to others.
- Spending money on others and volunteering have both been shown to raise one’s own happiness levels
- “By deliberately preparing yourself to cheer up the people around you the way a happy person spontaneously would, you’ll create the conditions by which you can produce your own happiness naturally—and give the gift of happiness to others, as well.”
From Arthur C. Brooks at The Atlantic:
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