For today's challenge, buy someone a coffee!
Why buy someone a coffee?
Giving to others... activates an area of the brain linked with contentment and the reward cycle.
(Cohut)
Why does buying someone coffee make us happier?
Any time you buy something for someone else, you are practicing generosity.
When we are generous with others - at a cost to ourselves, our brain region connected with happiness is activated.
Studies have found people feel happier when they give something away - whether it is money to charities or massages - than when they receive more money (or massages).
How can you practice this at work?
You can naturally offer to buy a colleague a coffee, but you can also consider how you offer your time and services to colleagues. Even though you are busy, when you take from your own time to help others, be it mentoring, or even volunteering to take part of their workload, you will receive that boost of happiness which results from generosity.
How can you do it?
You can pick up a drink for anyone - even a stranger as was popular a few years back when people randomly bought coffee for strangers.
Give an extra, generous tip.
Give to a charity.
Volunteering is a way to give of your time and reaps the same benefit.
It really doesn't matter what you give or how much, but it should cost you something, and you should do it willingly.
What will you give today?
Cohut, Maria. “Generosity Makes You Happier.” Medicalnewstoday.com, Medical News Today, 16 July 2017, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318406. Accessed 30 Aug. 2022.
Utah State University. “Does Giving Make You Happier? Or Do Happier People Give? - Discovery Fall 2017 - Science.” Usu.edu, 2017, www.usu.edu/science/discovery/fall-2017/does-giving-make-you-happy. Accessed 30 Aug. 2022.