Sense of Well Being – Giving Nature

Research shows that giving is as important to healthy living as eating nutritious foods.

It’s become well understood that eating well is not enough to sustain us. We must also feed our emotional need to give something meaningful to the greater good. Giving is as important to us as the air we breath and the food we eat. They work hand in hand to complete our happiness. Giving Nature believes that a practice involving satisfaction of both those needs will lead each of us closer to a fulfilled sense of well being.

Giving-the path to lasting happiness.

The authors of the US Declarations of Independence believed that every human being should be entitled to pursue happiness.

Since happiness can be fleeting, this may sound like a fickle goal. But what the authors were likely thinking of is a sustainable type of happiness or what we today call “a sense of well being.”

In current times, money looms large in our minds as the mode of transportation to that end.

There seems to be some truth in this. Feeling physically secure is a primary need for all and one must have enough money to acquire it.

But it turns out that more money acquired beyond that point of need is not enough to take us the whole way there.

In 2008, Harvard Business School published the results of a Behavioral Research study on money and whether it makes you sustainably happy the more you have of it.

The answer they found was,”No”.

The results seem to bolster the old adage that “Money can’t buy happiness”. Beyond the point of necessity money won’t sustain your sense of well being. You can’t buy it off of the shelf.

What was perhaps more stunning was the finding that people are more likely to sustain happiness when they give their money to some greater good.

So it turns out another old adage, “It is better to give than receive” is a fundamental truth of life and not something to be ignored.

We all innately know this. Those with not enough money often struggle to make tough choices as to where their money should be spent in order to give safety and security to loved ones. When they succeed a sense of well-being is achieved.

Those with more than enough money look to charitable giving or create foundations as means to achieve a sense of well being that only giving can provide.

Money it would seem is best spent when it’s on someone else, sometimes when even our own needs are put second to those we care for.

Two other more recent studies found the same results.

If you didn’t notice, giving, rather than money, is the common currency in attaining a sense of well being. And that means the act of giving is an essential part of who we are.

And it goes way beyond money. Studies show that those who involve themselves in activities for the greater good are more likely to sustain their personal happiness.

So contributing to the well being of others is essential to creating our own.

Without giving we do not feel complete.

It follows that if we keep the giving side of ourselves active and alive daily we can bring ourselves closer to a sustained sense of well being.

If the above rings true to you, Giving Nature aims to help you start doing that through the simple act of eating. More specifically what you choose to eat.

Why eating? Because it’s a constant. Something you and nearly all other living things do daily, several times a day. We have this in common with all nature. What we choose to eat is linked to the natural world around us. Some foods in particular are linked to each other in ways were only beginning to understand. It has become more evident that the production and the demand for certain foods contribute greatly to global warming.

Through a simple food choice you can give us all a better future than the one if you do nothing at all. Each meal you can build your sense of well being when you choose foods that contribute to a more human sustaining world.

To give shape and consistency to such a giving effort requires practice.

Giving Nature has developed PATHS or Practicing Awareness Towards Human Sustainability towards that end.

Please go to PATHS to learn more.