"Survey data from 2000 show us that people who give money to charity are 43 % more likely than nongivers to say they are very happy. Volunteers are 42% more likely to be very happy than nonvolunteers." (From Gross National Happiness)
If you know someone who is reluctant to believe that phrase from the Bible, "It is more blessed to give than to receive," you can appeal to her with this information! The statistical data show that happiness is strongly correlated to giving, whether giving of money or time or whatever.
Encourage your friend to find a good cause and help it to reach its goal of blessing people.
A great story from the book: Seniors were asked to give massages to babies, a compassionate act for which they would not get even a thank-you. "After they performed the massages, the seniors were found to have markedly lower stress hormone levels . . . In fact, researchers discovered that the subjects enjoyed more stress-lowering effects from giving massages than they did from getting them."
Here's a TED Talk by a Harvard Business School prof on the topic of "How to Buy Happiness". He says, "“Spending on other people has a bigger return for you than spending on yourself.”
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