Meaningful Life

Yesterday's blog post set me thinking about another path to happiness -- the Meaningful Life. The Meaningful Life is about the positive sense of well-being, belonging, meaning, and purpose individuals experience by being part of and contributing back to something larger and more permanent than themselves (e.g. nature, social groups, organizations, movements, traditions, belief systems). The Meaningful Life is about using your signature strengths in the service of something larger than you are.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and the beginning of the Season of Giving. It's a day to enjoy our bounty and think about all the many reasons we have to be grateful. It's also a wonderful time to start thinking about being of service. When we feel grateful, we naturally want to share ourselves and our good fortunes. And being of service increases our gratitude and joy. This increase in joy is not a momentary pleasure -- limited to the time we give the service. Rather being of service provides satisfaction that lingers for a long time afterward.

Sonja Lyubomirsky, a Positive Psychology Professor of Psychology at Stanford, tested whether asking people to "commit" five random acts of kindness would reliably increase their level of positive emotion. She found that it absolutely does (Lyubomirsky et al, 2004). And it is most effective if all five acts are carried out on the same day. If you'd like to try this experiment, here are Prof. Lyubomirsky's instructions:

In our daily lives, we all perform acts of kindness for others. These acts may be large or small and the person for whom the act is performed may or may not be aware of the act. Examples include feeding a stranger's parking meter, donating blood, helping a friend with homework, visiting an elderly relative, or writing a thank you letter. One day each week, you are to perform five acts of kindness. The acts do not need to be for the same person, the person may or may not be aware of the act, and the act may or may not be similar to the acts listed above. Do not perform any acts that may place yourself or others in danger.

I'm actually going to attempt to do these 5 random acts of daily kindness. I'll let you know how it goes at the end of the week.

Here are some other ideas for doing some kindness and increasing the meaning in your life:

• Leave a huge tip for a small check.
• Be a listening ear to a friend. Ask your friend how her day was and actually listen and respond to her before describing your own day.
• Flu season is upon us. Help a friend or neighbor who is ill by delivering chicken soup, doing the laundry, or walking the dog.
• Give someone else the gift of time-Do something for someone else that requires time and effort on your part.
• The next time someone admires something of yours and you can afford to do without it, give it away.
• Volunteer in your community.