Selflessness + Gratitude = HAPPINESS! Start incorporating this formula into your life NOW!

Friday: Mindfulness by Miles FROM THE DESK OF MILES EVERSON: Welcome to today’s edition of “Mindfulness by Miles!” Every Friday, I talk about various topics that I find useful in my daily life. My hope is that you’ll also be interested and compelled to apply the tips and lessons you learn from these articles in your personal life and career. Today, I’ll discuss two secrets to experiencing lasting happiness. Curious to know what these secrets are? Keep reading the article below. CEO, MBO Partners Chairman of the Advisory Board, The I Institute

Selflessness + Gratitude = HAPPINESS! Start incorporating this formula into your life NOW! Tony Robbins is one of the top philanthropists and business strategists in the US. He is one of the leading voices in leadership psychology and is known for his infomercials, seminars, and self-help books like, “Unlimited Power” and “Awaken The Giant Within.” As a life coach, he has made a BIG impact with his non-profit organization that focuses on feeding the hungry and empowering at-risk youth, prisoners, and homeless people. Robbins’ charity had a humble beginning… and he is known to be generous well before he became wealthy. In fact, in one podcast episode of The Bulletproof radio that I listened to, Robbins talked about how he began giving away his money when he was broke. Let’s take a look at his story… When Robbins was in the early years of his career, he experienced financial struggles. There was even a point when he only had USD 21 in his savings. To use his last few dollars, he decided to go to an eat-all-you-can buffet. As he was eating, he saw a mother and son enter the restaurant. The son was polite—holding the door and pulling out the chair for his mom—and it touched Robbins. So, the next thing he did was he paid his bill, and gave his last USD 15 to the boy so he could buy his mom’s lunch. According to Robbins: “That time, I skipped home and I had no fear, no worry. It was the first time in my life where I was beyond scarcity. I remember I went home, I had no plan to figure out what to do the next day to eat, and I went to bed happy as a clam.” At that moment, Robbins unlocked one of the fundamental ingredients for TRUE happiness: Selflessness. Hearing this story from the podcast made me realize a few things too. I learned that to achieve genuine and lasting happiness, we have to practice gratitude, selflessness, and generosity in our lives. This isn’t just mere speculation. I looked into this subject online too and found out that selflessness and its close cousin, gratitude, can positively impact your brain on a biological level. These two are truly extraordinary ways to build a happier life and lift up those around you! How Selflessness Creates Lasting Happiness Have you heard the term, “Positive Psychology?” Basically, positive psychologists are happiness researchers. They look for the underlying causes of happiness—not brief pleasure that fades as quickly as it appears, but durable, authentic joy that persists throughout life. One of the biggest discoveries of positive psychologists involves differences in the results of selfishness and selflessness: Selfless acts bring lasting happiness because they weaken a person’s sense of separation with the world. Instead, selflessness creates a mental shift towards increased connectedness and eases feelings of loneliness and anxiety. Selflessness also creates a positive feedback loop: Being selfless drives an individual to be more selfless, and in turn, he or she and the people around him or her experience genuine happiness. Selfish acts bring someone happiness… in the short term. Selfish happiness fades quickly, and drives more selfish behavior from a person. Now, let’s talk about selflessness’ close cousin, gratitude… I’ve talked about thankfulness in past articles and how it positively impacts one’s investment strategies and personal life. By now, you must have known that I strongly believe gratitude is a powerful and fundamental part of lasting happiness. … and it’s not just me! Study after study has found that gratitude rewires the brain for positivity. Researchers discovered that even 2 weeks of simple thankfulness exercises such as sharing daily wins with friends or family, or writing down things to be thankful for make a person happier, more emotionally open, more optimistic, more productive, and more creative. That’s A LOT of benefits for a 10-minute simple gratitude exercise per day! What’s more? A review of positive psychology interventions found that daily gratitude causes a long-term shift in one’s happiness and a long-term decrease in symptoms of depression. This means what you put in your body determines what you get out of it. So, every time you focus on gratitude, you’re lighting up brain pathways associated with positivity and happiness. … and as you exercise thankfulness every day, you’ll perceive optimism as second nature to you. The 21-Day Happiness Challenge Recently, I’ve been seeing this challenge everywhere I go—both online and offline. Some of the people I know were even posting stories about their 21-day happiness challenge experiences on social media. As curious as I was, I also jumped in on the bandwagon and tried the challenge. After 21 days, I can confidently say it’s true: Being in an attitude of selflessness and gratitude every day brings long-lasting happiness! I encourage you to try the 21-day happiness challenge too! To start: Do something selfless every day. List down 5 things you’re grateful for every night, before going to bed. These things don’t have to be big. They can be as simple as buying coffee for the person in line behind you at your favorite coffee shop, or expressing gratitude that you have a stable job or a roof over your head. What’s important is your consistency. Make it a daily habit to help those around you and appreciate even the little things in life. Then, pay attention to how you feel throughout the 21 days. By the end of the challenge, you may feel you’ve become a happier and better person. I hope you find today’s topic insightful and helpful! If you have any comments or suggestions related to the things we talked about above, feel free to leave a comment on this article or connect with me through my LinkedIn account. Happy Friday, everyone!     Follow us on LinkedIn.