Mental Health Habits – Mind Body

While doing art also connects the artist with a field of art, with a history and a language that goes far beyond what any individual artist does. Doing art also connects the person doing it with other artists and with audiences. Michael Friedman will deliver the keynote address at the NYS Psychological Association’s Annual Conference on Art and Psychology on June 9, For information. Volunteer your time, or donate money to charity this holiday season, your giving is a great deal more than just a ‘yearend’ chore, whether you buy gifts.

It may in any circumstances do not be surprised if you find yourself benefiting from a big dose of happiness in the process. Therefore, new studies attest to the positive parts of giving not simply for the recipients but for the givers’ health and happiness, and for the strength of entire communities. Essentially, research suggests it’s worth it. Holiday shopping can be terrifying. Generally, they write, every person in a network can influence dozens or even hundreds of people, some amount of whom he does not know and has not met.

As a matter of fact, the researchers found that altruism could spread by three degrees from person to person to person to person. Now look, a study by James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego, and Nicholas Christakis of Harvard, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, shows that when one person behaves generously, it inspires observers to behave generously later, ward different people. Giving has also been linked to the release of oxytocin, a hormone that induces feelings of warmth, euphoria, and connection to others. Besides, those people on an oxytocin high can potentially jumpstart a virtuous circle, where one person’s generous behavior triggers another’s, says Zak. With symptoms lasting up to two hours, in laboratory studies. Director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies at Claremont Graduate University, has found that a dose of oxytocin will cause people to give more generously and to feel more empathy wards others.

Jason Marsh is the editor in chief of Greater Good.

Jill Suttie is Greater Good’s book review editor and a frequent contributor.

She wrote another version of this piece that appeared on Shareable.net. Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection, The more extensive the reciprocal altruism born of social connection. With that said, these exchanges promote a feeling of trust and cooperation that strengthens our ties to others and research has shown that having positive social interactions is central to good mental and physical health. As researcher John Cacioppo writes in his book Loneliness. Being kind and generous leads you to perceive others more positively and more charitably, writes Lyubomirsky in her book The How of Happiness, and this fosters a heightened anticipation of interdependence and cooperation in your social community. Loads of info can be found on the web. We also feel closer to them, bolywoord when we give to others, what’s more we don’t only make them feel closer to us.

Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough, ‘co directors’ of the Research Project on Gratitude and Thankfulness, found that teaching college students to count their blessings and cultivate gratitude caused them to exercise more, be more optimistic, and feel better about their lives overall. Recent study led by Nathaniel Lambert at Florida State University found that expressing gratitude to a close friend or romantic partner strengthens our feeling of connection to that person. Stephanie Brown of the University of Michigan saw similar results in a 2003 study on elderly couples. 1999 study led by Doug Oman of the University of California, Berkeley, found that elderly people who volunteered for two or more organizations were 44 percent less gonna die over a fiveyear period than were ‘non volunteers’, even after controlling for their age, exercise habits, general health, and negative health habits like smoking. Whenever receiving consider that altruistic behavior releases endorphins in the brain. Wide range of research has linked different forms of generosity to better health, even among the sick and elderly. In his book Why Good Things Happen to Good People, Stephen Post, a professor of preventative medicine at Stony Brook University, reports that giving to others had been shown to increase health benefits in people with chronic illness, including HIV and multiple sclerosis. Giving is good for our health. Whenever suggesting a direct physiological benefit to those who give of themselves, in a 2006 study by Rachel Piferi of Johns Hopkins University and Kathleen Lawler of the University of Tennessee, people who provided social support to others had lower blood pressure than participants who didn’t.