The 4th Circuit - We're Wired For Generosity
Money can make you happy if you give it away and what all religions have in common
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We are all, by nature, clearly oriented toward the basic human values of love and compassion. We all prefer the love of others to their hatred. We all prefer others’ generosity to meanness. And who is there among us who does not prefer tolerance, respect and forgiveness of our failings to bigotry, disrespect, and resentment? - Dalai Lama
We are hardwired to be generous and exercising our generosity is critical to our long-term well-being. Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist, and founder of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has outlined what he believes are four key pillars of well-being:
Resilience - The ability to bounce back from life's slings and arrows.
Positive Outlook - The ability to look upon others and life events with a positive view.
Attention - The ability to be present and in the moment
Generosity - The ability to give our time, energy, guidance, and materials.
In all of these, the word "ability" is used intentionally. These four pillars of well-being have been investigated and deeply researched through the lens of neuroscience. What has been found is that each of these four "pillars" has corresponding brain circuitry that is activated when each of the above behaviors is exercised. Interestingly, when activated they also, each, have a profound impact on how we feel.
Additionally, each of these circuits has shown remarkable plasticity. Meaning, that they can be trained and strengthened over time, hence the use of the word "ability".
In this article, I'll explore our generosity circuit specifically, what that means, how it works, how it affects our well-being, and how we can actually train it over time.
What is our generosity circuitry?
When we engage in practices that are designed to cultivate kindness and compassion, we’re not actually creating something de novo—we’re not actually creating something that didn’t already exist. What we’re doing is recognizing, strengthening, and nurturing a quality that was there from the outset. - David Richardson
Our generosity circuitry refers to areas of our brain that activate when we are generous. Numerous studies have been done into generosity and what areas of the brain are associated with this type of behavior to better understand it. Depending on the kind of generosity exhibited and context different areas of the brain light up.
Generosity makes us feel good
Areas of our brain associated with rewards and positive emotion light up when we give. Being generous and acting generously is like psychological chocolate in that it makes us feel good as soon as we engage in that kind of behavior.
What’s fascinating is the research into generosity goes pretty deep and there are numerous studies that show how our brains are hardwired to light up when we give:
Think And Grow, Generous? - Researchers David McClelland and Carol Kirshinit have found that just thinking about being generous makes us feel good by significantly increasing the protective antibody salivary immunoglobin A, a protein used by the immune system.
Money Can Buy Happiness….If You Give It Away - Researcher Elizabeth Dunn found that people experience greater happiness when they spend money on others vs. when they spend it on themselves.
There are tons more studies (those really only scratch the surface), but what I find really interesting is that these effects lead researchers to believe that we are wired (and have evolved) to enjoy being generous to others.
Scientists have suggested that this tendency towards pro-social behavior is what helped us evolve as a species - helping each other and being generous is part of the very fabric of being human!
These circuits have high plasticity
Interestingly enough practicing gratitude, kindness, and loving meditation as well as just giving to other people tended to increase feelings of well-being over time and encourage more kind behaviors.
We’re Built To Enjoy Being Generous - We’re designed to enjoy giving. Just by trying to be generous, you’re already on the right track as your brain is built to reward those behaviors by making you feel good.
It’s A Central Theme In Most Widsom And Religious Traditions - Interestingly, generosity is one of the things that all the major religions have in common:
Tzedakah (Judaism)
Zakat (Islam)
Dana (Hinduism and Buddhism)
Charity (Christianity)
Culturally, we also recognize the importance of generosity and I’d say most people regard it as a virtue or see generosity with some time of admiration.
Generosity Is Key To Our Ability To Thrive As Humans - To me, all of this suggests that our species fundamentally need generosity to thrive. We are an interdependent and connect web. Generosity is our way, as individuals, to recognize our interconnectedness - i.e. when we give, we thrive. It is one of the reasons our reward centers light up and it’s the kind of practice that naturally builds on itself.
Just By Getting Started, You’ll Want To Do More - Simply, practicing kindness - thinking about others positively, giving more often and more freely - can increase positive feelings, how connected we feel to others and pro-social behaviors.
Remarkably, being generous can also decrease negative feelings social biases, and even slow biological aging.
How does generosity make us feel?
It takes generosity to discover the whole through others. If you realize you are only a violin, you can open yourself up to the world by playing your role in the concert."
— Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Generosity affects us positively in a number of different ways, including changing our brain chemistry, changing the circuitry in our brain over time to promote positive emotions/buffer negative emotions, as well as potentially impact us on a biological level and helping us live longer.
Being generous makes us happier immediately
First and foremost, when we act generously we get a rush of chemicals that hit us making us feel good instantly. Whether we are giving money, volunteering, or just listening to a friend and supporting them our brain responds by releasing dopamine, endorphins, and oxytocin.
The two former chemicals are associated with a sense of euphoria and the latter with a sense of tranquility and peace.
Giving activates regions of the brain associated with pleasure, social connection, and trust, which gives us what scientists call the "helper's high".
Generosity helps you live longer
People that are more generous, studies have found, tend to experience lower levels of stress, high blood pressure, lower depression, and correspondingly have lower mortality rates.
Volunteer Your Time, Get More Back - In a study done by Morris Okun, they found that the simple act of volunteering reduces the risk of death by 24%. There are a ton of other studies that showcase the increase in longevity for people of all ages that comes with being more generous.
Generosity Connects Us & Chills Us Out - Some of the reasons, scientists believe this to be the case is generally being generous helps you connect better with others (high-quality relationships are associated with longer life), and being generous lowers your stress levels (higher stress is correlated with increased risk of death).
Giving to others can help us live.
Giving has a ton of other spillover effects
Generosity has a bunch of knock-on effects. Whether it's making others happier, promoting generosity in those around you, cultivating gratitude - there are tons of other ways in which being generous can have positive effects on us and those around us.
Suffice it to say, being generous in whatever way we can - with our time, our energy, our love, our resources - is key to lasting well-being and one of the foundational elements to good health.
How do we start training generosity?
What we are is what we repeatedly do - Aristotle
Buddhist tradition espouses three forms of generosity:
Material - Giving our resources (money, letting our friends borrow a car, etc).
Giving Freedom From Fear - This includes protection, counseling, and solace (comforting our friends in distress).
Spiritual Giving - Wisdom, moral, and ethical teaching. Essentially helping people live happier, healthier, and more self-sufficient lives.
I think these are pretty good guideposts that have helped me expand my definition of what it means to be generous outside of just time and money.
I'm a big advocate for starting small, with pretty much anything and I've tried to be more intentionally generous by starting in small ways:
Giving To Charity Randomly - Adding some extra cents on my CVS or Grocery checkout to send to the charity. Honestly, I don’t know if it’s that helpful yet (the next step is to look into the impact of some of these), but it makes me feel good.
Giving More Than You Think Makes Sense - With gifts I have started thinking about what makes sense to give and then just giving more than that if I am able.
Picking Up The Phone When Friends Or Family Call - I used to be pretty terrible at this but more often than not I'm picking up the phone to chat with people and trying to just listen and be supportive and helpful in any way I can (or just connect!).
Doing Stuff You Would Not Typically Do Just To Make Others Happy - This one has been interesting for me because as a kid I was pretty selfish and would avoid stuff that I did not want to do. One example is I went to pick up my in-laws at the airport about 40 minutes away recently because I thought it would make them happy and because it’s just nice to get picked up at the airport. I think I would usually not have done this because I would have made an excuse that I was working on something.
Volunteering Your Time - I've recently started to look for opportunities to get involved in areas where I would just like to help people and starting really small ( a few hours per week).
Gifting Books To People - I love this one because it's such an awesome way to connect with people. Often you're in a conversation and discussing a topic that is interesting, and a book comes up. I find that I really enjoy sending people books. It also has the potential to become something fun to discuss down the line!
Helping Random People That Ask For Help - I try to often say yes to people that want to connect and need help with something - stranger or friend. Not only does it feel pretty good, but I have also actually made a fair amount of friends that way, which has been rewarding.
These are just some ideas and I think I’ve got a long way to go here but this is how I’ve tried to be more intentionally generous.
Generosity is something that I think starts to build up and snowball over time. The more we act on moments of generosity, however small, the more opportunities to be generous we find in our day to day and want to act on.
It's something that has been impactful to my well-being and something I enjoy more each day and each time I do it. I also think it's just a part of being human.
Until next time,
Alvaro
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