Bring Out Your Gifts!

Sharing our gifts can heal our world

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

What makes us happy?

For much of my adult life I was a teacher, and when the major festive seasons approached, Christmas, or Easter, for example, I used to ask my excited students what exactly it was that made them feel good. Was it giving, or receiving, and almost all of them opted for giving…initially.

I would then ask them if they mostly got excited for themselves, about what they might receive from others, and the answer was unequivocally, yes. BUT, after drilling down further, that yes was often qualified by something like, but you always feel a bit let down afterwards because it’s never the excitement you thought it would be.

And isn’t that the truth!

The happiness we feel inside when we do something nice for someone, or give a friend a well-thought-out gift, hangs around for a lot longer than our receiving presents we usually don’t need.

And often don’t especially like.

Gifts we feel obligated to give just because it happens to be an occasion for celebration.

One student explained to me that the best presents are the ones you get on a day when you are feeling down.