You CAN Buy Happiness!

There’s that saying that we have all heard: “Money can’t buy happiness”, but what if it could? Why is it, when we buy something material, we feel a short wave of excitement or “happiness”, but then it is gone almost as fast as you can say, “I’ll take them in a size 8?” I struggle with overspending as many people do. Is it for the distraction from the “routine” of the day? Is it because we feel in control when we fool ourselves into thinking we can afford something just because our credit card says we can? We wind up finding ourselves on this destructive loop because this “happy” rush is fleeting and we have to keep buying to recapture that feeling.

So, how do we find long term joy? Why does $20 seem inexpensive when we are buying something for ourselves but, when we give $20 to a charity, it feels like we are being generous? If we are searching for true joy, then we need to flip that script. What if, instead of buying that $40 Smith & Hawkin candle holder at Target, we hand the person in line behind us a $40 gift card? What would give you, and that lucky person behind you, more joy?

Lara Aknin, an Associate Professor at Simon Fraser University in Canada has studied the link between kindness and happiness and found that people who give to others recall the memory with more positive feelings than when they have bought an item for themselves. She has also found that the more altruistic we are, the more opportunities we search for to be kind, creating a “positive feedback loop” which is clearly more beneficial than the destructive loop I mentioned earlier. My takeaway from all of this? I am going to challenge myself to jump off of the “hedonistic treadmill” that I have found myself on and try the alternative. The only risk I face is being in debt but leaving myself and others happier. It’s surely better than the alternative, which is finding myself in debt and not recalling where I spent it.

For more information on Aknin’s Helping and Happiness lab, click here.

-The Strong Stumbler