Some time ago, I was standing in a long line at the grocery store. The woman in front of me, with young children standing by her side, was not able to pay for her groceries with her SNAP assistance card. As the checker struggled to figure out how to handle the situation and folks behind me backed out of line, I decided to pay for their groceries. The woman expressed sincere appreciation. The checker apologized to me as she was ringing up my groceries and I assured her I needed no apology since it made me feel very good to help the family. Give your time or money to feed your spirit.

In The Compassionate Mind it states that compassion has benefits for both physical and mental health as well as overall well being. It seems that to give is more pleasurable for us than to receive. “A brain-imaging study headed by neuroscientist, Jordan Grafman, from the National Institutes of Health, showed that the ‘pleasure centers’ in the brain (i.e. the parts of the brain that are active when we experience pleasure like dessert, money and sex) are equally active when we observe someone giving money to charity as when we receive money ourselves!”

Compassion may be the secret to being not just happy, but also healthy, wealthy and wise according to Emma M. Seppala, Ph.D:

• Compassion makes you happy
• Compassion makes you wise
• Compassion makes you attractive
• Compassion gives you money and time
• Compassion boosts your health
• Compassion uplifts and spreads
• Compassion is 100 percent natural