Secrets of Happiness Revealed!

Everyone wants to be happy and the grass is always greener on the other side, but it's not always so hard to do something that will pick up your mood. I've been sitting here thinking about what the key element to happiness is (other than the actual release of chemicals in the brain) and here is what I've come up with... enjoy~

Honestly, one of the best feelings we can have is the feeling of helping others. From small acts like answering a simple question for a child or paying for dinner to bigger things like sponsoring a children's organization or feeding a starving nation, there is nothing that feels better than being able to say to yourself "I helped someone."

Of course it's always hard to pull out your own wallet when necessary, but not all acts of happiness need your hard earned cash. SocialVibe is a site I just discovered that has teamed up with sponsors that will donate money on your behalf. If you join SocialVibe, you can pick a charity and a sponsor. I don't know if you've noticed the widget I posted at the right side of my page, but that's my charity and sponsor. =)

It's not costing me anything to have it there, and it makes me feel good to know that every time someone clicks on it, money is being donated by that sponsor to my charity. So please click on it if you read this. Ahhh. I'm feeling happy already. (Gloating is okay when it's for a good cause.)

And another site I really like that will double your happiness points is GlobalGiving. This is a place that connects givers with receivers and where you can buy gift cards that do more than help corporate stores like most gift card purchases.

The Global Giving gift card allows you to specify an amount as little as $10 that will be donated to the charity of your recipients choice. How's that for saving two birds with one stone? And what makes it better- the cards are biodegradable too.

And my final suggestion for the key to happiness is to use a good search engine. Like Goodsearch. It's an easy and free way to donate money to your cause simply by searching the web. It's powered by Yahoo! Search so it's just as powerful of a search engine, if not better because of the added perk. You pick your charity, then you search the net as usual. Every search is money donated to the charity of your choice.

I'm sure you can think of more paths to happiness but these are the few I was thinking about today. And to quote a dear friend; "You can always tell if someone cares about you if they're willing to part with their money on your behalf."

(And yeah, that is a Sun Gone Nova cartoon)