The Joy of Giving

Why the Givers Are the Happiest People in Life

Happiness is often misunderstood. Many people spend years believing that true happiness comes from receiving more—more money, more success, more recognition, or more possessions. Yet history, philosophy, and psychology consistently point toward a different truth: the happiest people are usually those who give rather than those who constantly seek to receive.

The Japanese phrase Ataeru Yorokobi (与える喜び) means "The Joy of Giving." It reflects the belief that genuine fulfillment comes from contributing to the lives of others. This principle has long been respected in Japanese culture, where acts of kindness, generosity, and service are seen as signs of inner strength rather than weakness.

Giving is not limited to money. Anyone can give regardless of wealth or status. A kind word can encourage someone who is struggling. A smile can brighten another person's difficult day. Sharing knowledge can help someone avoid years of mistakes. Offering your time, patience, or compassion may become the greatest gift another person receives.

Ironically, the more people chase happiness for themselves alone, the more distant it often becomes. Self-centered ambition can create endless comparison and dissatisfaction. There is always someone richer, stronger, or more successful. But generosity changes our focus. Instead of asking, "What can I get?" we begin asking, "What can I contribute?" That simple shift transforms our perspective.

Modern scientific research also supports this ancient wisdom. Studies have shown that acts of generosity activate areas of the brain associated with pleasure, trust, and social connection. People who volunteer, donate, mentor, or simply help others often report greater life satisfaction and lower levels of stress and depression. Giving benefits not only the receiver but also the giver.

The image of the elderly samurai feeding hungry puppies perfectly symbolizes this philosophy. Despite his age, weathered appearance, and humble circumstances, he chooses compassion over indifference. His wealth is not measured by coins or possessions but by his willingness to care for lives smaller and weaker than his own. That quiet act reveals the heart of a true warrior.

Bushido, the traditional code of the samurai, emphasized virtues such as compassion (Jin), honor (Meiyo), respect (Rei), and righteousness (Gi). A warrior's greatness was never determined solely by skill with a sword but by the strength of character shown toward others. Power without kindness becomes intimidation. Strength guided by compassion becomes true leadership.

Giving also creates lasting influence. Material possessions eventually wear out, but kindness leaves memories that can endure for generations. Many people cannot remember every gift they received, but they never forget the person who stood beside them during hardship or believed in them when no one else did.

This principle applies to families, friendships, workplaces, and communities. Parents who generously invest time in their children shape future generations. Teachers who freely share knowledge inspire lifelong learning. Friends who offer support during difficult seasons create bonds that cannot be bought. Leaders who serve their people earn loyalty rather than fear.

Importantly, giving does not mean allowing yourself to be exploited or neglecting your own well-being. Healthy generosity comes from wisdom and balance. It means helping others without losing your integrity or enabling harmful behavior. True generosity strengthens both the giver and the receiver.

Every day offers opportunities to practice the joy of giving. You can encourage a discouraged friend, listen without interrupting, forgive a mistake, share your experience, help an animal in need, volunteer in your community, or simply show gratitude to someone whose efforts often go unnoticed. These seemingly small actions ripple outward in ways we may never fully understand.

In the end, life is not measured only by what we accumulate but by what we leave behind in the hearts of others. Titles fade, wealth changes hands, and achievements are eventually forgotten. But compassion, generosity, and kindness become part of the legacy we create.

The happiest people are rarely those who possess the most. They are the ones who have learned that the richest life is built not on receiving, but on giving. When we choose generosity, we discover a deeper kind of happiness—one that cannot be purchased, stolen, or taken away.

Because in the end, the greatest gift we ever receive is often the joy of giving.

WHY TRAVELLING MAKES YOU SMART

Traveling will make you “smarter,” doesn’t imply that you’re all of a sudden going to become a genius. But travelling will certainly make you more worldly, broaden your mind observing different cultures and languages at the same time.

On the other side of the coin, travelling tends to be dangerous sometimes. It invites many mishaps such as accidents that cause injuries. In this manner, the injured has the right to call his injuries lawyer belonged to Kent car accident lawyer firm for legal assistance.

There are a lot of things you can burn through cash on that don’t expand your IQ, yet travel is one savvy investment that pays yearly profits past the enjoyment of boasting to your companions about your latest vacation. Believe it or not, travel really makes you smarter.

Here are five different ways travel makes you broad-minded.

1. Extended Reality

Heading out to new places truly builds up your sense of reality. As you drink in new sights and sounds, you are expanding the scope of your understanding of the world around you and of new cultures that are unique in relation to yours, which can prompt a wide range of decency, incorporating uplifted achievement in your career, as indicated by one study.

2. Boosted Brain Power

Travel fuels your mind to work at a higher level. One investigation demonstrated that retired individuals who travel have 75 % higher paces of mental stimulation, and 82 % have an increased ability to “complete things,” vs. 57 % of the individuals who don’t travel. The study suggests that “business support utilization of vacation time as an approach to improve wellbeing and health in the workplace.” Take note, bosses all over the place!

3. Better Memory

Venturing out to another nation, or even another area in your nation, where various languages or various inflexions or idioms are spoken, helps to enable you to focus and use short term memory. Obviously, there are additional advantages to learning words and expressions in different dialects that are not found in your local tongue, as it outfits you with methods for portraying things that your essential language might need.

4. Increased Creativity

Taking in the tasteful significance of the Eiffel Tower or La Sagrada Familia isn’t simply charming; it really improves your very own imagination. The more time you invest in different nations, the more creative you become. Adapting to new scents, tastes, and sights make new neuropathic paths in your brain, which empower new ways of thinking and expand your flow of creativity.

5. Strength in Vulnerability

If you’ve ever touched base in an outside nation with zero learning of the language, culture, or social norms and need to battle to make sense of how to get to your goal in one piece, then you recognize what vulnerability feels like. It tends to be startling from the start, however, it’s that capacity to think and react quickly and handle a circumstance that causes you to acknowledge exactly how strong and competent you are. To cite the Buddhist instructor Pema Chödrön: “To be completely alive, completely human, and totally alert is to be consistently tossed out of the home.

Conclusion

One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of observing things.

THE MONTH OF PATIENCE

People usually tend to be impatient if they do not use their mind, conscience and will. Usually, people seek to easily get what they want with little effort, solve a problem immediately, overcome a difficulty, and that the troubles would pass quickly. However, as a requirement of the trial on earth, sometimes things are not solved in such a short time. Sometimes, it may be necessary to work towards something for months, even years, and have patience for a very long period of time. For this reason, people should refrain from misconceptions like “It doesn’t work,” “I should give up making an effort.”

As we all know patience means being less strict towards time. Believers know that patience overcomes all the difficulties they will face in the worldly life, and that it will lead them to the right path. For this reason, with great patience they become self-sacrificing, with patience they forgive people, and with patience they become generous. People who love God and believe in God with all their heart will improve themselves in many ways. One of the beauties of the month of Ramadan that we are in is that it enables people to improve themselves in terms of patience, both bodily and spiritually.

Our Prophet (S.A.W) stated that the month of Ramadan is a month of patience in one of his hadiths, which is as follows:

“O People! There comes upon you now a great month, a most blessed month, in which lies a night greater in worth than one thousand months. It is a month in which God has made compulsory that the fasting should be observed by day; and He has made the worship (tarawih) by night a sunnah. This is indeed the month of patience. And the reward for true patience is paradise. Ramadan is the month of sympathy with one’s fellowmen. It is the month wherein a true believer’s sustenance is increased. (Ibn Khuzaymah, Sahih, III, 191-192,) (Thk. M. M. A’zamî)

Patience is a great virtue, as our Prophet (SAW) remarks, and the month of Ramadan is a very valuable period of time where one can direct his will for this purpose without succumbing to the things we like and take for granted every day. The patience shown until the end of Ramadan will bring the comfort of surrendering to God. Ramadan is an opportunity, a way to train ourselves in spirit and body, to show our love and commitment for God.

Just like we know when the time comes for prayer and we perform it, being patient is also a worship. For this reason, a person who does not eat or drink when he is hungry or thirsty because he is fasting is actually fulfilling another beautiful manner of worship by having beautiful patience.

Whenever someone is being patient, he becomes closer to God and his commitment to God is strengthened. When someone shows patience for God’s favor, it also becomes a reason for happiness for him. Tolerance is people doing something to get it over with as soon as possible, to earn other people’s favors, and, indeed, is not the same kind of worship as patience is. A person who is in a state of mind to just tolerate something is not at peace. That is why it is important and valuable to be patient and not just tolerant during Ramadan as well. And this means that a Muslim displays good morals, speaks beautifully and always give priority to others even when he is hungry, thirsty and tired.

THE CONFUSION

Kailani noticed a bunch of bulky figures standing in the doorway. "What the...?" Suddenly, the party music screeched to a halt. There were confused murmurs and somebody's voice rang out. "Cops!" "Everyone, freeze!" one of the figures called out at the same time. Pandemonium ensued. Students shoved toward the doors, nearly knocking Kailani to the ground. Several police officers ran into the gym and grabbed students. Sirens whooped outside, and microphones blared instructions to freeze and stay calm.

She cut through the mass of kids. Girls hobbled towards the door, unsteady in their heels. Guys took shortcuts over the bleachers, stumbling over the risers. A lacrosse player who'd had too much to drink bumped against Kailani. Students poured into a hallway that lead to the parking lot just as a police car screamed up the entrance. Wheeling around, she sprinted in the opposite direction, down an unfamiliar passage.

Then she continued down the hall, the sandals she was wearing was rubbing blisters on her feet. The hallway was dark, and she could barely see in front of her. She thought she could make out a door at the end of the hall, but what if it led to nowhere? Suddenly, there were footsteps behind her. "You!" a voice called. Kailani spun around, to see a police officer holding a club. She couldn't let him get her or find out who she was. She sprinted faster, her lungs screaming. "You there!" the police officer's voice sounded even closer. "Stop!" Kailani's hands reached out and touched something hard just seconds before she crashed into it. She pulled away, seeing a bookshelf lined with old texts. She felt around for a door, but there was none. "Oh my god," she whispered. She'd hit a dead end.

The officer's walkie-talkie squawked. "I've got one," she heard him say. Kailani looked down, then up. Her heart lifted. A small window glowed a few inches above the shelf. Even better, it was slightly ajar. Her fingers grasped a middle row of the bookshelf, and she set her feet on the bottom row and started to climb. The structure swayed back and forth as she shimmied up the shelves. "Stop!" the officer's shape was visible down the hall. He was running at a full sprint, his club raised above his head. Kailani pulled herself up to the top of the bookshelf and cranked the window as wide as she could. The space was just big enough for her to fit.

She turned onto her stomach and stuck her legs through the window. Her fingertips caught the metal grooves of the window frame as she pushed herself though and dropped to the ground. Her knees bent to absorb the impact, and her hands hit the grass hard. Then she took off running. She was free and the police officer didn't know who he almost caught.

MISFORTUNE FALLS

Andrew has always had terrible luck. From minor things such as tripping over his own two feet to even worse luck.... like that one time when he was on the yearbook committee and was taking photos of the spring play when he forgot to turn off the flash on the camera and accidentally blinding Little Suzie, causing her to stumble backwards onto the set, destroying the background and knocking over the majority of the props. Terrible luck.

One morning Andrew was walking to school when he saw an elderly man waiting for the light to change so he could cross. Andrew took a minute out of his day and helped the old man across. The man smiled graciously to Andrew and before he left he whispered something in his ear.
"Your life is shrouded in misfortune,
nevertheless you help others with a good will.
By preforming actions the superstitious would
reject you reverse your fortune."
And with that, the man walked away without another word. Andrew thought that was rather odd but he continued on his way to school.

A few hours later Andrew came home and went into his bathroom to change out of his school clothes. "I wonder what that old man meant." he thought to himself. Suddenly he had an idea.

He grabbed a compact mirror and went to the backyard so his parents and neighbors couldn't question him. Then he threw the mirror sharply on the ground, shattering it at once. While he was cleaning up the mess he made he said to himself, "I wonder if this will really change my luck. Guess I'll find out tomorrow."

The next day Andrew woke up feeling better than ever. He was sure that his day was going to be fantastic. And with that said Andrew went on with his day like never before...

LIFE GETS SOUR

She sat behind the wheel of a tinted Toyota Corolla, as she pulled away from Haille Selasia Avenue and joined Mombasa road where Pamela came face to face with heavy city traffic. She was ecstatic and on high on cloud nine at that particular moment, since she was going to meet her lover James, who was arriving from Lisbon, Portugal.

Poor her, little did she know that James was running away from snowy Europe and not coming for her. To James, Pamela and him are no longer in the same pot of circumstances. What was between them is now a lifetime away according to him.

The drive from Mombasa road to Jomo Kenyatta airport took almost two hours on account of heaviness of the traffic. No sooner had she arrived at the waiting bay did she meet James. He did not signal any negativity towards her. They showed each other all what lovers normally show each other after along absence from the other.

After all that exchange, they made for Outering road ready to make it to Pamela’s home at Karen. Along the way it was Pamela who was talkative but to James, internally there was nothing to celebrate in meeting her.
James spent the first night at the house but on the second and subsequent ones he plotted to stay in a Nairobi hotel. For the two weeks he was in town accessibility to him by Pamela became out of question. She tried everything at all cost to reach him, but the more she tried, the more the word impossibility dawned on her.

After the end of his stay, James flew back without saying “kwaheri” to Pamela. On reaching Lisbon, Portugal, he wrote an email back to her, what seemed more than a bombshell. Pamela went through the email as tears dripped down her cheeks. She was unable to come to terms with what she read. To her, that was profoundly incredible.

The email went something like this….: my dear and lovely Pamela, there is nothing between you and me. Mark you what we shared is now water under the bridge and our love is now a lifetime away.
Pamela, stood on her balcony after the uninspiring news and looked into the sky. At that very time, there was a heavy cloud hanging over the Nairobi skyline. Pamela wished James was never a chapter in her story book life, but that was just a wishful thinking.

The reveries on the balcony took almost two hours and after that, Pamela decided enough is enough. There is nothing good crying on spilled milk. She has to close that chapter of her life. In life there is time for joy and time for sorrow, but we have to move forward. And that is what she plotted or what she called a cut and dry decision.

THINGS THAT MAKE CO-WORKING GREAT

Affordability and convenience
This is one of the main reasons why co-working has grown in popularity. Most professionals especially the young, do not have the capital to rent and furnish a full stack office. Co-working gives them just what they want, the ability to walk in and out at their pleasure while having the ability to access the same privileges known to regular office holders at a small fee and then something more. This type of convenience is quite attractive to most people and even established professionals are beginning to take notice

Flexibility and job control
When you are a freelancer, an independent consultant, or another professional flexibility and job control may be a preference. Circumstances may require you to relocate to another city or you may travel to work with a client in another town for some time. Co-working arrangements give you the ability to tap in such flexible options without worrying about the consequences. Being able to control what, when and where you can work is a massive dose of freedom and control.

A sense of community
One of the key elements that make co-working what they are is the sense of community that grows out of the peer to peer interactions under such circumstances. There is a culture knit behind these divergent communities that creates a sense of synergy. Having a software developer, a lawyer, and engineer, and a marketer under the same roof and within arm’s reach is different from working at a traditional office staffed with only lawyers for example. The sense of belonging to a wider network of professionals offers no mean incentive.

Your network is your net worth
It’s all about people. That’s why the importance of networking ever more relevant with the ever increasing flow of information and connectivity between people, devices and things. Success in the modern working environment requires networks that spurn any one given profession and there is no better place to create networks than at the place where there are other people who also want to expand and share their networks.

Access to divergent talent pool
What you work on is important but more important is who you work with. Finding the right talent can be tasking and expensive, that is why most corporates actually outsource talent acquisition. For small businesses and start-ups for instance, a co-working environment gives access to a wide range of talent to choose from. Furthermore, you have the option to build relationships before hiring or just partnering on one off projects.

Convenience for meetings and events
As an independent consultant or a small business, getting space for meetings and conferences while operating from home can be an inconvenience on time and costs. The interesting thing about co-working is that it is accompanied by ample meeting and conference rooms so you can easily schedule meet ups, conferences and events. In addition, it gives you a flexible address for references. While co-working continues to grow, some savvy older professionals and businesses have begun taking notice and offer their team members opportunities for co-working to avoid being left out.