The season of giving is upon us, beginning with an important day for philanthropy and generosity. I’m talking about Giving Tuesday, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, when we are encouraged to open our hearts (and our wallets) to causes that are important to us.
According to research conducted by the Greater Good Science Center (GGSC) at UC Berkeley, generosity comes naturally to humans.
Though common sense may suppose that humans tend to act out of self-interest, generosity is actually a prosocial behavior that benefits the species and makes us feel better, too. “Acting generously activates the same reward pathway that is activated by sex and food,” GGSC reports, “a correlation that may help to explain why giving and helping feel good.”
Generosity has positive impacts for both givers and receivers.
People who volunteer regularly tend to report better quality of life, vitality, and self-esteem, GGSC says, and even small acts of kindness can increase feelings of happiness among people. At work, generosity decreases the likelihood of burnout, and in relationships it leads to “more contentment.” Generosity can be linked to personality traits like compassion and empathy, and can also be considered a manifestation of someone’s prosocial values.
Part of the reason I started BE MORE with Anu was to celebrate and further these exact ideas: that if we can all harness the power of generosity and other prosocial behaviors, we can be kinder and more empathic, and ultimately create a more just world.
This Giving Tuesday, I’d like to invite you to dig more deeply into prosocial behaviors like generosity by completing the BE MORE DEI Challenge.
This is a completely free, four-day program that will teach you essential principles and strategies to become a more effective leader, ally, and champion for diversity, equity, and inclusion in your workplace or community.
Each day, you’ll receive a short video and a daily challenge to strengthen your commitment and awareness of how to effectively transform the root causes of bias, discrimination, and inequity. After just four days of this practice, you’ll have more tools at hand to become a champion for equity and justice in your workplace or community.
I invite you to complete the DEI Challenge yourself, and to invite your friends and family to complete it too. In addition, you can gift our Breaking Bias with Mindfulness meditation course for just $49 — or a reduced price of $20, if you complete the DEI Challenge.
Breaking Bias with Mindfulness is a 15-minutes-a-day course meant to transform unconscious bias using meditation, mindfulness, journaling, and reflection, all in a shame-free learning environment.
The course is designed for anyone seeking to better themselves and their community by using meditation-based tools to break bias. This time of year especially, it’s important to invest in ourselves and our abilities to give back to our communities, by working to create a world where we belong everywhere.
Of course, I also hope you’ll be donating to organizations that work on causes you care about. Personally, I will be giving to a few groups whose work means a lot to me:
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New Native Theater, a theater company led by a BE MORE with Anu alum that shares Native stories with Native performers.
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Out of the Box Theatrics, a theater company led by a BE MORE with Anu alum that tells stories with diverse and inclusive casts.
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Middle Rising, the effort to rebuild the inclusive Middle Church congregation after its revolutionary sanctuary space was destroyed by a fire.
What causes are you donating to this Giving Tuesday?
I hope you’ll share them and encourage your loved ones to do the same. This year, let’s all practice the prosocial behavior of generosity, knowing we are all better for it.