For centuries, people have believed that serving one another is part of leading a value creating life. According to Aristotle, finding satisfaction and enjoyment comes from “loving rather than being loved.” According to Carol Ryff Connections with someone is a crucial aspect of a healthy, meaningful existence”

However, most of us now appear to be straining to attain enlightenment by accumulating accomplishments and wasting so much time at work that we are separated from those we care for.

Is it possible that we might be on a wrong track? New study is accumulating evidence that nice and caring action makes us feel like our existence is worthwhile and realizing that is a big step towards a peaceful life.

Life is what you make of it

Psychologists frequently discuss different forms of well-being: hedonistic well-being and contentment well-being . Despite the fact that pleasure and purpose are highly correlated, researchers hypothesized that assisting others is particularly important in generating a feeling of purpose.

Roy Baumeister of Florida State University conducted a recent research to analyze these and other variations among pleasure and relevance. The expert sought for features and actions that were connected to enjoyment but without purposefulness and vice versa in a survey of over 300 people. According to the experts, having meaningful social bonds is beneficial for both contentment and purposefulness. Helping those in need and behaving as a “giver” in interactions is said to be the soul reason for happiness.

Baumeister argues that someone’s definition of a fulfilled life is different from the other person. But the study on life’s purpose leads to one thing that seems to be significant for all of us: cultivating high-quality connections.

Does helping promote a sense of meaning?

But can acting in a just and caring way (“altruistic”) make us feel as though our existence has greater meaning? Even though it may appear apparent that assisting others is associated with a fulfilled life, there are a number of probable causes for this: Perhaps individuals who believe their existence have purpose are more driven to assist others, or some element (such as religion) drives people to be generous and have a greater sense of life.

Daryl Van Tongeren and his co – researchers studied this association in a recent research published in The Journal of Positive Psychology. In a pilot investigation, the critics examined around 400 people how often they engage in various humanitarian actions (such as serving) and how worthwhile their lives felt. Individuals who were more philanthropic felt more significance and personal meaning.

Why does helping make life more meaningful?

Benevolence acts can help us find satisfaction because they improve our interactions. To put this theory to the test, the investigators polled individuals on their socialization conduct, life’s meaning, and level of overall happiness. They discovered a correlation between prosocial activity and life meaning, and that relationship satisfaction—that is, the quality of people’s relationships—accounted for a portion of that link.

Volunteers were either given the option of donating cash to an individual in the study or were informed how much money to contribute by the researchers. Giving greater wealth was associated with increased joyfulness  and experiencing that their emotional needs were satisfied in individuals who freely decided how much to contribute (but not in those who were instructed how much to give). Interestingly, that emotion compensated for the relationship among donating and well-being, implying that giving may increase well-being through assisting us in meeting our emotional needs.

Start small

No one expects you to commence with spectacular gestures; even tiny, ordinary actions may have an influence on others as well as your own sense of well-being. In one research published in Science, for example, spending merely $5 on someone else resulted in increased pleasure. The Engendering Benevolence practice contains techniques for developing a routine of compassion and philanthropy, such as reflecting on your action and your ties to others and connecting with those who need your assistance.

Number of studies have offered proof to substantiate the notion that helping others correlates with meaning and purpose. Individuals  who have discovered their ultimate mission like giving back. Helping others, on the other hand, might provide the sense of significance we crave. Rather than obsessing on what makes our lives meaningful when we approach burnout, we might discover the solution outside of ourselves, via human interaction.