_______________________________________________________
It’s a concept we teach kids at a very young age: share your toys, share your treats, share your love. By definition, the word “share” means to “make joint use” or to “give something away.”
Some sharing is good: You can share advice, wisdom, a good laugh. Sometimes a well-kept secret, can be a fun thing to give away. Other types of sharing, we try to avoid: Sharing germs or sharing bad news. But perhaps the hardest thing to share isn’t an object–it’s ourselves.
While it may be hard to lend our lives and share our souls—research shows, it pays off. Dr. Stephen Post, head researcher at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland has been studying the effects of sharing for the last five years.
He published his findings in the new book “Why Good Things Happen to Good People.”
Within its pages, he breaks down the benefits:
-Generous behavior reduces depression and risk of suicide.
-Actively helping others promotes good physical health.
-Volunteerism significantly reduces mortality.
Overall, sharing leads to healthier, happier and even longer lives. So this month on Studio 5, we want to help you share, the most powerful gift you have to give—Your Life.
Alisa Bangerter, Studio 5 Party & Ideas Contributor: “There are so many great ideas that can be shared and that we can learn from each other. It brings a lot of satisfaction – I love to inspire people. In fact, I love it when people come up to me and say ‘I love that idea you did! We do it in our family and it’s become a great thing, my kids love it – my grandkids love it.’ That brings a lot of satisfaction that things I love and am so passionate about, i can share with others and they enjoy it, too. I think it’s important – we all have our own passions and things we purse and talents – and sharing makes us stronger and helps us all in our lives.”
Cherise Cragun, Studio 5 Kitchen Contributor: “I love this theme because sharing your life means you get to share part of yourself. When you are in the kitchen, you are sharing yourself: the dinner the work, the time that you have put into things and i love having a place where the family can congregate and be together. You’re not only sharing yourself, you’re letting others share of themselves, also.”
Becky Low, Studio 5 Kitchen Contributor: “I really enjoy sharing the recipes. It’s really fun to find something that somebody else can enjoy. I think I started out as a child mixing up mud pies, my friend Beverly, we decided we couldn’t try it, we fed it to the ants –they didn’t like it either. But since then I hopefully have added to my repertoire of cooking. I love going to potluck, to dinners where people bring there favorite recipes. They share with me and i am very happy to give back. It’s a fun thing – it’s a sharing thing. And I think that’s how we grow with our cooking; we share our recipes back and forth. It’s a good time to bring up traditions and family and share those things and a lot of it is centered around the food.”
Dr. Liz Hale, Studio 5 Psychologist: “Do you remember the slogan, “Reach Out and Touch Someone?” It was a telephone campaign in the 1980’s? I say we bring that back again because when we reach out to other people, we just feel better about life; we have higher self esteem, we live longer, actually!”
Alisa Bangerter, Studio 5 Party & Ideas Contributor: “When I share my life and ideas and creativity with others it brings me a lot of joy and satisfaction in return and I know I am getting a lot more back than I am giving.”
______________________________________________________________
Join us all month as we explore what it means to “Share Your Life.”
Add comment