The world’s been looking a bit shabby lately…
Here’s six quick and easy ways to make the world a better place:
1) Do some surveys for charity! After you sign up you can do quick surveys that will contribute .50 per survey to the charity of your choice.
2) Amazon Smile. If you’re shopping anyway (hello, addicted to Amazon) you might as well sign up to Amazon Smile, who will contribute 0.5% of your purchase to the charity of your choice.
3) Ask for donations for your birthday instead of gifts. I just signed up to www.charitywater.org and aim to raise $38 (my age if you MUST know this July) and I will do 38 push-ups on camera if I make it to my goal. That gives one person access to clean water – 100% of proceeds go to the water project and they will send me an update after 3 months of my donation, and a final conclusion about 15 months after that.
4) Plant a flower. Or a herb. Or a fruit. Or a vegetable. Making your own yard a prettier place not only benefits you but anyone who happens by. (Not to mention the bees and those pretty butterflies…)
5) Have compassion for yourself. Once you’re filled up with love its hard to keep it from spilling on others.
6) Donate old clothes to charity. You don’t THROW OUT old clothes do you!? No, no no! There’s always people who will need used clothing at a discounted price. Like ME, ha ha. Just kidding. Not really. I especially love buying used jewelry. You go ahead and pay $40 for that necklace. I’ll buy it from the second hand shop in three years when you’re bored of it for #5. I’m cool with that. Think about donating some socks too, apparently the homeless need socks more than anything else.
*You can also donate used dog leashes, collars, food dishes, and yoga mats to animal shelters for an easy ‘feel good’ errand.*
7) There’s usually a bin for food banks at your local grocery store, it doesn’t take a lot of money or effort to buy an extra jar of peanut butter and drop it in on your way by.
Feeling good yet? Did you know some studies that look at brain activity when people are giving show the same areas lighting up as when we do drugs and eat chocolate? It’s true. That good feeling isn’t just in your head. Well, it is, but it’s real.
Next time you’re feeling down, look around to see what you can do for someone else. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by, well, the pleasant feelings that arise.
“To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to leave the world a better place, to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded.” Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Angela Yeh - Fantasy Author. Dragon Enthusiast. Optimist. 