The PRICE Happiness Project: Can money buy happiness?

Can money buy you happiness?

At PRICE our mission is to improve lives through health and fitness.

We believe everything is connected

We believe that if we can help improve your health and wellbeing, if we can get you moving better and feeling better then you will live better.

Happiness is also part of your health and wellbeing.

One way we promote happiness is through exercise.  Exercise boosts the feel good hormones in the brain that cause good and positive feelings (ever been in a bad mood after exercise?).

At PRICE we wanted to see if we could take this one step further.

We wanted to see if we could ‘buy’ happiness?

THE PROJECT & THE RULES:

Each team member was given $20 to go and do a random act of kindness, and to create some happiness in a way they deemed fit.  The only guideline was that it couldn’t be for a good friend (buying someone beer doesn’t count).

The results were amazing!

Everyone thought of something very different, and each person’s experience was unique.

At our next team meeting we debriefed on what everyone did, and the impact it had on them.

The biggest lessons and takeaways were:

1 – It was SO SIMPLE to create happiness for ourselves and for others.  It only took a thought and a minimal amount of effort – but the results were so fun.

2 - It took people out of their comfort zone.  Many people chose to spend their $20 helping people they had never met.  Taking an acquaintance in need out for lunch, or sitting down to talk with a homeless person over a sandwich and coffee.

3 -It created connection between people.  It brought people together.  It was never about the $20.  It was about the time spent, the thought and effort behind the cool projects.  It is about caring and connecting other people.

4 – It created a ripple effect.  Happiness tends to have a ripple effect.  When doing something nice for someone, YOU feel happy and THEY feel happy.  There were multiple examples of people passing it along and spreading the happiness.

Keep reading below to see what we did with our happiness projects!

What would you do for your happiness project?

We challenge you to step outside of your comfort zone this week and create your own Happiness Project!

What random act of kindness can you do this week to create your own ripple effect of happiness?

Let us know what you did and how it made you feel.  Tag us on Instagram and #happinessproject

Below are some, but not all of the stories and examples of what people chose to do for their Happiness Project.

For the happiness project I reached out to a young lady at our church who is having a tough transition to college. I took her out for coffee and then helped her cover the costs for a bus ticket to go visit her twin sister up in Sudbury.  – Naomi

It Takes a Village is a charity thrift store in Listowel that is very different from other thrift stores.  Andrea Hruska opened this store on a 100% donation and volunteer run basis.  The premise of the store is to give people a chance to take care of each other, without bureaucracy, without anyone in a higher position taking an income.  The store is run on a point system therefore no money is exchanged.  Each person who enters the store has 20 points to shop with and all items are given a point value.  The store is always in need for menswear so I collected donations from a few people and bought some items from kijiji and dropped them off.  Andrea also asks for volunteers to help get things done around the store.  They are in dire need of a handrail for the stairs to the basement, where they keep the bikes and other large items.  At this point they are not able to take the public down to pick out there bikes that they have earned by doing 20 hours of “community goodness” by volunteering at the Village or in the community (helping a neighbour, picking up garbage or reading to someone etc.). I got the supplies and my partner and I will be installing the handrail tomorrow to make the staircase safer for the community and the volunteers at the store.

The Village also has a fruit and vegetable stand during the summer that is a free give and take stand.  You can bring stuff, you can take stuff.  It doesn’t matter what you have or don’t it encourages people helping people without judgement, shame or barriers.

Here is a great article about It takes a Village, if you are interested in reading it.  – Pauline

https://spokeonline.com/2018/10/it-takes-a-village-spreads-a-wealth-of-dignity-and-community/

So for my Happiness Project – at the house I’m living there is a lot of snow that turned to ice on the path (see photo attached) leading up to the steps that the mail person has had to walk over each day to deliver mail.  So on World Happiness Day I left a $20 Tim’s Card in the mail box thanking them for always venturing over the icy path to deliver mail each day!      and they accepted it :)   – Meredith

Here are two photos of me before donating my 20 dollars to the humane society. I nearly adopted a dog in the process, but left without adopting him, purely because I can’t bring him to work with me. Maybe in the future.  – Andrew

I often get my coffee at the Elmira McDonalds, and there is always a lovely lady who works the drive thru window. She is always so cheerful one of those people with a contagious smile. One day recently, it sounded as though someone prior to me was giving her a hard time about something, though she was still as pleasant as always with me. From working in retail and customer service for quite some time now, I know it can be hard keeping a positive attitude in a job environment where customers don’t always understand your hard work. I decided that I would give her my $20 just as a reminder her positive energy does not go unappreciated. When I explained to her that we were trying to spread some happiness and why I wanted to give her my $20, she told me she would love to donate the money to charity! And she hoped that this made me happy as well.

I was shocked that this was her immediate response, and just goes to show a small gesture can go a long way ! – Alex

I went to No Frills and shopped for the local food bank. The Food Bank hits a very low season right now and they are really in need.

Especially with the cuts to the autism program, families are quitting their jobs and selling their homes to pay for therapies for their children.   Families telling me that the food at the bank is expired or nothing was left breaks my heart.

With a little bit of pc points and our own money combined with the Price dollars I was able to get 74lbs of food

Not your average food either. Some good whole foods to go a long way.  Natural Pb, sustainable wild caught tuna, lentils and beans etc..

I donated directly at the Food Bank and was able to go into the warehouse and meet the volunteers.

Awesome experience.  – Vanessa

Fitness Coach Bruna MADE this beautiful sign and delivered it with brownies to her local fire station.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNEJy4-Rj7w&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTRZJm-MJEs&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrbqJ8SbgdI&feature=youtu.be

We hope you enjoyed this post.  We hope it inspires health and happiness.   Have a great week!