“By helping others, you will learn how to help yourselves.” – Aung San Suu Kyi

A study conducted by Nathaniel M. Lambert at Brigham Young University  found that “happiness, and life satisfaction reach a peak only when participants share their positive experiences” leading us to the obvious conclusion that happiness is a shared experience. Sure, you can experience moments of happiness all on your own, but there is something about making a memory together and sharing the moment with someone else that accelerates the benefits of happiness. For those of you who have read or seen John Krauker’s Into The Wild, you know very well that happiness is only real when shared.

Smiles are contagious. One good deed can be the spark that ignites thousands of good deeds. How many times have we heard the story of someone standing in line for coffee and finding out their drink had been paid for by the person in front of them in line? And as a result they bought the person behind them coffee, and so on, and so forth, creating a chain reaction that brightens everyone’s day! People want to share joy simply because it creates more of itself and it feels good! 

So when we talk about sharing happiness and good deeds, we take it to heart. Which is why we want to share with you one of our good friends Averi Melcher. Averi created a website devoted to sharing happiness called thepedalproject.org. While Averi bicycles from Alaska to Argentina, she is collecting stories from people just like you and me to share on her blog. Anything from good deeds to experiences that make you very happy to reflect on. We like to think of it as the lingering smile of past adventures, the campfire where everyone can sit down with a beer and talk about “That one time when…” and erupt with laughter.

You can contribute your good deed to Averi by clicking “here“.

Or if you’re not into writing about your happiness, make it your intention to go out into the world today with the goal of making someone happy. Be it through generosity, compliments, or lending a hand. The world needs good deeds now more than ever and we can be the change we wish to see in the world. All it takes is one small step at a time.

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