As a boy, whenever Stephen Post got a bad grade, or felt left out of his older brother and sister’s games, or was otherwise having a rough day, his mother always said, “Why don’t you go out and do something for someone else?” At which point he’d head next door to rake Mr. Mueller’s leaves or go across the street to help Mr. Lawrence with his boat. “I always came home feeling better,” says Post, now a professor of preventive medicine at Stony Brook University School of Medicine and author of The Hidden Gifts of Helping. Turns out, there was science behind his mom’s kitchen-table wisdom: Practicing philanthropy is one of the surest steps you can take toward a happy, healthy life. Here’s why.
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