These are matters of interpersonal affairs, but even in business there is an argument that integrity produces positive payback for individuals and firms.

The more grateful we are, the happier we are. psychology professor Robert Emmons has studied its impact on happiness and well-being and discovered that there is a positive relationship between gratitude and happiness. “By grasping onto what we currently have, we lose out on better goods that we might have gained.” By giving ourselves away, we ourselves move toward flourishing.” ShutterstockĬonsidering generosity, Christian Smith and Hilary Davidson, authors of the book The Paradox of Generosity: Giving We Receive, Grasping We Lose, While there may not be a sculpture dedicated to you and your good deeds, being good is, in fact, good for you. OK, so what about higher-level virtues such as generosity, gratitude and integrity? These examples illustrate that engaging in virtuous physical and emotional activities is good for you. Similarly, from an emotional perspective, we know that having a positive social network, avoiding toxic people and having a positive state of mind by avoiding ruminating on anxious negative thoughts are ways in which we can practise being emotionally virtuous. One could say that when we do these things, we are being physically virtuous, and we attain the virtue of good health. We all know what it takes to be physically healthy: Good diet, exercise, adequate sleep, etc. If we think of human virtue as not limited to moral matters but also to physical, emotional and mental matters, then it’s possible to understand how being virtuous might be good for you. A virtuous person would live a healthy long life, the Chinese believed. It could be seen in the quality of their eyes and skin, and there were other positive consequences. They believed that the more virtuous a person was, the more physically healthy they were. The ancient Chinese also held a similar expansive view of virtue. Physically, a horse that is healthy and flawless might be considered an excellent (virtuous) specimen of a horse. In music, virtue might be described like it is in Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” as heavenly, and could be generalized as excellence.

Another word for you have to be good at