Estonia responds to recession with the Bank of Happiness

June 13, 5:15 PMMiami Interfaith Spirituality ExaminerDr. Deb Brown

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2009 Plant a Tree Program
Photo: Sandy Huffaker

Estonia is one of many countries struggling with unemployment and other consequences of the global economic crisis, and a small group of Estonians has founded the Bank of Happiness to help address the spiritual/emotional side of the problem. Co-founder Even Nolvak was among those who recognized that economics have nothing to do with spiritual/emotional issues such as “caring, loving, being a neighbor, and having a purposeful life.” So the Bank of Happiness was founded, which is an internet portal:

To become a client, Estonians must register online, listing the useful things that they can do for others (ie: grocery shopping, walking a dog, fixing cars) and those that they would like done unto them (ie: having a suit darned or windows cleaned). After performing a good deed, the helpers receive tangible evidence of their kindness -- a “banknote," which can be printed from the bank’s website with an inscription on the back marking the date and nature of the deed. The note can then be passed on to another Good Samaritan.

This innovative idea is not a bartering system because Person A isn’t trading services with Person B. It’s not as simple as fixing the barber’s computer in exchange for a haircut. Instead, the Bank of Happiness calls to mind the “pay it forward” idea of Person A helping Person B, and then Person B helping Person C, and so forth.

Reaching out to each other for the good of the whole community is very uplifting, and can be even more so when all the complex issues of price and payment are out of the way. We gain by giving:

• "If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your path." - Buddhist Saying
• "In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us." - Flora Edwards
• "Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, ‘What's in it for me?’” - Brian Tracy
• "When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die." - Eleanor Roosevelt
• "What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal." - Albert Pike

We might not find a Bank of Happiness in Miami or other American cities, but we are all free to reap the rewards of paying it forward!