Welcome! Why do we love gifts?

What a dream come true! I love giving gifts and the whole experience of it. I love doing my research on what type of gifts to buy, shopping for others, giving the gift, and watching how someone reacts! However, I had a conversation with my friends about our love language and realized that it is precisely what it is for me, and why I enjoy it so much. However, not everyone enjoys it the same way I do and they find it stressful or difficult. My boyfriend is not much of a gift giver, he finds buying me gifts to be difficult and is a surprising about of work for him. So I thought to myself, what if I could help other people buy gifts for the people they care about so they can give awesome gifts for any occasion? I am good at it and I enjoy it, it seemed like a win-win scenario for me. So Mar's Gift Guides was born. I pondered on how to do it for a while, social media, a website, a blog, I had no idea where to start. But, social media and blogging seemed like the best course of action. It's easy to start.

So, WELCOME! Welcome to my journey of gift guides.

What you will find moving forward are gift guides that are specific to certain interests, they will not be exhaustive, of course, but they will be a guide to base searches on. If your needs are greater than just a guide, I will be in the future offering a service where I will do the shopping for you and create a specific guide for the person you are shopping for. You can then shop from that guide. I haven't figured out a price point so if that is something you believe would be super helpful please let me know!

About Me!

A little bit about me to make this whole adventure make sense. I am a licensed clinical social worker in Pennsylvania and work as a school-based counselor and private practice therapist. I work with people and understand them, most of the time! The skills that make me a good therapist make me very good at giving gifts. The skill is one I have refined over many years of really embracing how much I enjoy the process of gift-giving. There is a science to it, actually! Which is all the more reason I enjoy this.

The science of gift giving:

1. It is a reward! In our brain, we associate giving gifts, especially to those we care about, with happiness. Gift-giving creates more interaction between the parts of the brain associated with processing social information and feeling pleasure. Gift-giving releases oxytocin which is related to trust, safety, and connection!

2. The build-up to giving a gift can be filled with negative emotions like anxiety instead of excitement. Especially when the gift is for someone we care about.

3. Giving a bad gift can be detrimental to a relationship. Giving a less-than-awesome gift can cause the opposite effect. Where it may not strengthen a connection like a great one can it can do harm.

4. Money does not equal a great gift and recipients are not necessarily sensitive to the cost of a gift! So don't fret about the cost!

5. Think about more than just the moment you give the gift, think about the long-term. How useful, thoughtful, helpful, and practical, is the gift? (We aren't talking about gag gifts). The recipient of the gift considers those things.

6. Pay attention to your connection with the individual. What do you have in common, if you shop for a shared connection you are far more likely to give a winning gift than paying too much attention to uniqueness. For example, if you gift a book that is on a topic you both have in common and share that interest, you are likely to pick one that is going to be exciting to receive, plus you both can talk about the book! Strengthening the relationship between the two.

That is just a brief explanation of the science of gift-giving for my own sake since I enjoy it.

Keep an eye out for the first guide!

Mary