The internet offers so much information on the health benefits of volunteering and how it can help keep you connected, feel less lonely, and add meaning to your life. Almost all the articles on this topic state that volunteering reduces stress, anxiety, and depression; brings purpose to your life; keeps you fit physically and mentally; and increases your connectedness with others.
And I agree with all of them. Volunteering has reduced my loneliness, increased my satisfaction with life, and offered me a practical “roadmap” to healthy living. I found that by getting more involved in my community, I gained a wide range of benefits that vary from the practical to the more subtle. I learned new skills, developed new and meaningful relationships, feel more empowered, have become healthier, and enjoy the resulting improvements in my community and surroundings. True story.
DISCLAIMER: This is not a claim that by volunteering and getting more involved in your community and surroundings, you will never get sick! There will be illnesses, sicknesses, malaises, and all that. Volunteering will NOT cure you!
BUT! The focus and purpose volunteering brings to your life will help you get through the tough times. It will distract you from a state of “my selfness” which undoubtedly leads you towards feelings of hopeless, emptiness, gloom, and other detrimental feelings – and result in a state of “other selfness” which is bound to lift feelings of sadness and self-pity, soothe your disquiet, and direct you away from depression.
From a personal perspective, I find that dedicating some of my time to “helping” others is – in fact – just helping MYSELF. I found that a sure shortcut to being more in command of my “ailments” – whether big or small, physical or mental, is to get away from them… meaningfully.
Once I got involved with community projects (organizing fundraisers, managing an NGO’s social media page, speaking to my breast cancer support group), I forgot about my illness, felt empowered, and enjoyed the results of my work and achievements.
Some might say that this is not really being healthy. But what does it mean to be healthy? I mean, who is 100% healthy? We all have our issues. We all have our ailments. Big and small. Significant and trivial. So, feeling healthy is a relative matter, one that is all in the mind. And actions have an amazing way of affecting the mind.
I am 54, missing a kidney and having undergone a mastectomy. If being healthy means that I am eager to connect meaningfully with people and offer my time and help to those who need it, then I am 100% healthy!
To experience this kind of “wellness,” I suggest you get involved with your community where your actions and involvement will lead to some kind of improvement… in someone else’s life.
So, here’s your take-away:
- Identify a cause that you care about – children, elderly, environment, animals rights, etc. – there are many options!
- Find out how you can help (this in itself can be most rewarding).
- Decide on an action – this could be as simple as teaching a free art class at a home for children or the elderly, to planting trees or organizing a fundraiser.
- Commit to a couple of hours a week (or more if you have the time).
- Watch your life perk up slowly but surely.
From experience, I feel that while I volunteer FOR others, I am always the number one beneficiary. The more involved I am in my community, the more the perks. I once read the following somewhere: “In their welfare is your welfare.” Nowhere does this mindset apply more fittingly and significantly. The positive results of your actions will inadvertently boomerang right back to you.
