Volunteering isn’t just good for the people and projects you assist – research suggests it has significant health benefits for you too, boosting happiness and psychological wellbeing, and even your physical health.
Whether you read to underprivileged children, spend time in an old-age home, or take part in a river cleanup for Mandela Day on July 18, volunteering allows you to connect with others, and the effect can be profound. Volunteering has been found in one study to help lower levels of physical pain, and in another, to significantly reduce the risk of mortality and of physical functioning limitations into old age.
Researchers suggest that the reasons lie largely in social connectedness and stress reduction – that volunteering can help combat loneliness and provide a buffer against stress, distracting you from your own problems and giving you more perspective. Reduced stress in turn can lower the risk of mental and physical problems, including anxiety, depression and cardiovascular disease.
Volunteering has also been found to help boost self-esteem, empathy and compassion, and improve mood and relationships. It seems doing acts of kindness boosts serotonin and dopamine, neurotransmitters that give feelings of satisfaction and wellbeing, and can release endorphins (natural pain killers) and oxytocin. “Seeing that we are able to make a visible difference, or impact in otherwise difficult circumstances, generates feelings of hope and possibility,” says Johannesburg-based clinical psychologist Liane Lurie. “It takes us out of our own insular bubble and exposes us to a whole new sense of connection and purpose.”
Oxytocin, the ‘love hormone’, is what fosters emotional bonds between mothers and babies during breastfeeding, and between sexual partners during hugging, touching, and orgasm. It has been found to decrease blood pressure and the stress hormone cortisol, improving heart health (source). Research is exploring oxytocin’s effects on reducing inflammation, and so helping protect against chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer, and promote better overall health and longevity.
Volunteering can also improve your wellbeing in many simpler ways, giving a sense of purpose and accomplishment, teaching valuable skills, helping you build a support system based on common interests, and boosting self-esteem and confidence. “We know that having a sense of community and a tangible support system are good prognostic factors in terms of maintaining emotional stability and feeling held when the going gets tough,” says Lurie.
However, the effects of acts of kindness don’t last unless you repeat them. Look to incorporate them into your life, whether in the form of volunteering regularly, or just saying good morning to people, thanking a car guard with a smile, exchanging pleasantries with a supermarket cashier, holding the lift for someone, or picking up litter when you walk.
Ideas for your 67 minutes
• Help someone get a job by putting together a CV, building a LinkedIn page or helping them practise interview skills. Reach out to matric pupils at under-resourced local schools or people at homeless shelters.
• Be the ear people need in a care home or hospice, where they may have no one to speak to. Chat with them and truly listen.
• Share your professional, academic, sporting, art or craft, gardening or first-aid skills at a school, college or community centre.
• Donate – not just money or your old clothes, but blood (through the South African National Blood Service, or stem cells (through the South African Bone Marrow Registry), or DKMS Africa). You could save a life.
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