7 Ways Volunteering Can Help You Be Less Stressed

Volunteering and giving back both have their hand in donning warm, affirming feelings upon the person who commits their time and talents to service. In that same respect, volunteering is a proven, health-improving stress reliever. Read more on how volunteering can help with stress relief in this post from our friends at HandsOnNetwork. This post originally appeared on HandsOnBlog on Feb. 12th, 2013. Read an excerpt below and the entire piece HERE.

Research, observation, and possibly even your own experiences agree that helping others, altruism and finding meaning in life all have their hand in stress management. While donating your time or unneeded possessions doesn’t always solve your problems or ameliorate your stressors, acts of kindness and volunteer work can provide the following positive effects:

A good feeling about oneself. Having a positive sense of self can actually help you feel less reactive to stress, and bring more enjoyment to all of your activities.

A feeling of connection to others. Having a sense of community, a supportive circle of friends and other forms of social support can increase your resilience as well as your longevity and quality of life.

A sense of meaning and greater purpose in one’s life. Having a greater sense of meaning can help stressors seem more manageable, feel less threatening and be less likely to trigger your stress response.

Perspective about one’s stressors–others may have greater problems. Having a change of perspective can help your stressors seem much smaller to you, and may help you realize that you have more control in life and more options than you realized.

A reminder to feel gratitude. When you’re feeling more gratitude about what you do have, your whole life feels better, and those things that you lack seem less important, less stressful.