How Volunteering Can Help You Reduce Stress
Volunteering is a good thing to do for your community, but did you ever stop to think that it may help reduce stress? All kinds of evidence points to the fact that working as a volunteer reduces stress levels. In fact, when people take on volunteer positions, their stress levels are no longer detectible through a stress monitor. A 1990 study showed that people who volunteered at least 40 hours a week actually lived longer!
So why not give volunteering a try? Here are some ways that volunteering can help you reduce stress.
1. Getting Your Mind Off Your Stress
Sometimes, the best way to get stress reduced is to put it on the back burner. That doesn’t mean you ignore things that really need your attention, or that you hide your head in the sand, so to speak. It just means that you take some time to think about something besides your stressful schedule, situation, home life, workplace, or whatever it is that’s making you tense and anxious. Volunteering causes you to focus on what you are doing right now, taking your mind off of your troubles for a bit.
2. Putting Things in Perspective
Another aspect of volunteering is that you see the situations of others – and those situations are often much more dire than yours. It can be humbling to see people who are struggling with things that you can’t even imagine dealing with on a daily basis, yet they are moving forward with their lives. It really puts your own stress in perspective, and may foster a sense of gratitude.
3. A Sense of Purpose and Meaning
One of the things that stress tends to bring is a sense of meaninglessness, or the feeling that you have no clear purpose – you’re just surviving each day long enough to spin your wheels. Volunteering can break that cycle, infusing your life with meaning and definite purpose. When you have a sense of personal meaning, stressors seem to “roll off” more easily and be more manageable.
4. Making a Difference
Another of life’s stressful things is the sense that nothing you do matters or gets noticed. But when you volunteer, you matter very much, and it allows you to make a difference in an area that you’re passionate about. It may be animal welfare or elder care, but if it matters to you, you’ll matter to them.
5. Connections
Stress can make you feel isolated and alone in your struggles. Volunteering counteracts that by connecting you to people with similar interests and concerns. And if you and a friend or two take on volunteering together, it can be a lot of fun!
Instead of crashing on the weekends or in the evenings, see if you can carve out some time to volunteer. The research shows that you will benefit.