The benefits of volunteering
It is always hard to find time to volunteer due to our busy lives. However, the avails of volunteering are enormous to you, your family plus the community. The right match helps you reduce stress, find friends, connect with the community, learn new skills and also advance your career. Offering service to others can also help protect your mental and physical health. Learn more of the interests of volunteering below.
Volunteering connects you to others; one of the well-known avails of volunteering is the impact on the society. Volunteering connects you to your community and make it a better place. Even taking part in the smallest tasks can make big and real difference to the lives of people.
Volunteering is a two way street, it benefits you and your family like the cause you choose to help. Offering your time as a volunteer helps you to expand your network, boost your social skills and also make new friends.
The new way of making new friends and strengthen the existing relationships is to commit to a shared activity together. Volunteering allows you meet new people especially if you’re new in the area. It also strengthens your ties to the community and broadens your support network. It also exposes you to people with common interests, neighborhood resources among others.
Volunteering is good for your mind and body; it helps counteract the effects of stress, anger and anxiety. Your social contact aspect of helping and working with others can have a profound effect on your overall psychological well-being. There is nothing that relieves stress better than a meaningful connection to another person.
Volunteering still combats depression as it keeps you in regular contact with others hence helping you develop a solid support system, which in turn protects you against depression.
By measuring hormones and brain activity, researchers have discovered that being helpful to others delivers immense pleasure, this clarifies that volunteering makes you happy.
Volunteering still increases self-confidence; doing well for others and the community provides you a natural sense of accomplishment. Volunteering gives you a sense of pride and identity. The more you feel better about yourself is the more you’re likely to have appositive view of your life and future goals.
Volunteering can advance your career; if you’re considering a new career, volunteering can help you get experience in your area of interest and meet people in the field. Even though you’re not planning on changing careers, volunteering gives you the opportunity to practice important skills used in the workplace, such as communication, problem solving, team work, project planning among others. You might feel more comfortable stretching your wings at work once you’ve honed these skills in a volunteer position first.
Just because volunteer work is unpaid does not mean the skills you learn are basic. Many volunteering opportunities provide extensive training. For example, you could become an experienced crisis counselor while volunteering for a women’s shelter or a knowledgeable art historian while donating your time as a museum docent.
Volunteering is freely giving your time, energy, and resources to people and causes around the world can create change on a global scale. It is incredible to think that one person’s efforts can change the life of someone else somewhere in the world