Elissa SolomonWith our lives being so full of endless personal and professional demands with a neverending to-do lists, when it comes to taking time and volunteering, you might feel it’s nonessential. But volunteering is what makes a community and your life thrive. Thes volunteering acts are your Trojan horse to not only communal rewards, but personal benefits too. In this blog, we will look at the mountain of benefits you get by volunteering ranging from enhancing your mental well-being to boosting your career prospects.
The Personal Growth Perks: It’s Like Free Therapy
Yes, the main goal about volunteering is about helping others, but you are also working hard on your personal development. You are getting a sense of purpose and direction, working on your empathy muscles, and also getting to know all sides of the world around you. This whole personal growth package is topped by doing the right thing and volunteering.
Building Confidence: Because Who Doesn’t Love a Good Ego Boost?
It is no coincidence that those you have seen around volunteering walk around with a confident spring in their step. And it’s not about selfish reasons at all. When you’re volunteering you are challenged, learn to adapt on the fly, overcome obstacles and get adjusted in new environments. Every volunteering task is a chance to build your self-confidence, from painting murals to teaching kids how to read.
Enhancing Emotional Intelligence: Master of the Feels
Volunteering gets you to interact with diverse groups of people, leading to fine-tune your emotional intelligence. You become more in sync to the needs, cues, and emotions of others. Letting these attributes flow into your personal and professional relationships, and you will start to stack up those brownie points, just because you have learned how to listen, when to give huge or a nudge.
Skill Development: The Unpaid Internship with Perks
There are few places more brutal than the job market, and you need something to make you standout. Volunteering can be the “something” you need, although it can feel like being an unpaid intern, minus the coffee runs.
Career Booster: Resume Gold
There are few to none more sparkly on a resume than showing that you have volunteering experience. You are showing your employers that you are community-oriented, dedicated, and proactive. Plus, you can look for a volunteering position that’s in the field you are interested in, giving you more hands-on experience. Skeptical? Here is a few examples:
- If you need project management experience, volunteer to plan a community event.
- If your communication skills are on the iffy side and you want to finesse them, volunteer to coordinate a fundraiser.
Networking: Schmooze Your Way to the Top
One of the best things about volunteering is that you get a chance to meet people you might not have otherwise. By using those connections, you might have job opportunities down the line, get a great mentorship, or even build lifelong friendships. Plus, who doesn’t like the warm fuzzy feeling of bonding over making the world a better place.
Physical and Mental Health Benefits: Who Knew Altruism Was This Healthy?
This might be the best kept secret in the wellness industry, but volunteering boosts your physical and mental health.
Stress Reduction: The Ultimate Chill Pill
Believe it or not, but helping others actually does help you de-stress, it’s because it provides you with an emotional escape from the daily pressures in your life.
The Happiness High: The Joy of Giving
Not exclusive to Christmas time, you can now also get that warm fuzzy feeling when you help someone else too. You trigger those feel-good chemicals in your body by volunteering, getting the “helper’s high” when endorphins and oxytocin floods your system.
Physical Fitness: Fit for a Cause
Ok, so not all volunteering tasks are equal, it completely depends on what you device your volunteer activities should be. But you can build some serious muscles when you do volunteering activities like building houses, running marathons for charity, or even community clean-ups. It will keep you physically active, work on your overall fitness and cardiovascular health.
Community Impact: Together We’re Stronger
Volunteering is not all about me, myself and I, it’s also about the community impact which helps build more resilient, supportive communities.
Strengthen Social Ties: The Secret Sauce of Strong Communities
Volunteering forces collaboration between diverse groups, creating unity and breaking down social barriers. It truly is a powerful unifier.
Addressing Social Issues: Be the Change
Doing your bit in the broadweb of volunteering, you can help make tangible changes and long-term solutions within the community. By volunteering, you are highlighting pressing social issues, whether its environmental sustainability or homelessness.
The Family and Friendship Effect: Beyond Solo Volunteering
No one likes being an island, so volunteering a group activity with your friends and family.
Family Bonding: Quality Time Redefined
If you are tired of the same old family movie nights, why not rope them into volunteering. You are building strong family bonds, broadening their world views and creating memories while helping others.
Friendships Forged in Philanthropy
Volunteering has a strange way of making your friendship circle grow. You are connecting with other people who share your ideals, working towards the same goals and even becoming lifelong connections.
Overcoming Challenges: The Real World Isn’t Always Rosy
Just like all things in life, even volunteering isn’t always a walk in the park. There will be challenges, but you have to find a way to overcome them.
Time Management: The Balancing Act
You will need to find a way to balance your volunteering time with your work and life. Effective time management and having realistic goals about what you can do is what will make all the pieces fit. Small commitments will also lead to big impacts.
Burnout: Keeping the Flame Alive
You cannot pour from an empty cup, so you need to take the time and recharge before you burnout. Self-care is very important, so take that bubble bath before you start building a new house.
Conclusion
Volunteering is not only a win for the receiver, but also for the giver. Donating your time and skills to help others will boost your personal growth, improve your health and strengthen your community ties. The benefits of volunteering truly do tip the scales in the green.
