It’s the time of year when a lot of us think about giving thanks and giving back. Our community is important and can support our health and growth, but volunteering and giving back can help improve your physical and mental health in several ways.
Physical Activity
While some volunteer positions involve sitting at a desk and making/answering phone calls, filling out spreadsheets, etc, many volunteer jobs involve physical tasks. You might be gardening, building, walking from door to door, organizing an event, etc.
If you choose physically engaging opportunities you can get quite the workout. Community clean-ups such as park clean-ups, stream clean-ups, invasive plant removal, etc, can involve significant amounts of manual labor. You can also work in a community garden or farm. Habitat For Humanity needs volunteers to help people build their homes, and they often don’t require specific skills.
You can meet two objectives with one effort here…get fit and help others.
Mental Health Boost
According to a paper published in the Journal of Happiness studies, volunteering makes you happier. It reduces depression and distress and helps you function better in your life. Part of this is the intrinsic reward of helping others. It also helps you get out of the house and connect to others, try out leadership opportunities, build skills, and try new things. It can increase your sense of purpose and make you feel less helpless, especially if other parts of your life are stressful.
In fact, therapists are now “prescribing” volunteering to depressed adolescents. Volunteering can help reduce symptoms of depression and lower your risk of it.
And, of course, volunteering can be fun in and of itself. Gardening, walking dogs for a shelter, or engaging in group activities with people you get on with are all enjoyable in and of themselves.
Social Interaction
Volunteering is a great way to increase your social interactions and connections. You can make friends while volunteering. In turn, they can help you in other parts of your life.
You learn to work toward common goals, and this can help you in fitness too. You might even find a new fitness buddy to help you stay accountable, but volunteering also establishes good habits.
People who interact with others are more likely to maintain an active lifestyle and are less stressed.
Integrating Fitness With Giving Back
We’ve already talked about choosing physically active volunteering opportunities, especially if your paid work is sedentary. Here are some more tips:
- Set fitness goals alongside your community service commitments. Put them in the same “bucket.”
- If you are doing something more sedentary, such as receptionist at a shelter, walk or bike there if possible.
- Choose a cause you are passionate about and don’t let anyone judge you. The more you enjoy the cause and the work, the more you will commit.
Finding the right volunteer opportunity can be challenging. VolunteerMatch or Volunteer World provides a service to match volunteers with charities. You just enter your location, and it will give you opportunities in your area. For example, in my area, opportunities include trail cleanup, running errands and doing household tasks for older people, organizing charity walks, etc. You can also look at lists of local charities to see what they need. Let them know what you have to offer and even if they don’t have anything, they might be able to fix you up with another organization.
Volunteering can help you get and stay physically active as well as having numerous mental health benefits. Sworkit Health can also help you by providing a simplified well-being solution that includes both physical and mental health and supports you in your wellness goals.
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