Volunteering reduces stress!

Source: Natural health magazine. April 2007 page 15-16.

A few hours spent volunteering to help others can ease stress

and improve your health.

When John Niro, a 27-year-old headhunter for an IT firm in Los Angeles, started losing his hair, he knew he needed to change his stressful life. So he left his job for one with more flexible hours and signed up as a volunteer tutor at author Dave Eggers’s nonprofit writing center, 8261A. Almost immediately, he noticed a change in his mood. “Within a few weeks of tutoring, I was happier, I became a better boyfriend, and hair stopped falling out,” says Niro, now 29. And in contrast to his unfulfilling corporate job, volunteering was rewarding – plus it took just one afternoon a week.

The link between stress and the development of chronic disease is well known. A growing body of research has shown that volunteer work – especially when it involves personal contact with others – can help reduce stress and improve your mental and physical health.

In the late 1980s, Allan Lukes, executive director of the youth mentoring organization Big Brothers Bis Sisters and author of The Healing Power of Doing Good (iUniverserse.com, 2001), surveyed 3,000 adult volunteers. A full 95 percent reported a “helper’s high,” which is characterized by feeling of energy and euphoria. Many also noticed better health – everything from fewer colds to less pain. Since Luke’s ground breaking survey, the health – boosting effects of charity have been corroborated by additional research, including a 1999 study from the University of Michigan that followed 1,211 seniors for about seven years and found that those who volunteered just 40 hours a year lived longer than those who didn’t volunteer at all.

These findings aren’t surprising to anyone who regularly donates time to charity. “Volunteering revitalizes me,” says Tax Tagore, 33, who left behind a high-powered business career to found the Reciprocity Foundation, a homeless-youth program based in New York City. “In the corporate world, it was hard to recharge my batteries. But with the kids, I give and I get and I feel energized. The loop is closed.” Niro agrees: “At 3p.m. on Thursdays, I find myself closing my eyes and giving a quick thanks that I’m in a room with a bunch of kids, helping them learn.”

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