Mother Teresa once said, “Give your hands to serve, and your hearts to love.” Loving others makes it easy to serve them. It is obvious that when you serve others, you help them in some way, but did you realize that when you help others, you also help yourself? Serving others has many health benefits.

Personal Story

It makes me happy to help people. Serving others provides opportunities to use my gifts, skill, and talents. God wired me in such a way that I feel joy when I serve people in my home, church, community, or at work. Serving others is good for my physical and mental health.

Health Benefits of Serving Others

Serving others has mental and physical health benefits.

Mental Health

• Helping other people makes a person happy and can help them live longer. Happiness from helping comes from dopamine, a mood-elevating neurotransmitter in the brain.  Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D , a psychology professor, reported that doing acts of kindness even once per week can give greater joy and happiness in life. International studies even suggest that there is a 22% reduced rate of mortality from regular volunteering.
• Volunteering has positive effects on mood, happiness, self-esteem, and wellbeing.
• Social needs that are met through volunteering lead to chances to give and receive appreciation.
• Helping others can provide a sense of purpose that can lead to increased physical and emotional wellbeing. Volunteering also teaches skills that are used to help others and gives the volunteer a sense of personal satisfaction.
• Social networking helps develop relationships with new friends.

Physical Health

• Helping others is great for heart health. A study showed that people over fifty years old who volunteered for four hour per week were 40 % less likely to have high blood pressure when compared to people who did not volunteer. Helping others may lower blood pressure. This could be both from being active and from being altruistic. Social connections can motivate people to take better care of themselves.
• Being kind and helping others is connected to longevity and reduced mortality. It also results in a better emotional state.
• Helping others can help reduce tension and stress. A study showed charitable givers had lower amounts of cortisol in their bodies. Reduced stress levels may reduce the risk of disease.
• One study showed that individuals, who had a chronic illness, who helped others with a similar illness often helped their own chronic pain. This may be due to having a purpose outside of themselves, staying active, or providing emotional support to others, which resulted in the helpers being less prone to anxiety and depression.

Serving others has many health benefits.

Action

When a person serves others, they help the person they serve. But they also help themselves. Think of a way to serve someone this week and see if you experience some improvement in your mental or physical health.

Resources:

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/71964/7-scientific-benefits-helping-others

Savion, S. (2014, November 17). How Serving Others Benefits Everyone, HealthyPlace. Retrieved on 2020, April 29 from https://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/livingablissfullife/2014/11/five-benefits-of-serving-others

https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/helping-people-changing-lives-the-6-health-benefits-of-volunteering

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/health-benefits-of-helping-others_n_4427697

http://sonjalyubomirsky.com/wp-content/themes/sonjalyubomirsky/papers/LDinpressb.pdf

May God bless your healthful endeavors!

Joni

P.S. How do you serve others?