Volunteering Renews Your Emotions

What’s the point of spending time and effort on work you’re not getting paid for? Wouldn’t it be better to do something lucrative? Many people ask themselves these questions before volunteering. Some eventually decide not to do this because they can’t find a good answer to their questions.

However, if you are someone who likes to help people and are motivated to do so, volunteering is a great option. In addition to being a very satisfying activity,  you also get a personal and emotional benefit from it. It renews your emotions.

Volunteering helps you discover new realities

To be part of a community you have to think about more than just yourself: you have to think about others. If you are always only concerned with your own problems, you may not be able to truly appreciate what you have around you.

There are so many children, teenagers and adults who need help and compassion. They may be suffering from a stigmatizing disease or addiction, or they may be homeless or living in an orphanage. All these people have something in common: they long for solidarity.

Helpfulness towards others is the behavior that almost all of us value most. At the same time, it can also be very difficult to put other interests aside for a while. However, you can only focus in this way on those who desperately need your help.

So remember that there will always be people who need you wherever you are. Contributing to the collective well-being through volunteering is therefore not only possible, but almost an obligation!

It has positive effects on your health

Being happy with yourself is already very satisfying. Therefore, the health benefits of volunteering are comparable to the effects of exercise or rest. Many volunteers who are part of a team also feel that they are part of something “bigger.”

The tasks and activities that volunteers undertake support their self-confidence. This is because they significantly improve the quality of life and everyday life of other people.

These feelings can ultimately make our emotional system stronger. This in turn can make us more resistant to stress and less likely to fall into depression. Moreover, you will be less likely to experience what so many people suffer from these days: loneliness.

Volunteering allows you to get to know yourself

Boredom offers you a great opportunity to discover your most creative side. Tired of your perpetual routine can lead you to explore and do new things. It may even motivate you to rebel against societal expectations.

In that sense, people who volunteer are often the ones who discover that unpaid work actually interests them. They feel a need to support other people, which in turn encourages them to invest their time in work for the collective good.

You can increase your professional value with this

Volunteers often have concerns that extend beyond the present moment. In other words, they are concerned about the collective well-being. They are often proactive, share their thoughts and have intentions with which they directly want to improve part of the cultural and social world.

That’s why headhunters value volunteers so much. These headhunters, or recruiters, look for people who know how to work in a team and who are not afraid of a challenge.

They want proactive, committed and serious candidates for their vacancy. Moreover, your value as a candidate can be doubled if you have done volunteer work that fits well with your academic trajectory.

You can learn new skills through volunteering

Taking on new responsibilities that are different from your usual responsibilities is a great experience. It can help you develop new emotional, social and intellectual skills.

We even have NGOs offering courses or other training to help you develop practical skills. You can never master too many skills! Consider this example: a shy person will gradually and effectively learn to communicate with others while volunteering.

An impatient teen will learn that sometimes waiting is the best strategy. An intolerant person will be taught a lesson in tolerance. Someone who is extremely sensitive will come to understand that you can also limit empathy.

As you can see, there are many tangible benefits of volunteering. However, we saved the best for last: this activity is contagious! When you see that people around you cooperate to achieve a certain goal, it increases the subjective value of this goal.

Many volunteers confess that they get a lot more out of the experience than they put into it themselves. They say it’s a unique experience that helps you grow as a person. So what are you waiting for?! Start volunteering today!