As National Volunteer Week 2010 comes to an end, I thought a fitting topic to contemplate is that of generosity, and the far-reaching impact it has on those who participate. And while generosity takes on many forms, the type I am writing about is one in which you give of your time and talents – volunteering.
Besides making you feel good, research has proven that volunteering has tremendous positive effects that go far beyond the time and talent given. In their book, Why Good Things Happen to Good People: The Exciting New Research that Proves the Link Between Doing Good and Living a Longer, Healthier, Happier Life, authors Jill Neimark and Stephen Post, PhD present the results of several robust studies which have given us substantial, meaningful data on the topic. Take a look at their conclusions:
- Volunteers not only live longer but are healthier. In a thirty-year study (by Doug Oman, University of California at Berkeley) of 427 women who were both wives and mothers, it was found that those who did any kind of volunteering had better physical functioning thirty years later.
- Volunteering reduces depression and mortality. Other research by the sociologist Marc Musick of the University of Texas at Austin and his colleagues found that for people age sixty-five and older, volunteer work substantially reduces symptoms of depression. According to another study by Musick and his colleagues, individuals over sixty-five who volunteer are significantly less likely to die over the next eight years than those who do no volunteer work. In an earlier study by Doug Oman, he and his colleagues looked at 2,025 older California residents and found that those who volunteered regularly had a 44 percent reduction in mortality—and those who volunteered for two or more organizations had an astonishing 63 percent lower mortality than non-volunteers. Says Oman: “Volunteering had a larger effect than physical mobility, exercising four times a week, and weekly attendance at religious services.” That’s powerful.
- The benefits of being a volunteer extend to all age groups. Teens who actively volunteer do better in life: they have higher grades in school, use drugs and alcohol less often, have lower pregnancy rates, and are likely to continue volunteering for the rest of their lives. The impact is strongest when kids are inspired to volunteer on their own, but even when they are required by school-based programs to do so, the positive impact is significant, according to Catholic University of America’s James Youniss.
- Volunteering delays death. In one 2005 study conducted by Alex Harris and Carl Thoresen of Stanford University, frequent volunteering was strongly linked with later mortality in more than 7,500 Americans over age seventy who lived in communities for the elderly. Called the Longitudinal Study of Aging (LSOA), the study followed these older individuals for six years. Volunteering was a powerful protector of mental and physical health, and frequent volunteers were protected the most. A 1992 survey of 3,617 older folks by Neal Krause of the University of Michigan found that helping others lowers depression. Krause also found that, for older men, ten years of volunteering slashes death rates significantly.
If those statistics don’t catch your attention, I’m not sure what will!
Another piece of good news is that volunteering can take many different forms. Consider being a mentor to youths in your community, a companion to a nursing home resident, or providing some much needed support to a caregiver by offering to spend time with his/her loved one so the caregiver can take a much needed break. In one or two hours each week, you could easily change the lives of others in a remarkable way, and you reap the benefits, as well.
So I will leave you these thoughts …
Focusing on someone other than yourself tends to push aside negative emotions. So, if you are feeling unhappy, isolated, or depressed, the act of helping somebody else may be just what you need. If you are already happy, volunteering will give you the opportunity to spread that happiness to others. And thanks to all of you who already volunteer … we can now say without a shadow of a doubt that the difference you are making goes far beyond where the eye can see!
Carolyn Lukert
www.transformingtransitions.com
PS. Please enjoy the link below. Whether or not you are a Michael Jackson fan, the message is loud and clear!
