Flock of Gulls
Why does helping others make people happy, less stressful and motivated? Why do many psychologists recommend that it is better to help yourself by helping others? Read on:
Based on psychological theory and research, you can gain considerable benefits by helping other people. Being kind and generous causes a person to perceive others more positively. Volunteering or helping others often relieves stress, guilt, discomfort and suffering. It also inspires a sense of awareness and appreciation for your own blessings. Simply put it: you help yourself by helping others because it makes you feel more advantaged and thankful compared to other people.
Here are more advantages you can get by helping other people, especially the less fortunate:
1. The benefit of self-perception – Helping other people causes you to begin viewing yourself as an altruistic and compassionate person. This perception can foster a sense of confidence, optimism, and usefulness. You feel good about yourself, thus your self-perception becomes optimistic rather than pessimistic. Your loneliness is shadowed by your wanting to be a good person whose abilities and skills shine through in your daily life.
2. Helping others or volunteering helps you hone your abilities, resources, and expertise – You help yourself by helping others because it makes you highlight the best aspects of personality in you, like leadership and management skills, project planning and implementing skills, and more.
3. Helping others helps you feel you have a control over your life – Helping others gives you a sense of control. It reminds you that “you can choose to be good” and not every detail of your life are driven by consequences and scripting (like the role you have to play dictated by family or bosses).
4. Helping other people gives you the opportunity to learn new skills or discover talents – People or social skills are usually gained by connecting to people. Helping others not only exposes you to people but empower you to gain confidence in yourself and your friendship with other people. There are more other skills that you can learn by helping other people of volunteering. In fact, some people uses volunteering opportunities to hone skills needed for their job or careers.
5. Helping others promotes a sense of meaningfulness and value in one’s life – Psychologists recommend helping other people or volunteering as one of the ways to topple depression and loneliness. When you learn to focus on the needs of others you start to perceive life in a positive way. Acts of kindness can jump-start a cascade of positive social consequences – more people like you, appreciate you, and offer gratitude. Some even consider you as an inspiration to do good and also help others.
6. Helping other people creates bridges of love and camaraderie – You help yourself by helping other people because you allow yourself to become a part of society that values camaraderie, friendship and love. Helping others satisfies the basic human need for connecting with others, winning smiles, gratitude, and valued friendship. According to social experiments, happiness increases when people learn that their acts of kindness are appreciated and recognized.
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