Help Someone Else to Help Yourself

Help Someone Else to Help Yourself:
A Stress Management Technique

We make a living by what we get.
We make a life by what we give.n- Sir Winston Churchill

How often do you help others?

Do you give of yourself freely to any cause?

People who volunteer receive many personal benefits.

Volunteering can help people take the focus off their own frustrations. Often times, people who volunteer notice how much better they actually have it compared to people who they are assisting. Helping people can help you to also make friends who can provide you with support in return. Here is an example:

Carrie Pettry, a retired fourth grade teacher was a social and friendly person who did not like living alone. Her husband Posey had passed away several years before she retired. Both of her children were grown, married and living their own lives. Carrie used her leisure time wisely as an alte
ative to being sedentary.

Carrie began to volunteer at the Veteran Affairs (VA) hospital. People who knew her often said, “Carrie has never known a stranger.” Volunteering was a leisure activity that helped Carrie manage living alone. She felt good about helping those in need, made acquaintances with hospital staff, patients, and other volunteers. Volunteering kept her physically active as well.

She met another volunteer, Alexander Napier, a born Canadian and retired postmaster. They became good friends and began to spend much time together and eventually married. She might not have met Alex had she not been a volunteer. Alex became her best friend throughout her later adult years.

The lesson here is for you to start helping others as a coping skill because there are many personal benefits for volunteering.

There are many ways in which you could help somebody.

Here are a few places that could use volunteers: nnursing homesnhospitalsnsupport groupsnelder neighborsncommunity clean-up groupsnpeople with young children nhomeless shelte

FACT:
Volunteering is a good way to build a network of friendships. According to a study based on a senior center in southern Ontario, Canada, seniors who volunteered were more likely to be happy, have better health, and had more social support compared to those who did not volunteer n(Fitzpatrick, Gitelson, Andereck, & Mesbur, 2005).

Source for Fact:
Fitzpatrick, T., Gitelson, R., Andrereck, K., Mesbur, E. (2005). Social support factors and health among a senior center population in southern Ontario, Canada. Social Work in Healthcare. 40(3)

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