Helping Others
It's simple: helping others means helping yourself.
This is part of our Mind Ease series on managing stress and anxiety, along with all the associated disruption to our lives and routine. One part of our wellbeing that we might not be thinking about too much at the moment is that of service – being able to help others and support vulnerable people, or those around us who are needing support.
Showing support and altruism has been demonstrated to improve wellbeing, meaning that it has a dual benefit – by helping others, we are also helping ourselves.
By helping others, we are also helping ourselves.
If this is something that you feel you are able to do right now, the first step would be to consider what kind of support you can give. Perhaps you have some skills that can be used to help in a volunteer capacity, or you have some spare time that can be used for listening and talking with isolated people, or delivering groceries. If you are short on time, perhaps a donation of resources or money is better suited. The idea is shifting focus from ourselves onto people or causes that might need some support – and this will look different for everyone.
One key thing to remember when considering offering support is to only do this if you feel able to. We may sometimes end up in situations where we are offering help that we aren’t able to give – such as volunteering time when we are already busy, or offering resources that we don’t have. Try and be mindful of your capacity at the moment, and if it is not a good time for you for whatever reason, see if you can set a time in the future when you might be able to contribute. Altruism and offering support are often life-long values, so it is likely that at some point you will be in a good position to be able to offer this and make a difference.
Once you have started to take action, it might be helpful to reflect on the impact of what you are doing. Whether this is a donation of time or resources, it can be an affirming experience to consider how your action might have helped an individual or community – and how you might be able to make this something that is a regular part of your life, if it is something that you found meaningful and satisfying.
For many people, the act of helping and contributing has other impacts on their wellbeing, such as introducing them to a like-minded community of people, or giving them the opportunity to engage in interesting work – it is good to acknowledge this and see if you can keep this positive momentum going.
We hope that you find this post helpful and that you’re able to find an opportunity to help out this week – whatever that looks like for you.
If you’d like reliable relief from anxiety, you can install Mind Ease for free here.
