Every community has countless opportunities for giving of yourself. Be a reading tutor. Give your time to help the local charity thrift store. Anything you can do will not only help the world, it will also help you. Volunteers feel good about themselves. They have a sense of purpose, feel appreciated, and are less likely to be bored in their lives. Volunteers experience rewards that cannot be attained in any other way. Even if you don't have a lot of time or skills, find an hour a month and give yourself to a good cause.
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Bessie is a widow in her seventies. She found herself with time on her hands and a desire to do something useful with it. She wanted something that would make her want to get up inthe morning with a smile on her face. Bessie found out about a foster grandparent program run out of a Buffalo area community center. The program uses senior citizens to offer companionship to disabled children during the day.
Bessie signed up and now spends a couple of hours a day playing, reading, talking, and sitting with the children.
One of Bessie's friends, who also volunteers in the same program, says that the foster grandparents give the children "love and attention," and in return they are rewarded by getting a chance to see "the beauty in every one of these children."
Bessie says the volunteer work "gives me the feeling that I am doing something good. I'm helping the children, the parents, and myself. Everybody wins, but I always feel I win the
most."
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An analysis of volumes of previous research on the subject shows a strong consensus that volunteering contributes to happiness by decreasing boredom and creating an increased senseof purpose in life. Volunteers, on average, are twice as likely to feel happy with themselves as non-volunteers.
Crist-Houran 1996
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