|
If we want to have a happy and a meaningful life, we should give our problems a day-off and start “voluntherapy”.
Voluntherapy is a coined word that means treating a problem through volunteer work. It's a sad fact that people are becoming more depressed than ever. Most of us blame a lot of factors such as modern living, the government, the increasing prices of everything that money can buy, the media, and etc., but the real issue why people are depressed is because we are more focused on ourselves, hence, more focused on our problems.
Volunteer work re-channels our focus to other things than our problems. People who do volunteer work submerge themselves to an environment that people are helpful and hopeful. If we are in a middle of a crisis in our lives, we would want to be in an environment that we can draw some strength from, and the best people to be with are volunteers.
Some may say that volunteer work is only for a few selected individuals who have special calling to be martyrs, but recent study shows that volunteering helps the elderly to gain good health than those who do not volunteer. In a study conducted by Florida State University, Jim Hinterlong, an assistant professor of social work and an affiliate at FSU's Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy, and a team of researchers found that the well-being of elders improved with the amount of time they volunteered up to 100 hours a year, or two to three hours a week. "Our findings support the perspective that volunteering is important in the larger context of successful aging. Engagement is the key, not necessarily the hours of engagement ”,said Hinterlong.
Helping out and devoting a little of our time can go along way to community at large and to ourselves. Somebody out there needs what you and I can share. It could be your time, your talent, or your presence. As Joel Osteen, author of Your Best Life Now said, “ quit trying to figure out what everybody can do for you, and start trying to figure out what you can do for somebody”.
There is always joy in volunteering and not to mention there are perks too. Companies easily hire people who had a history of volunteer work. Yes friends, karma does really work and it is to your advantage. Statistics shows that 73%of employers would employ candidates with volunteering experience over one who doesn't. Furthermore 94% of employees who volunteered to learn new skills had benefited either by getting their first job, improving their salary, or being promoted
|
