6 Reasons Why Helping Others Will Make You Happier
Helping others is good for you. Even though at times you may find yourself with too much work and family duties in your hands, it can feel especially life-changing to contribute your efforts once in awhile to something bigger than yourself or your daily commitments. It will make you a tad bit happier too.
There are easy, uncomplicated ways you can help others–it can mean volunteering or donating for those in need, but it can also be just as simple as listening to a friend or holding out the door for an elderly.
You will realize that doing something that’s helpful and kind for other people opens up for your world various things you haven’t realized. Overall you’ll start having a sense of purpose. You’ll feel happier about yourself.
Here are 6 benefits of helping other people:
6 Reasons Why Helping Others Will Make You Happier:
1. You feel your intrinsic worth gradually increases when you help others.
When someone genuinely says “Thanks” to you, while shaking your hand or giving you a big hug, it’s an amazing feeling. You feel needed. You feel your intrinsic self-worth rise, developing your feeling of competence. It gives you confidence and inner peace.
2. As you give something of yourself to others, it increases your feeling of generosity.
Knowing deep within yourself that you gave your genuine time and effort to others because you only wanted to help also increases your feelings of generosity. Feeling the joys of giving is one of the most incredible feelings anyone can ever have.
Read: The Health Benefits of Giving
3. You discover more things about yourself when you help other people.
Tapping into your helpful side also helps you learn more about yourself. Helping others in need, or simply being there for them, increases your faith in yourself as well as your self-worth as you feel yourself being reliable. You simply start to feel life becomes more complete when you become more aware of the needs of other people.
4. You strengthen your bonds or connections with other people as you reach out to help them.
We are all yearning to foster relationships or good connections or attachments with other people in our lives. Helping others forges these bonds to become stronger, and can even earn you new friends.
5. You get to grow your repertoire of skills and hone them.
By helping others, you can also add new skills or gain knowledge for your own professional life (for instance by being a volunteer) and greatly contribute to your self-development or personal life as well. This proves true even if you are merely using the Art of listening or simply being there.
6. Helping others is a great way to show gratitude for all the good things happening in your life.
Most of us, at some point in our lives, have experienced tougher times wherein we needed some form of help or guidance. Just think about how much another person’s help or assistance has helped you some way in the past. You can be thankful for that and grab the opportunity now to pay it forward by also vowing to help more or serve more others.
Helping others gives you multiple benefits that are not just life-enhancing for the person you are helping–it can also feel life-enriching for you. You’ll simply feel much happier. You’ll experience your life becoming more meaningful, fulfilling or purposeful each day you help other people.