How giving can you help you gain a lot

It’s not exactly a secret that helping people is an extremely good thing to do. By giving your time and money to other people in less fortunate positions than yourself, you can make a huge impact on their lives - whether you have millions to give, or can only offer your time.

While giving should be about helping others, there’s no denying that there are plenty of individual benefits for those doing the giving as well. Here is how giving can help you gain a lot.

Positivity

Giving feels great, and if you’ve ever spent time helping others or have donated to a charity, then you’ll already know the sense of positivity that you feel from helping in this way. According to a recent study, the positivity you feel from helping others comes from the same part of the brain that offers you pleasure from food and sex.

This is called the mesolimbic system, a part of the brain in charge of supplying you with feelings of pleasure and reward. Giving, therefore gains you pleasure and self-esteem.

Life satisfaction

With the difficult and unpredictable political and economic climate of recent years, many people (particularly in younger age groups) are feeling unsatisfied with life and pessimistic about the future.

Helping others through charitable giving can really improve life satisfaction, as it offers people a sense of control over their prospects. Feeling like you have options and control over your choices can make a real difference to life satisfaction levels.

Sense of purpose

Similarly, having a greater sense of purpose can also come from charitable work, as this is often associated with working towards a clear goal. Helping others can be extremely satisfying and helps to provide a sense that you are making a positive contribution to society.

Reduces depression

As discussed above, the act of giving offers you positive feelings, which are activated by your brain’s mesolimbic system. This positivity is also an effective way to improve the symptoms associated with depression.

There are an increasing number of people suffering from depression, with feelings of sadness and a lack of energy able to be reduced by the positive feelings associated with helping others.

Other studies have also suggested that helping people can provide individuals with a greater sense of control over their lives. This feeling of control is also a helpful way to reduce the symptoms of depression, and to help prevent the issues arising again in the future.

Helps you cope with loss

Finally, in addition to offering relief from the symptoms of depression, charity work and giving can also help you recover from the loss of a loved one.

One study approached this subject by looking at people who were coping with the death of a spouse, noting that the respondents who provided charitable help to others during this time recovered more quickly from grief than those who did not.

Giving your time and money can really help you gain a lot, and is something that helps both others and yourself to flourish.