Five ways volunteering can help your mental health

By Vanessa Anderson

This Mental Health Awareness Week , there is so much to be said for volunteering to support a cause close to our hearts, even from a distance. Losing track of who we are and what we have to offer is definitely not good for our health. We all, however remotely, however selfish/selfless, have a need to feel we have something to give. Becoming a volunteer can be a radical act of self-care (in lockdown or otherwise). Becoming a volunteer can:

… connect us

Our most basic human need is for connection. In our 2020 world, we risk feeling isolated and alone. Although individual experiences may differ, the global pandemic has shown us what is universally important. If we need to add some positivity to our lockdown days, volunteering can be a tremendous boost. It can mean having a welcome conversation about something other than Corona Virus, looking into the eyes of a familiar face, hearing a familiar voice. It can mean our connections continue to grow.

… inspire us

Feeling demotivated and unfocused can be detrimental to our mental health, whether because we just don’t stop in our busy, busy, lives, or because we may feel paralysed in lockdown. In charitable organisations, we find passionate trailblazers walking their walk every day, women and men who can inspire and motivate us to achieve greater things, in small but significant ways.

… give us learning opportunities

Many of us will be considering a change of direction on the other side of Covid. Supporting a charity, remotely or otherwise, presents us with opportunities to develop and turn our hands to skills we may not have embraced previously. Volunteering offers us the chance to flex new (or rusty) muscles.

… allow us to shake our pompoms

It feels great to be a cheerleader — in fact, no pompoms or high kicks are (usually) required. Championing others allows us to see with our own eyes and hear with our own ears the success stories of those less fortunate than ourselves. We all need a good news story right now.

… make us feel better about ourselves

We may see volunteering as a selfless mission; life is rarely that simple. We all need a sense of purpose, perhaps now more than ever. As volunteers, we get to bask in a charity’s reflected glow, to feel a part of a whole, to recognise that we are a cog in the force-for-good wheel.

We all need to preserve our mental health in these wobbly, rollercoaster times.

Charities are in desperate need of support from volunteers right now.

Volunteering is good for us, good for others and completely free of side effects.

Everyone’s a winner.

For more information about volunteering at Smart Works Reading, or to support us in any other way, please email reading@smartworks.org.uk.