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What are the benefits of contribution, kindness, and generosity?
When it comes to our lives, success, and happiness, we’re mostly focused on our day-to-day busy lives, getting to where we need to be and getting things done. Most of us don’t make the time or put in the effort for contribution. Many of us are only kind when it’s convenient for us or when we’re asked. That’s not to say that we’re not kind per se, but that we do the bare minimum or we’re indifferent or reactive to how others treat us.
The benefits of contribution, generosity, and kindness are enormous not only to those we give to, but ourselves and society as a whole. Following are 20 benefits of contribution, kindness, giving, altruism, volunteering, and generosity as to why we should give, volunteer, and contribute more often as well as develop the skills of kindness and generosity and make them habits.
Contribution, kindness, giving, altruism, and generosity will be used interchangeably.
1. It feels good
Doing good things feels good! Research has found that after good deeds and acts of kindness, people report higher levels of happiness. You don’t just improve the moods of others, you improve your own mood as well. It literally releases feel good hormones. Instead of bringing others down, you raise and lift both spirits. But it doesn’t end there.
2. You’re happier
People who give to others and volunteer are happier overall, have better life adjustment, and tend to see life as more meaningful. Kindness help the brain produce more oxytocin, referred to as the “love hormone” and serotonin which is a natural anti-depressant. Even those who do volunteer work with pets and animals see the same results.
3. It promotes deeper healthy relationships
Relationships are more balanced when we’re not just focused on taking. Contribution and kindness can help us feel more connected to others. This is backed by science as well. Altruism and kindness is associated with better relationships.
This is common sense. People like kinder people and want to be around people who are kinder. We want to interact with these kinds of people. Even during conflict and arguments, kindness can bring people together, as well as mend and heal rifts. Kindness also creates a stronger bond between people. We survive as a species because of our relationships. We are wired to be kind.
4. We are healthier mentally
People who are altruistic experience a decreased sense of hopelessness, less depression, and increased self-esteem. It’s also known to reduce stress and anxiety. This makes so much sense because if you act out of pure love and generosity from the heart, it’s nearly impossible to feel anxiety and stress. Anger, rudeness and stinginess raises our stress and anxiety levels.
5. We become healthier physically
There’s plenty of research and science behind the physical effects and benefits of kindness, altruism, contribution, generosity, and giving.
Here’s to name a few:
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- Reduces high blood pressure
- Helps you live longer
- It’s good for your heart
- Prevents illness
- Helps chronic pain management
- More likely to be active and exercise regularly
- Better physical health overall
6. We make the world a better place
This is a given and this reason alone is good enough reason to give. It’s one of the main benefits of contribution. Who wouldn’t want to live in a better place? And who wouldn’t want their footprint on earth to do more good than harm? Whether you have hope for humanity or you don’t, whether you think the world is getting better or worse, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t want to make the world a better place.
After all, you live here. Just like you clean your house to make your house a better place to live, the same can be done for your neighborhood, your community, you family, your town, your city, your country, your world. We all live on it and share it. The more it’s improved, the bigger the impact and better our lives become.
Not only does the world become a better place, it’s being done because of you. You hold that power to do that. You become responsible for that.
7. People are more likely to contribute to us
What we put out, we get back. The law of reciprocity makes it hard for humans to not give back to those who give to us.
Even if it’s not reciprocated in the way we’d like or by the person we’d like it be from, we still receive it back in some shape or form. This is physics. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. So whatever energy you’re putting out there into the world, you’re going to get back.
As a side note, we shouldn’t give for the sole purpose of getting what we want from someone as that’s manipulative and not genuine, but it is a benefit for those of us who feel uncomfortable asking for things or want things to be more balanced when we do ask. We could all also use some help at least at one point in our lives.
8. Success is more likely
It’s not about who you know. It’s about who likes you. When you give, people remember you. You have a lasting positive impact on them. Volunteering can also give you career experience and could expose you to new opportunities, people, places, networks, organization, and internships for your career advancement.
9. Find our purpose
When we focus on what we can give to the world, we are likely to create and produce something of value. We give meaning and purpose to our lives because it’s not just all about us. We realize that our lives and place on this earth have purpose. And this purpose and meaning is not just given to us. We have to create it. We harness the power to create meaning and purpose in our lives through kindness and contribution.
We are no longer just drifting through trying to make it from point A to point B, we are leaving love and beauty along our path. Rather than leaving destruction or even no trace along our journey, we plant seeds along the way that we can look back on and see a garden.
10. Create a ripple effect
Kindness inspires others to be kind. When someone is kind to us, we are inspired to be kind to others. This is why we call it “passing it forward.”
When people witness or hear about others’ acts of kindness it creates a warm feeling of joy and inspires them to also do similar acts. This is called Moral Elevation or Kindness Contagion.
So not only do we benefit ourselves and the recipients for kindness, but any witnesses or listeners of our acts of kindness, generosity, and altruism are also benefited.
Just one act of kindness can create a major effect on many people. It becomes a chain reaction. You are kind to one person. That person is inspired to also be kind to others. They also tell others about your act of kindness which inspires those who hear about it as well. The people who witnessed . Kindness is contagious and can become viral, spreading like wildfire without the person even noticing.
You also put up a good example for your children or those close to you.
11. Solves problems
One of the benefits of contribution and kindness is that it can solve problems and is often a simple solution to many conflicts. Kindness is a simple and easy solution to many conflicts. Even there are so many conflicts that could have been avoiding if there had been kindness. Being kind doesn’t hurt.
You can’t control other people, but you can control yourself, how you interact with other people and how you handle situations and conflicts with others. If you did your part in being kind and trying to genuinely solve the problem with the best interest of both problems, the rest is on the others. A little kindness can go a long way. Even if nothing is solved, at least you didn’t make it worse.
12. You feel less lonely and isolated
When you’re altruistic, you feel more connected to others and society as a whole. You also often have to put yourself out there to give. Giving is often a social activity. People who give also have more hope for humanity than those that don’t.
13. You feel appreciated
When you contribute, people naturally appreciate you. Everyone wants to be and feel appreciated. It’s in our nature. If we don’t feel appreciated in a relationship, that relationship is likely to be an unhappy and unfulfilling one. The same goes for our jobs and work. If we don’t feel appreciated in our work, we are less likely to have work satisfaction and feel happy at work.
14. Make a lasting difference
You want to be the person that doesn’t just lead an excellent life, but leaves a legacy behind. When you leave the world better than when you entered it, people will remember you and at the very least, your life wasn’t in vain. You brought people happiness, love, and joy. These things make the world a better place. The impact you made, you created.
15. You step out of your comfort zone
Acts of kindness can be uncomfortable. We often have to put ourselves out there. We will do things we’ve never done, and not just talk and interact with people we never have before, but show love for them, something that’s a lot deeper than most people are used to.
In this day and age, it’s very easy to get comfortable with interacting with others over our phones and social media. We don’t even have to say anything anymore. All we have to do is press a button that shows up as a “like,” a drawing of a thumbs up or a drawing of a heart. This is the kind of surface and superficial levels which we’re used to interacting with one another.
Generosity often takes a lot more than that. It takes stepping out of our comfort zone and facing our fears of rejection, failure, attention, vulnerability, uncertainty, and potential hurt feelings.
16. It changes and grows you
Contribution and kindness literally changes you as a person. Doing things out of love, generosity, and wanting to give and service, grows you. It challenges you and makes you step out of your comfort zone. Kindness can be a hard thing to do when it’s easier to be angry and mean and vengeful and indifferent.
Every potential act of kindness is an opportunity for growth. It changes you because you become a better person from deep within. It no longer becomes what you’ve accomplished and what you do for work and what you have. It becomes about your character, how you treat others, especially those who can do nothing for you, and how you react in difficult situations and conflicts.
It can even change your life like it did for one woman who decided to bring goodie bags for all passengers and flights on a flight for her birthday. She made the news and now, her focus is spreading the word of kindness, giving talks around the country.
17. You learn
When you are kind, you learn about humanity. You see a different way of life and new places. You also learn fundamental skills about love, giving, social skills. Skills can also include problem solving, project planning, task management, and organization. You learn more about other people, their lifestyles and cultures and you learn how to communicate and connect with people better by developing, building and growing deeper relationships.
With volunteer work, you can also learn career skills from the field of interest. You can improve your public speaking, teamwork, communication, and marketing skills. You can also often share your skills and knowledge and improve upon them with that.
18. It can be fun
Who says giving, kindness, and volunteer work have to be boring? After all, most ideas are social activities and can be quite enjoyable. You can also do certain things with a friend or a few! You can make friends and deepen old friendships too.
If we look and think hard enough and get creative with ways we can give and practice kindness, we’re bound to find something that interests us or we think would be fun to do. Like the woman who brought goodie bags on her flight, her idea was to have a party on a plane for her birthday. That sounds like it would be fun!
19. Increase self confidence
An increase in self confidence is another one of the many benefits of contribution. What you do and how you treat others is a reflection of yourself. Doing good to others will make you see yourself as a better person which increases your self-confidence. You feel better about yourself as a person because you know you do the right thing. You have integrity, kindness and goodness in your heart an character.
20. Why not?
Because you can. You have that power.
YOU DON’T NEED A REASON!!
Even without the benefits of contribution, we should still contribute and give anyway.
Every relationship we have now will end at one point or another whether it be through breakup, drifting apart, or death. We might as well make the best of it and be kind to another while we can. No one wants to live or die with regrets. We are more likely to regret not being kind enough and not contributing and giving enough than being too kind.
There’s little to no reason not to. All those reasons not to are often just excuses and stem from a poor fixed and scarcity mindset. There’s so many benefits of contribution and even just one of these benefits are so worth it!
Contribution, giving, kindness, and generosity should be a major part of your personal development which I wrote about in this article. If it’s not already, it’s never too late to start.
The Greatest Contribution You Can Give to Humankind