Day 12: You Are Not Alone! How Joining a Community Can Improve Your Life

Written by Cindy Platt - 11 Comments
Categories: 90 days

Would you like to live a more vibrant life full of confidence?

Your life can get better, both physically and emotionally. And best of all, it’s easier to get there than you probably think!

Stand up and volunteer. Right now you have countless opportunities to give your time and talents to others. Volunteering will give you a chance to change lives whether you are tutoring, contributing to a local charity or assisting the homeless.

People who volunteer feel happier, have a sense of purpose, and experience the rich rewards that come with giving time. Being generous with your time and effort can lead to improved physical and mental health for yourself and others.

Here Are 7 (Simple) Ways To Volunteer And Give To Your Community:

1.  Link Up With Local Community Outreach. There are many ways to reach people in need. Remember, it’s YOUR community. Working at a food bank, serving a holiday dinner at a homeless shelter, distributing toys to children, helping at churches or other places of worship, are all ways you can help make life happier for others around you.

2.  Mentor Our Youth. Volunteering in after school programs, Special Olympics, tutoring children in reading, or participating in homework help at your local library are all activities that will lead to an uplifting, empowering feeling. Many households have two working parents, and there are a ton of children in need of academic and emotional support during the after school time block. Reaching out to our youth is a powerful way to make a difference for their future as well as your own.

3.  Play With Pets. Most animal shelters or animal protection organizations depend on donations and volunteers to keep their animals exercised, fed and healthy. Whether you’re walking the dogs or stuffing envelopes for an educational mailing, you can make a difference for homeless animals. Actions speak louder than words. Giving your time to an animal shelter will send a message of responsibility and offer you comrades to comfort.

4. Connecting With Habitat for Humanity. There are many ways you can have a dramatic impact on your community. Habitat for Humanity is an advocacy group, helping to support people with housing issues. Educate yourself and take social action by helping communities plan and build new homes for families in need.

5.  Save the Earth. Joining a conservation group or helping with a local beach or park

cleanup day is a great way to be outdoors, exercise and help the environment.

6.  Helping Others is Healthy. Volunteering to help others is healthy for you, too. There is a direct connection between a healthy lifestyle and volunteerism. People who volunteer tend to have lower rates of depression, higher functional ability, and greater longevity.

7.  Caring For The Elderly, Elderly people need support, stimulation and inspiration. Human interaction is an essential ingredient to feeling vibrant and alive. Helping elderly people with crafts, gardening, preparing meals, while organizing cultural activities and games can promote companionship and improve their physical well being.

Volunteering is a great way to expand your mind and skill sets, while affording you an opportunity to work with a team to set goals. Discovering what you enjoy most and the talents you already possess will give you confidence, purpose, and a sense of reward.

You have the power to change things for the better. Volunteer today. You’ll improve the life of others and take your own along for the ride.

 

The FREE PickTheBrain “90 Days to a Better You” eCourse was built to do exactly that!

Click here to get started NOW.

( It only takes 20 seconds of courage to do something amazing. It’s your time! See you on the inside. )

 

Cindy Platt is a parenting specialist who writes at Your Life’s Blueprint. Follow her on Twitter.

Free Self-Confidence Webinar

If you are interested in finding out how you can improve your self-confidence, please join me and Barrie Davenport from Live Bold and Bloom for a free Self-Confidence webinar on Sunday, February 26, at 8:00 p.m. EST (5:00 Pacific). I will be the presenter, discussing a specific technique you can use every day to improve your self-confidence.

No registration is necessary for the free webinar, but please sign up on the Self-Confidence Course wait list to receive an email later in the week with log-in details. (This does not commit you to taking the course but is a way for us to contact you with the log-in and password.)

At the end of the webinar, I will discuss our upcoming Simple Self-Confidence Course which opens for registration immediately after the webinar. Webinar attendees will receive a discounted price for the Course. If you are not interested in the Simple Self-Confidence Course, you are still warmly welcomed to attend the webinar. You can just sign off when she begins discussing the Course.

Sign Up on Wait List Here to Receive an Email This Week with Webinar Log-In Details.

Simple Self-Confidence Course
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  • http://www.thereflectiveself.wordpress.com Dandy

    Wonderful post. In a world of social metworking, satelite tv, and never ending emails & twitter, we can forget there’s a world out there full of vibrance and reward!!
    Thanks, Dandy

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  • http://hanofharmony.com The Vizier

    Hi Cindy,

    Volunteering and giving of your time and effort to improve the lives of others is a great way to lead a meaningful life. When you are of service to others, you naturally feel better about yourself.

    I especially like the following:

    2. Mentor Our Youth:

    Having served in this capacity before, I know how uplifting and empowering it can be. The future depends on the next generation and we would do well to ensure they are prepared for the responsibility that awaits them.

    5. Save the Earth:

    We only have one Earth and it is important to ensure we take care of it so that future generations can inherit a beautiful planet. It would not do to leave a mess for future generations to take care of. This is unfair and would reflect badly on us.

    Thank you for sharing this great article!

  • http://revmediamarketing.com Lori R Taylor

    Cindy Platt—yeah–you’ve stepped into the light! Your voice is lyrical and magical–you make me want to do them all! #7 is my favorite–you know I’m a big believer in what goes around comes around and be the change you want to see in the world! Taking care of our elderly is so important for every reason you say. And guess what? If everyone in my life decided to me off when I’m a senior I can look myself in the mirror and know I did MY best, this is just my lesson in life, but not retribution. LOL (just kidding sort of) As you know Disabled American Veterans is a long time client of mine. They are a GREAT way to volunteer for seniors and give back to our brave men and women who sacrificed so much for us… check them out at http://dav.org and they also have a FREE RX discount card http://davrxcard.org–no email nothing–just download the card and you save up to 60% off your prescriptions at over 55,000 locations and with each prescription DAV gets .50 cents–”help you, help them”. For anyone reading this–I’m not a spammer (I’m actually a writer at PTB)–Cindy is a dear friend–DAV has been around over 90 years and simply a great opportunity to give back.

  • http://www.collinsforsuccess.com Collins

    Hi Cindy,Thanks for your article.Iam of thesame opinion that everybody needs to join a community.It socially helpful and educative too.I appreciate it.

    Cheers!

  • http://www.sshl.comze.com Janaka das

    Dear Cindy Platt and Friends.

    Your post is good encouragement for all of us. For sure, Voluntary to give our Time, Love, Care and Support to Community Improve our life in so many aspects. Radhanath Swami said: “To the degree we could all live in a way that people can trust us, not just superficially but in actuality, we will have a very powerful and strong society.” Voluntary activities are making bridges between our spirits, minds and bodies, where loneliness, depressions, sense of good for nosing, disconnections etc disappears like darkness with sunrise.

    Thank You for sharing this great encouragement!

  • http://www.hermeshandbagsaaa.com/ Ask

    A friend is a kind of help. Rain the life on the road, friends can block wind chill for you, for you share sorrow, remove the pain and difficulties, friends will always friendship.
    He is you climb up the escalator when you were injured, is a medicine, is you when a bowl of water of hunger, is when you across the river is the boat; He is money can’t buy orders not to come of, only the truly can track, and the most valuable for the real thing.
    A friend is a kind of acacia, a friend is each other, each other about miss, mutual concerns, each other on. Missing is like a flow of endless river, like a gentle frivolous, like a cloud of a fragrant flowers, like a piece of lingering sound made by the wind.
    Sometimes he also is a kind of light memories, light tea, light resonance……
    Have the friendship, little a lot of worry, gloomy leaves, won’t fall on the earth, and float on the surface, to distant drift, friendship is the river is, is a kind of pure and fresh air, behind out in front……

  • ravi patwardhan

    this Post helped me to learn to help needy even environment.

    thanks

  • http://flawlessconfidence.com Martin K.

    Great ideas! You can even combine volunteering with improving yourself, for example become a volunteer in an exotic country (you’ll help poor people in need + learn local language, meet new friends etc). There are many organizations who do this kind of work.

  • http://thepowertolive.com/2820/how-to-help-yourself-by-helping-others/ Volunteering Brings Unexpected Benefits

    [...] Improve your health by keeping you socially engaged as well as  physically and mentally active [...]