The state of the world has been far from great over the past few years, and it’s affecting our mental health.

The pandemic exacerbated any existing feelings of anxiety. Rising pressures at work and at home have forced many people to take time off of work, and at this point, burnout has become somewhat of a buzzword. Social media certainly isn’t helping, encouraging self-comparison and self-doubt.

Clearly, things will keep changing. So how do we get relief now?

One way to alleviate stress is volunteering. Serving others makes you feel good for a whole host of reasons, it’s free, and it brings meaning to your life. So much meaning that you might even start a company as a result. In fact, volunteering was the genesis for our company, Entidad, a digital consulting firm for nonprofits. We’ll dive more into that story later, but first, we’ll outline six of the major benefits of volunteering, specifically for your mental health.

Why do we like volunteering?

Think back to the last time you helped someone else. Didn’t it feel good? Even if it’s something small, many people get a “high” off of assisting others. And the more you improve others’ lives, the happier you become. Not only does volunteering boost your self-confidence, but it also increases your social connectivity and sense of belonging.

Our jobs don’t line up with our values one hundred percent of the time, but volunteering can fill that gap. Because you can pick and choose which opportunities you want to participate in, you can ensure that volunteering perfectly aligns with what you feel is important. You can even use volunteering to build additional professional skills and explore new interests.

6 mental health benefits of volunteering

Now that we know why people enjoy volunteering, let’s consider six of its concrete benefits to mental health.

1. Greater life satisfaction

One of the major benefits of volunteering is that it confers greater life satisfaction. When you volunteer, you have a sense of purpose. Feeling like you’re making a difference in the world raises your confidence levels and makes you feel more in tune ith your identity. In a study of 70,000 people in the United Kingdom, researchers found that people who volunteered in the past year were more satisfied with their lives and rated their mental health better than those who volunteered infrequently or not at all.

2. Slows cognitive decline

Several studies show that volunteering becomes crucial as we get older. In a study published by the Journals of Gerontology, formal volunteering was associated with higher levels of cognitive functioning over time, especially with aspects of cognitive functioning related to working memory and processing. Another study in the Journal of Social Science & Medicine provided evidence that the associations between volunteering and cognitive decline were more pronounced for older adults at higher genetic risk for developing Alzheimer’s Disease.

3. Reduces stress

Even while we are young, volunteering keeps our minds distracted from our worries or destructive habits like being overly critical, turning to drugs or alcohol for comfort, or other forms of negative thinking. We feel satisfied giving our time and flexing our talents when we turn our attention to someone or something else. As a result, volunteers report lower rates of depression and anxiety.

4. Prevents feelings of loneliness

Even if you volunteer over Zoom, you are not in isolation. There is at least one other person who is volunteering with you or someone that you’re serving. Volunteering is a social activity where you can grow your network, particularly among people who share the same interests and values. Volunteering environments encourage even more introverted people to participate and form new friendships, preventing feelings of loneliness. In a study of 10,000 volunteers in Britain, roughly 66% agreed that their volunteering helped them feel less isolated.

5. Makes you happier

Val Walker, the author of “400 Friends and No One to Call: Breaking Through Isolation and Building Community,” shares that “volunteering is one of the best, most certain ways we can find a purpose and meaning in our life.” And finding purpose and meaning aren’t just abstract feelings; they cause physical changes in your body, spiking feel-good hormones and brain activity. Humans were designed to serve one another and form communities, so you feel happier when you are helping a cause you relate to.

To get a sense of how large the benefits of volunteering were, researchers published in the Journal of Economic Psychology found that, for a participant earning an average middle-class salary, volunteering was “worth” approximately $1,100 per year. In other words, volunteering would make someone as happy as having an extra $1,100.

6. Uncovers your passions

Volunteering allows you to try something new without the pressure to be good at it一you’re simply there to improve the lives of others, which is rewarding in and of itself. And while you’re volunteering, you’re likely to work alongside other volunteers who have been helping an organization for a long time, teaching you and inspiring new ideas along the way. In fact, researchers found that people ages 16 to 24 were especially likely to benefit from volunteering, partly due to the opportunity to build new skills and relationships that can help volunteers accelerate their careers even outside of volunteering.

How volunteering inspired a startup

It’s hard to know what will alleviate distress, especially when stressful things keep cropping up. Taking time off of work or treating yourself to a self-care day may be short-term fixes, but society needs a sustainable, long-term way to address mounting distress. And while there could be many solutions to this problem, there is one that has been proven to work over and over: volunteering. As we’ve seen, volunteering can positively impact mental health and even people’s careers.

We alluded to it earlier, but our company, Entidad, was motivated by our volunteer work with the United Farm Workers Foundation. Witnessing the tremendous impact the UFW Foundation had on its members inspired our co-founders to quit their jobs and create their own business centered around serving the underserved. Read more about how volunteering set the stage for Entidad in Stanford Magazine.