Benefits of Altruism: Helping Others Is a Way to Help Yourself

By Richard Belz, Ph.D.

Altruism is defined as a concern and practice for the well-being of others above your own needs. The definition suggests that altruistic acts are purely selfless and only benefit the receiver. Research, in fact, has shown that helping others can greatly benefit both the giver and the receiver. Engaging in acts can increase feelings of happiness, optimism, self esteem, satisfaction, and gratuity. Indeed, research has shown that giving help to another person has been more predictive of better reported mental health compared to receivinghelp.

We can all recognize the positive mental health impact of lending a hand to others. But did you know that helping others can also boost your physical health? Altruism can decrease stress hormones in our body (cortisol), help individuals cope better with chronic pain, decrease blood pressure, and even increase our life span.

In Dialectical Behavior Therapy, commonly known as DBT, altruism and volunteering are part of the “Contributing Skill.” The Contributing skill involves contributing to someone’s life and, in addition to helping others, can be done to manage one’s ability to tolerate distressing emotions.

Examples of contributing include: helping a friend or family member, cooking something nice for someone, donating things you don’t need, surprising someone with a note or a favor, or volunteering for a local charity. You can use your abilities to help others by aligning with your values. For example, if you enjoy knitting you can make something for your pet or an animal shelter, especially if you value being creative and love animals. If you have experience playing baseball, you can coach Little League, especially if you value cooperation and collaboration.

Finding a balance to altruistic behavior frequency and intensity is also important. Identify small acts of kindness that won’t increase your own stress or have a negative impact on your health. Altruismisn’t helpful to you or others if you stretchyourself too thin. For example, research has shown that making continuous financial contributions to others by giving beyond one’s own resources can increase depressive symptoms. Thus it is important to balance altruistic acts in terms of reasonability and feasibility.

There is a strategy utilizing the acronym SMART to determining this that can also be applied to goals on a broader scale:

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Relevant

Time-bound

For example, an altruistic act of volunteering at a retirement home should be SMART:

Specific - I will volunteer at a retirement home for one hour.

Measurable - I can track how much time I spend at the retirement home.

Achievable - I can achieve this by going this weekend at ten o’clock.

Relevant - This connects with my values of helping others and supporting my community.

Time-bound - I will do this on March 9th at 10 am. If I’m not able to then, I will do this on March 10th at 10 am.

If it’s not feasible to contribute your time to volunteering, knitting, or shopping for a neighbor, you can still incorporate altruism in your daily life. Send a text to a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while to ask how they are, send a message of support to someone in your life who might have a challenging day ahead, bring some snacks to share with work colleagues, compliment a stranger on their outfit, and so on.

This strategy also helps conceptualize and implement your goal in the context of living your values. If you would like help developing these skills, setting goals, or achieving your goals, feel free to contact us at (516) 487-7116 or by email at info@biobehavioralinstitute.com.

Our staff is currently offering a no cost monthly group to promote helping others. It is held the last Thursday of every month from 6 pm to 7 pm. Different activities will be offered every month, such as making art boxes for children in hospitals or making tie blankets to donate to those in need. Please contact our office to sign up.