No Exercise Better For The Heart

The American physician and writer John Andrew Holmes, best known for Wisdom In Small Doses (1927), wrote that “There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” I think this kind of sums up the essence of what my last three blogs have been discussing – that giving of our time, talents or finances to help those in need possesses hidden remuneration for the giver. Studies by prominent neuroscientists, psychologists and sociologists suggest that volunteering at an orphanage in Kolkata, giving financial support to a needy family in the Karamoja, or using our talents to hold a charity concert for a depressed part of Kansas actually enhances our happiness, our health and draws us closer to people.

We all experience the personal benefits of giving. Every year hundreds of young people at university take a gap year in their studies to volunteer and are buzzing when they return home! Often adults recognise a need in their life to become involved in some form of giving and those that do feel better for it. Two years ago a good friend of mine in her mid-fifties decided to volunteer for six months. She put all her personal effects in storage and let her home out. When she finally returned to London eight months later it was as if this mortal had drunk from the nectar of the gods and was conferred immortality as she talked of plans to go back out. She was no longer the submissive and inert life she had once been. Her volunteer experience had given her a new lease of life and motivation, and she told me ‘it has been a life changing experience and no vacation I have taken before has been this rewarding.’ Recognising the benefits of giving, she now works to volunteer each year. Others give financial help and are thrilled and proud to see what their giving has accomplished. I visited an orphanage in Kenya earlier this year and happened to be there at the same time as several donors to that project. It wasn't difficult to see how happy these supporters were as they watched fifty little children gathered around tables tuck into their evening meals. I think I too would be delighted to know that because of my giving a child will not go to bed hungry or a family can have clean water to drink.

Of course giving benefits the recipient and is essentially the reason why people seek to give. In my next blog I want to begin to look at giving from that perspective.