By Frank Bublitz
Many people believe in volunteering. Some do it through their church, civic club, nonprofit organization, or other traditional way.
Now that it’s the holiday season, you may be planning some Caroling or singing at a helping facility such as a nursing home. My The Joyful Noise Singers group of the Lapeer County Community Mental Health Department offered one such opportunity to the people we served. Both the givers and the recipients benefitted!
Some studies claim that the volunteer profits as much, if not more, than people he or she is helping! That might be one reason why people spend so much time after working at volunteering to sing or play music for elderly or disabled people!
How does this volunteer benefit? Well, it is natural. Our bodies and minds are meant to be socially connected. When we offer help we often do it through handholding or hugs while we converse with those we are serving. That calms our bodies and focuses our minds.
When we serve others it helps our blood pressure to regulate. Positive endorphins that help with mood regulation course through our bodies. Helping people with art or other creative projects increases our problem-solving abilities and allow us to see, smell, touch, and sometimes even taste our creativity. That forms positive memories in our minds.
So if you hear a song you sand at a nursing home, see a painting you helped a person with cancer create, or smell the scent of cookies you baked for your school or a church bake sale positive memories are brought to the surface!
Finally I want to focus on music and how volunteering to sing or play instruments is great for the giver and the recipient. Music has some impact, differing of course by the lobes of the brain, but has an impact on all of them. Recent studies suggest that ability to feel and understand music is the last sense you keep when death draws near.
One study confirmed that all seniors near death benefit in some way from hearing and singing their favorite songs. But seniors who are Christian benefitted the most in terms of gaining peace through hymns. Their bodily functions were documented to be more effective for a time and their minds more focused. As my mother used to say, “He who sings prays twice”. And the Bible promises that the prayer of a righteous one avails much! So give singing a try this holiday season!
Sources for my facts have been drawn from the Mayo Clinic, other health care and social service organizations, the Red Cross, the 1000 Points of Light Foundation, and from my own service in different fields.
