Its just recently been brought to my attention that Sunday
April 10th is Good Deeds Day 2016.
This is an initiative that has taken off in the last 10 years from quite
a humble start. One of the things that
Happify.Com has brought out of this upcoming Day is that the very process of
doing a good deed is in theory good for your mental health. So here we have altruistic behaviour that you
could engage with that will actually do you good even though your initial
beginnings might just be that you want to do the world a favour.
Google started with it’s mantra many years ago of ‘Do No
Evil’ and now with it’s pervasive search engine and it’s lack of tax paying in
countries where it makes a profit, you could say that the holding back of tax
payments might be construed as ‘not doing good’ or making their contribution to
what might be used for social good in various countries.
Anyway that’s a bit of a tangent really, regards
Google. Just a bugbear I have, a little
like the fact that the ‘X Factor’ isn’t really a TV show looking for someone with the ‘X
Factor’ as they tend to find the same
types of singers year on year, just another one of them………….
Anyway, as I said, that’s
all tangential. ‘Doing Good’ allegedly
decreases Stress. There have been
studies that have looked at the link between volunteering for example and hypertension,
it was found in a 2013 study that giving back, doing good, volunteering etc etc
can have a significant positive affect on blood pressure. There are other studies that align with the
position that giving money and time away can also have the same affect,
basically having a generous demeanour will benefit you and also you may well
get that ‘Helpers high’ where the brain releases endorphins, feel good
chemicals in your brain.
Now this is where it gets tricky as I want to share my own
sense of ‘Doing Good’ but I don’t want folks to think I’m blowing my own
trumpet, what I do want to do though is give a sense that you can engage with
this as I have tried to with a degree of organisation. I have a 6.66 fund which I use for donations
to Just Giving etc causes so that I can support people who ask me without
having to think how much to donate as I have a rate that I set and that’s what
I use, I like to be able to do this giving, it does feel good that you laready
know you’ve allowed for that in your monthly budgeting. Someone asks me and if
it’s something I like the idea of, I donate £6.66. I then try and be thankful myself, sounds a
bit twee I agree by ‘Paying it Forward’ as I know people have done stuff for
me, so I look each week for something that I can just do when the opportunity
arises to help someone out without there being any payback for me, I don’t look
for things that would over reach me like say, painting the whole of someones
house BUT something like last week where I got someones shopping for them
because they couldn’t get out to do it.
I guess I’m just saying that it’s not normally too much of an ‘ask’ to
deliver on ‘Good Deeds’ as you can limit them to what you, as a person can
manage. With mental health challenges
you would often have to do that but there is a benfit to engaging with this
attitude.
As ever, I hope this make some degree of sense.
Tony
Good Deed Day ~~ http://gdd.goodnet.org/about
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