We live fast and intensely. What if we stopped in our tracks? What if we noticed other people and their needs? By helping someone else, you are actually helping yourself. How does helping others affect mental well-being? If you want to learn the evidencethe the positive impact of helping, be sure to read this text.
Why is it worth helping?
Helping means being open to the needs of others and providing them with real support, whether through your presence and listening, financial assistance, or involvement in organizing a charity event. On the one hand, we help those in need. But on the other hand, the very act of helping also has an impact on us.
Prosocial behavior is an opportunity for social integration—building bonds, a sense of community, and belonging to a group. It is also a goal to be achieved and the associated sense of agency and feeling of being needed. Helping others shapes well-being and character. It teaches tolerance, selflessness, and responsibility.
How do we help? Some of the most common forms of assistance are material and financial aid. However, remember that every gesture counts—walking a dog from a shelter, helping to care for a sick person, shopping for an elderly person, or having tea with someone who is lonely.
Check out: fundraisers for cancer patients.
Why does charity work improve your mood?
One way to help others is through volunteering. For example, you can get involved with a cancer foundation or an animal shelter. The Latin word for volunteer is voluntarius, meaning voluntary. Volunteering stems from the need to help others. This is the most common answer to the question about the motivation of volunteers in Płock (an anonymous survey conducted in 2014 among a group of volunteers aged 11 to 77).
In second place was the satisfaction that volunteering brings. Next were making new friends, believing that good deeds come back around, and the desire to test oneself and be useful. This proves how social activity influences our sense of purpose. However, these are not the only benefits of helping others.
Helping others – benefits that can impact your... future
Helping others should come straight from the heart and be selfless. However, we cannot forget about some of the benefits, or bonuses, that it brings. Examples? Let's take a closer look at volunteering at Cancer Fighters. Our volunteers can choose from several forms of volunteering, depending on their needs and abilities. Each of them is an opportunity for them to meet new people and help those in need. But each of them also presents challenges – including those related to interpersonal skills, event organization, action planning, and group cooperation. It is not difficult to answer the question of why it is worth helping. Considering the fact that volunteers are very often young people, the experience and skills they gain during their volunteering will certainly be useful to them in their professional work.
Check out: aid campaigns for cancer patients.
Why does helping others make you feel better?
Most people who help others are driven by empathy and sensitivity to the needs of others. Sometimes the need to help stems from one's own experiences or those of a loved one, especially if that help was effective. Believing in the meaning of helping and that good deeds come back to you is one thing. What are the psychological benefits of supporting others? Some experts point to one interesting issue. They say that helping others reduces our own emotional tension, which stems from seeing others suffer. When we provide help and it brings real support to someone in need, we simply feel better. By doing good, we also think well of ourselves, which translates into increased self-esteem.
How helping others affects mental well-being, or the feeling of joy
Amazon has also looked into the issue of helping others and why it is worth doing so. In a survey conducted in collaboration with the editors of Charaktery magazine, respondents were asked what emotions helping others triggers in them. The answers were as follows: joy, hope, and peace.
Speaking of peace of mind, the issue of stress is also important. Helping others brings benefits in the form of stress reduction and the elimination of negative stress on the body, including lower blood pressure.
What are the psychological benefits of supporting others?
Psychologist Prof. Mariola Łaguna drew attention to the issue of helping others and feeling satisfied with life. If we have a positive attitude towards life and feel good, we are more willing to help than when we are in a bad mood. Professor Łaguna's study also showed that people with a negative attitude, higher levels of anxiety, anger, and depression felt an increase in life satisfaction when they focused on helping others.
How can you help Cancer Fighters' beneficiaries? You can support fundraisers, aid campaigns, or sign up to volunteer. Or maybe you need help fighting the disease yourself? We provide support to both children and adults with cancer. Contact us and become a beneficiary of the foundation!
Bibliography
- Karolina Appelt, On the benefits of helping others, or how helping others helps us ourselves?, czasopismomindfulnes.pl, accessed on December 22, 2025.
- Elżbieta Gruszczyńska, Joanna Zacharska-Błaszczyk, Conditions, determinants, and effectiveness in volunteering for those in need [in:] PERSPECTIVA. Legnica Theological and Historical Studies, Year XV 2016, No. 1 (28), pp. 27–41.
- Anna Schulz, Volunteering – motives for action [in:] Scientific Journals of the State Higher Vocational School in Płock, Economic Sciences, vol. XXII, 2015.
- It pays to help others, zdrowie.pap.pl, accessed on December 22, 2025.
