Do Something for Someone Else

When You Feel Lonely or Depressed, Do Something for Someone Else

There’s something to be said about volunteering. That experience moved me out of my loneliness because it took my attention off myself and my sorrow over the breakup. Looking back, I think I was unaware of how positive this distraction was for me.

In a recent survey of over ten thousand people in the UK, two-­thirds reported that volunteering helped them feel less isolated. Similarly, a 2018 study of nearly six thousand people across the United States examined widows who, unsurprisingly, felt lonelier than married adults. After starting to volunteer for two or more hours per week, their feelings of loneliness seemed to ease up as well.5

Volunteering and serving are great ways to meet people with whom you share common values and bonds. And they help out someone else as well. This common cause, whether it be helping the elderly, serving in a soup kitchen, or working with a missions program, will connect you with others and allow you to make new friends. When we volunteer for causes that are important to us, we can find a renewed sense of purpose, which in turn makes us feel better and relieves the negative emotion of loneliness.

What’s your favorite thing to volunteer doing?