How Giving Projects Reduce Stress and Increase Happiness During the Holidays
Mary Kelly, Commander, USN, CSP, CPAE
Energize your conference with actionable leadership tools! Former Navy Intel Officer, Author & Hall of Fame Speaker, Economist, Board member. Get stronger strategies, better decisions, & faster results.
There is more to do during the holiday season, and that can increase stress. Many people have expectations that their own holidays should imitate Hallmark channel movies. That is not realistic.
What can we actively encourage at work to help our team members deal with the stress of the holidays?
Have a Team Giving Project During Work Time
Studies show the very act of helping others leaves the giver feeling energized and grateful. Creating a clothing drive for a community shelter, spending an afternoon delivering non-perishable food to a local food bank, or volunteering as a team at an animal rescue helps bond people together.
A team giving project also reduces stress. Sometimes people push back against giving projects because they have too much work to do, but there are good reasons to create a valuable giving project.
Acts of giving can reduce cortisol in the giver by up to 23%. Cortisol is the hormone bodies produce when under stress. If you don’t think this is significant, consider that high levels of cortisol can increase blood pressure, raise blood sugar levels, suppress your immune system, and negatively impact your ability to think clearly.
Being actively engaged in a giving project can also raise your levels of oxytocin, which improves overall heart health. As an added benefit, oxytocin is also the chemical enabling us to feel optimistic and more confident.
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Participating in giving projects is good for us!
Giving Projects Can Reduce Physical and Mental Pain
When we want to reduce pain naturally, the trick is to find some way to release endorphins in the brain. Giving to others releases endorphins in the brain.?This is just part of the whole “feel good” effect of being kind and helpful to others.
Being Generous Acts as an Antidepressant
Acts of kindness can act as an antidepressant by naturally producing serotonin, the ingredient used in many medications used for depression and anxiety.
It is easy during the holidays to let the busy-ness of everything going on around us pushes us further apart. Study after study has shown that when team members are stressed, they need each other more, and yet they are more reluctant to participate in giving projects because they are so busy. Leaders and managers can help by making giving projects part of the workday and adjusting the work so that it does not mean more work later for everyone involved.
What are some of the best giving projects you have been part of?
Senior Strategy Leader | Artificial Intelligence Maximizer | Strategic Marketing | Revenue Generator | Visionary | Drives Bottom-Line Results | Multiple National Best-Selling Author | Philanthropist | BlackBelt ATA
1 年Great idea and appreciate the insights.
Empowering leaders and teams to Build a Momentum Mindset to be more adaptable, resilient and ready for what's next in a rapidly changing world. NYT Bestselling Author, Keynote Speaker, Consultant and Coach
1 年Absolutely agree 100%! Studies also show this is a key to boosting your resilience during change and uncertainty. And an amazing stress buster. One of my biggest struggles is that I want to help EVERYONE. What I often share is that we may not be able to help everyone, but we can help SOMEONE. So how can we all help someone. Focusing on helping others and giving also helps provide us purpose and makes us all remember that it's bigger than just us. My most favorite giving project currently is helping at our local homeless shelter. From a work perspective, we also donate a % of proceeds from our organization to various charities. One of my most favorite giving projects with a former leader was having our team build a house for Habitat for Humanity. I also think it's important to encourage giving with our kids so we do both physical acts of service (giving our time for food banks and adopting families for the holidays) as well as allowing them each to choose a charity to donate $$ during our communities local COMO gives annual charity campaign.
Helping industry leaders deliver electronic pay and controlled per diems for employees and subcontractors.
1 年Agree 100% - giving and generosity feels so good! Two of my projects include serving the Dallas homeless with food, clothing, hygiene bags, blankets and more throughout the year and orchestrating food/toy drives in my local community for families with need. Bring the Light Ministries and HOPE Food & Clothing Ministry are awesome groups doing amazing things!