Regular visitors of this site know that I am strong advocate of volunteerism and action. If you are a person in pursuit of happiness, giving your time to a worthy cause is a sure-fire way to beat the blues and improve the quality of your life. Sometimes, focusing on our problems and replaying them in our heads again and again only serves to dig us deeper into the hole of self-pity and depression. If we are in the habit of doing this, spending time helping others is a sure fire way to stop this negative thought pattern. Simply put, volunteering makes us feel better but it also has another tangible benefit – it improves the chances of finding quality friends as well as a quality mate.
Human beings are social creatures yet many of us struggle with relationships. It is said that relationships are like putting “Miracle Grow” on our character defects so it is important to come from a place of self-worth when looking for a mate (or friends, for that matter). Nobody is perfect and nobody is going to “fix us” or “make us happy.” We make ourselves happy. To put such pressure on a partner will only serve to breed resentment as that person will inevitably fail in that task. The saying, “you can’t love someone else until you love yourself” is the truth. With this in mind, we improve our chances of finding a “quality” mate (and quality friendships) while engaged in altruistic activities – and the science backs this up.
