The question I have been asked is do the volunteers of the many holiday parades incur the same health benefits as the volunteers who are engaged full time with groups supporting charities? The answer is that I have yet to find studies or evidence to support this idea.

There is no doubt that the many volunteers for the various parades for so many holidays around the world contribute tons of effort and time to their parade day event. Their passion for the event is intense from my research, so they are focused and driven, just as other main stream civic groups or fraternal groups for their charity.

These temporary volunteers also benefit from the networking aspects noted in earlier posts on this site!

The intense pressure to produce some floats or other group presentations gives people practice in leadership and group organizing as well. Each member for these parades to work needs to subvert their own individuality for the greater performance, just as in many sports. To sum it up, everyone can benefit from the experience, but does it also translate into the health benefits of the group charity supporting volunteers?

It remains to be studied I think whether the health benefits already documented for the charity supporting fraternal, civic, and veterans groups also translates to temporary volunteering opportunities.

American Legion

Memorial Day parades by veterans groups in America which many veteran groups participate in are supported by members such as the American Legion, with the symbol above. Often these members engage in activities all year long and only rise to the public view during the parades. These are the types of volunteers which the health producing benefits have been documented.

Shriners

St. Patrick Day parades are  common in the United States. Very often you find a cooperation between well known fraternal groups to put on the parade. I have personally participated in a few as a member of the Shrine, a subdivision of the Freemasons.

The Roman Catholic fraternal group, The Knights of Columbus in my case was the main sponsor for the parade in the Tidewater area of Virginia. This certainly qualifies its members for the health benefits since they are serving all year long but raising their public awareness on this one day for the documented health benefits of volunteering.

Parades during the American professional football bowl games have short but intense opportunities for volunteers to help with float assemblies, the flowers and other aspects which are so amazing to see on the day the events are held. Other holiday parades also offer opportunities for volunteering on a short term basis. Many parades around the world function much the same way, except many of those have religious overtones attached which are for the most part absent from American holiday parades.

The caption above is from Volterra, a festival parade in Italy associated with a cross bow championship. Brazil also has a famous parade, Carnival. Parades from around the world often function with the participation of volunteers in some way or fashion. Most parades would not be what they are if volunteers did not participate.

Many of these parades in America rely on already established volunteer groups to step in and help with the events.

Knights of Pyhthias

FOE

In the above caption, the Order of the Eastern Star, a group associated with Freemasonry which has both men and women members, the very Christian theme is emphasized.

Church groups, youth groups, and in some cases the fraternal, civic, and veterans groups also volunteer their services. It is natural that a call goes out for temporary volunteers to help with a quick infusion of labor though, and these temporary members are the subject of our question in this post. Do they, even on a temporary basis gain the health benefits associated with those already documented for the main stream groups who focus mainly on supporting charities?

My gut feeling is that it is likely. But until the subject is studied properly, we can only speculate.

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Stress moderation is at the top of the pillars of health care wisdom for the empowered volunteer. You can actually die from stress related effects.

When volunteers think of how to work their time around volunteer projects they don’t automatically think of stress. Their passion for the volunteer group or the charity supported by the group helps them prioritize their emotions and their time management. Simply put, they make it work no matter how much effort it takes to get the job done.

For the empowered volunteer, what is the incentive for someone who is not already involved in the represented group to join, pending their busy, busy, busy schedule? Obviously if they have a passion for the charity they might be persuaded. But what if they are not passionate for the charity? What then? They say that they are too stressed and that they don’t have any time! Then the empowered volunteer needs to refer to the pillars of health wisdom!

The empowered volunteer is all about helping people. That must be the first priority, above all other things.

If you put people first, the other things will find a way to resolve themselves, one way or another. Happy passionate people solve problems and they also brag about the experience. They also have better health, statistically speaking. First, let’s tackle the stress issue and then we will address the other health studies and how they affect our message.

Stress is manageable in our lives. But for those who find themselves under extreme stress they should explore the science discoveries from the power of positivity.

This topic was addressed by Barbara L. Fredrickson, Ph. D. in her book, nicely named Positivity! In it she presents credible and robust scientific evidence on how proper meditation helps humans deal with stress. Then she moves on to give concrete examples of how to meditate and other features in order to help drive your health benefits from lowering the effects from stress on your body. She has placed guided meditations and other simple tools on her website, which is very easy to use and worthy of a visit for anyone who would like to feel better in our stressful world. This kind of easy to do it yourself stress modification is why Dr. Fredrickson’s book and website are a pillar of wisdom for the empowered volunteer.

http://www.positivityratio.com/index.php

Once you go to the site, use the tools tab or the take the test tab and see how you are faring on an individual level. With over two decades of research on this subject along with tons of behavioral science supporting data going back several more decades it is worth checking it out and seeing if you can benefit. To be honest, everyone can benefit unless you just don’t want to let it help you. Meditation has been used by many civilizations for thousands of years, from Christians like St. Augustine to Chinese Kung Fu monks.

Never underestimate how you can improve your life with small changes that affect your health in a magnified way beyond the small time and effort you expend.

Decades of data from research into how social status affects your health are also available and helpful for the empowered volunteer to understand for their pillars of health wisdom. Scientists use the term social economic status (SES) for these kinds of studies and conversations about them. SES is in general terms an individual’s social level in society. Usually this is divided into three areas, low or working class, middle class and upper middle class or upper class status levels. Low class is the working people, usually living from pay check to pay check. Poverty level is below this group.

Middle class is the group who was lifted by many factors after WWII, but one of the most controversial was the GI Bill, which allowed many of those returning from the war to attend college and then better their lives with better paying jobs and more upward mobility. In this case, a veterans group was instrumental in helping pass this important piece of legislation, one which in looking back historians and economics agree was a huge success.

Harry W. Colmery, a former national commander of the American Legion and former Republican National Chairman, is credited with drawing up the first draft of the GI Bill.

Some people reading this will be surprised that a former Republican Party National Chairman could have been involved with promoting a middle class path towards education back in the days after WWII. Back then, only the very rich could afford college. But keep in mind, political parties change over time and their policies change over time too.

The GOP today is not your grandfather’s party! The current Republican Party thinking on education is reflective of some of those changes in mindset regarding middle class education at the high school level as well as for higher education and is thus beyond the scope of this post.

SES is very important to the empowered volunteer from the point of those who are least likely to be volunteering and which also can benefit the most from volunteering, health wise.

Upper middle class is more often defined as someone who has physical assets which generate enough income so that if that person suddenly stopped their regular employment they could still live off their passive income. This status level is worthy of achievement and is the focus of another pillar of wisdom, that of wealth which will be addressed in a forthcoming post. For our purposes here, the higher the status the better the likely hood of good health is expected.

Michael Marmot, in his ground breaking book 2004 book, The Status Syndrome, How Social Standing Affects Our Health and Longevity has reviewed and distilled the data results from over three decades of studies in order to write about how we can benefit from this knowledge.

One key to his book was that if someone has little autonomy over their lives, as most working class people find themselves, then they are more likely to have lower health.

This is true for many countries beyond the United States too. It goes further though, for those people reporting “the greater the degree of inequality of material deprivation and of income, the worse the health.” He found that low control over one’s life to be the big central factor that linked everything to health, happiness, etc.

In America’s past labor unions were often the only way for laborers to exert any form of control over their lives. Before the unions formed, safety and other factors we take for granted today were not common in many industries.

For those people then and even today in many industries, having some control over their life could determine their future health. Volunteering is one path towards restoring some form of control over one’s life if it is not found elsewhere. Each person can control how much they volunteer and where, and to what extent for each group they join.

This kind of life control opportunity can help them if they are in a job where they have little or no control over their lives. 

The main thing here is that no matter what your station in life, you can do things to help your health and your mental or emotional wellbeing. The positivity ratio is so simple once you start that you will wonder why you have not heard of it before. I would suggest starting with the guided meditation and then moving on where ever you are comfortable. This tool is absolutely awesome for its potential to help people with high stress jobs.

The health harming aspects attributed to many working class jobs should surprise no one. They have been apparent for generations of American workers. From swing shifts to heated environments too hot to stay in for very long to extended nursing hours for patient coverage. The potential ways to combat the negative effects seem to have escaped the general public’s notice, until now hopefully. Even middle class American’s can use this information to their advantage so that the stress from the job doesn’t inflict further harm to your health.

Knowing the health harming effects of low autonomy is important for the health of employees and management.

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                         Checking out the fishing action roadside from the motor home.

After a successful career and then retirement, is there another ladder to climb for volunteering?

The answer is, only if you want to climb that ladder. Volunteering at any age is worthy and even brings health benefits. See my other posts on the subject of health, positivity, connectivity, and ways to broaden one’s mind, using meditation. However, health aside volunteering has many other benefits for both sides of the volunteer equation which in these days of declining services and opportunities are more in need than every before.

AARP, the largest and probably the most recognized of the retirement age advocacy groups in the United States also provides several paths and steps for those who want to volunteer. This group is well organized and very focused on the welfare of the retired membership.

http://www.aarp.org/giving-back/

Freemasons, the largest and oldest fraternal organization in the world are another group where men of all ages are welcome to join and where volunteering is highly encouraged. Freemasons only accept men who believe in a supreme being, are of legal age, free of criminal past, well respected in the community, and who are willing to pass through the three degrees of initiation. Most men who join the Masons have been volunteers for many years in their churches or other well known groups. Masons have a ladder of success in the form of the progression for the governing of the lodge as well, though many members never care to engage in that part of the Masonic experience.

http://askafreemason.org/

Another group who allow both men and women and is associated with Freemasonry would be the Eastern Star. This group’s purpose is to provide membership association as well as charitable work for its focus. They operate independently from the Freemasons, with the only requirement that a belief in a supreme being and a focus on Christianity through the story of the  star of Bethlehem.

http://www.easternstar.org/

Another group of Freemasonry related members are the Shriners. One group is men only and one group is ladies only. Today the requirement to join the Shiriners is for the men to be a Mason in good standing. For the ladies, being related to a Mason in good standing is required, along with the usual belief for both groups that you believe in a supreme being and be of good character. Both groups volunteer extensively for charities as well as provide funds for their respective area Shriner’s Crippled and Burn Hospitals. Many retirement age ladies and men have been in these two groups for years but with retirement they fully engage their time and effort for the good causes these groups support, volunteering in ways too numerous to cover.

http://www.shrinersinternational.org/Shriners.aspx

http://www.shrinersinternational.org/en/Shriners/Organization/NewFirstLady.aspx

Habitat for Humanity is another group with many opportunities for retired volunteers. They are faith based but help those in need regardless of their religious affiliation or other characteristics. The help ranges from pure labor to organizational type positions and everything in between for most of the local groups, along with fund raising or donation solicitations.

http://www.habitat.org/where-we-build

                                                        USO, December 1941

Another group with opportunities for retired volunteers is the many veterans groups, not all of which require prior service to become involved. The USO is one of these groups that doesn’t require prior service for volunteering.

http://www.uso.org/ways-to-volunteer.aspx

For prior service members, the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars offer many outstanding opportunities for volunteering wither retired or not.

http://www.legion.org/volunteers

http://www.vfw.org/Community/Get-Involved/

One more is the Disabled American Veterans, which runs collection centers where the proceeds go to helping disabled veterans.

http://www.dav.org/volunteers/Opportunities.aspx?gclid=CJPdg5y_-LcCFVMV7AodDUsAlQ

A different focus for helping children is the Senior Corps. This aligns people 55 and older with youth in need of mentoring and other services.

http://www.nationalservice.gov/programs/senior-corps

Many local opportunities for youth engagement can be found at schools too, with after school programs for tutoring or coaching opportunities.

The American Red Cross is another group that has well thought out programs aimed at those over 50 who can focus specialties on disaster relief when needed. Go to their website for the details.

http://www.crossculturalsolutions.org/retired-volunteer-abroad-programs?siteID=Google_Grants_retired_volunteer&gclid=CLS8pPjA-LcCFQho7Aodm0EAbQ

This short and very incomplete list of volunteer friendly groups for older citizens is reflective of not only the need for elderly involvement but the abundant benefits gained by both the volunteers and those on the receiving end.

Life’s steps as we age provides many ladders for us to climb and then move onto another portion of our life experience, one where retirement age eventually makes all of us cross the age of elibibility for AARP, which is technically 50 but most of the groups providing services for AARP don’t activate their participation until 55. 

The opportunities to volunteer through faith based groups abounds, secular groups who don’t specialize in spreading the mostly Christian message but simply help whoever, where ever the needs is found, and even those who are very focused on helping one select group in need such as Special Olympics.

http://www.specialolympics.org/volunteers.aspx

Many of the posts I have provided here on this site already detail the health benefits of networking, social connectivity, positivity, and how face-to-face interactions rather than internet networking can provide enormous life prolonging human benefits to the volunteer.

These attributes associated with volunteering should be included in the retirement planning of every able bodied retired volunteer who wants to enrich their life. 

With the potential for many soon to retire Americans seeing their wealth reduced in the last few years this is one area where a fixed income volunteer can still reap the rewards of a vital life without impacting their monthly budget.

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Empowered volunteers are by nature caring and empathetic.

For this reason they will find themselves as they hand out business cards and encountering people who are not happy, they need to fall back on the empowered volunteer wisdom. They may have many of life’s hard issues on their plate and they may be emotionally dragging. They won’t feel that they have any good reason to even consider your offer of joining your group. When they tell you why they won’t or can’t join, the negativity of their emotional state radiates and drowns your positive nature.

This is where many would simply take “no” for an answer and move on. That is a choice. I am now going to suggest that another potential path is available, one that must fit the individual empowered volunteer well enough to even try to employ the empowered volunteer wisdom approach.

After reading this short post if an empowered volunteer feels that this idea has potential they should check out the website where the author of this book and many of the supporting studies can show a more well rounded presentation of methods to become more emotionally positive.

http://www.positivityratio.com/index.php

For people in emotional distress there are things that they can do to help themselves that are at no cost and are backed by decades of studies that show their positive impact and effectiveness. Barbara L. Fredrickson, in her book Positivity writes about the positivity ratio, the balance between negative things in your life and positive ones.

This ratio is totally in the control of each of us and it can mean the difference between languishing and flourishing! It is that powerful, according to the author.

Studies show that positive emotions don’t directly improve or impact the human heart, but they can undo the influence of the negativity! In other words, they can minimize the negative influence or damage. Positive emotions also helps the body to rebound from the negative effects faster than if they were not involved.

There are two types of positivity identified by the author, serenity and amusement. She sees both as equally good at improving recovery time from negative emotional stress. In the book and to some extent on the website she explains how each works. Serenity is something that is a great tool for those in the funeral business to use to keep their empathy from being drained away. Amusement is open and accessible to everyone.

A high percentage of empowered volunteers will be of the “resilient personality” that the author identified.

People who are of this type worry less and are able to rebound from negative life influences quicker than those who hold a more pessimistic life view. Studies on the behavior type resilient personalities have decades of research as well, and the results show that positivity and openness work together with resilience to dissolve negativity and enable people to make stronger comebacks in their lives.

If you find yourself as an empowered volunteer and you are not one of the resilient personalities, good news you can build this characteristic into your nature! It is a resource you can develop.

Empowered volunteers that encounter emotionally distraught people who seem to be generally positive but are at that point when they are encountered by an empowered volunteer in a negative rut can use this pattern to engage and perhaps set that person onto a better path. Down the road they just may take that business card and give you a call.

Negative emotions narrow the persons emotional state and their point of view.

They don’t see the forest for the trees in many cases. Many people in such states emotionally cut themselves off from the positive aspects of the community too, such as charities and volunteer groups. Do you see where this is going? They need the groups but they won’t see it.

The empowered volunteer wisdom secrete involves resilience to go beyond ones individual amount of positivity and embrace it from others in the community! In other words, the people who will without even contemplating your offer of volunteering reject it are the ones most in need of the a community embracing. Their negative emotions won’t let them even see the potential due to their narrowed focus, with the forest being the community full of positive types who can support those in need.

The author further explains that their are two responses to hardship, despair or hope. Despair multiplies the effects of negativity until it drowns out all forms of positivity! Beware of this great sucking sound of emotional drainage. Hope is the opposite of despair and it is like a shield that holds off negative emotions from the outside world in most instances. Resilience is another result from positive emotions using hope as one of the supports.

Summing things up, positivity broadens your mind, helps you build your best future, and fuels your resilience. Using the three to one ratio of positive emotional experiences to negative ones people can then see how positivity and negativity work together to “tip” their lives toward flourishing.

The nuts and bolts of how to find positive life emotions and view points from a broadened mind are available on the website. So is a test to determine the current state of the persons emotions. Tools to change that states if it needs changing are also listed in the book and on the site.

The empowered volunteer simply needs to be familiar with the wisdom and then when the presentation is rejected this is potentially the very best message that an empathetic person could offer to another who is emotionally down. Positivity and the surrounding message has decades of studies on it’s validity for the prospect who is data driven, it has strong empathy for the prospect who is more into touch and contact type informational learning and it just plain has absolutely no drawbacks that involve either monetary cost or resource costs. What could be better than FREE?

When you encounter an emotionally distraught person who rejects your message despite your passion and your knowledge that they need it, this is the one thing that you can offer them. Have the web address on you, take your card and write it on the back of your card for them. They still have to take action on their own, but they may just call you down the road and tell you they want to join your group that has so much to offer, just like the passionate presentation you offered him or her when they needed it most.

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Some people become famous in part because they show their passion for their cause to everyone they meet. It seems to be a part of them. They live to support that group or business or team!

The caption above of Bret Favre bobble heads was offered to those of us attending the last game Bret Favre ever played in Green Bay as a Green Bay Packer. I was lucky enough to be at that very cold game at the “frozen tundra” of Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Green Bay Packers lost in overtime to the New York Giants, who went on to win the Super Bowl that year.

In the history of football it is arguable that no one else who played could be more associated with the passion of playing the game than Bret Favre. 

He certainly would be one of the more famous of the passionate players ever to have played, no matter which team you might support. Most fans can remember his jumping up and down and waving his hands as he threw touch downs to his receivers. The energy he showed was really impressive. For the Packer fans, it was infectious. Bret was passion, pure and simple.

This is the kind of passion that everyone needs to find in their lives. The business person who never notices the long hours at his or her own business is a prime example. The sports fan who travels to every venue that their sport or team has to play at in support of their team. This is really dedicated and every sport covets those fans who are so dedicated as to travel with the team!

You can find passion for the arts, for so many sports fans from race car driving to the NFL football or NCAA college football, particularly in the southern United States, to soccer as a worldwide passionate sport! Individual sporting events can muster passion too, such as golf or tennis.

Passion can’t be measured solely by how many fans it possesses either.

Recent threats by the Olympic Committee to eliminate Olympic Wrestling from participating in any future Olympics has brought out the passion for the sport from every country and from seemingly everywhere recently. Traditional wrestling powerhouses in college such as the University of Iowa have banded together with other college teams and coaches and support groups to save Olympic wrestling. The passion can be felt in nearly every Face Book posting on the subject. For fans who are old enough, Dan Gable represents the passion of the native Iowan who made it to the Olympics and set a record for never in any match allowing the opposition to score on him! Folks, that is passion!

Wrestling doesn’t have a professional aspect to it, despite the versions of so called professional wrestling contests that one can view on cable, which are scripted and very dangerous for the participants but are not in any way real wrestling. So the stake are high if they fail to save wrestling and there is no longer a route for the graduated college athlete beyond college.

For the empowered volunteer, he or she needs to channel the passion that is abundantly clear and visible in so many people who are living their dream job or finding their passion on weekends. Everyone should feel that passion, even if they are only able to do it for a short time with the intensity that is needed.

Passion forces you to fully focus on your task or objective.

For football fans that are watching at a stadium, passion is something that is obvious but very hard to measure. Legendary names in football such as the late Reggie White who helped the Green Bay Packers win a Super Bowl are thought of by football fans of all teams as passion personified. Reggie played with a young Bret Favre who went on to personify passion for the game after Reggie retired.

Reggie White had another passion, which was evangelism.

He carried that message of Jesus to every locker room he ever went into. So Reggie was passionate on many levels and he is still renowned for that very high level of passion that he brought to life. It is very hard to harness that amount of passion in one’s life. But volunteers would be well served to try.

What is holding you back from this level of passion for your volunteer group or the charity that your group supports? If it is something that can be fixed, do it. If it is something beyond your ability to fix, then find another volunteer opportunity that can elevate your passion to the heights necessary for you to thrive! Move it or lose it as the saying goes.

I have traveled to more than 30 countries in my life time. I have seen the passion people in other countries have for soccer, which is called football outside the United States. This passion is every bit as intense as what we see here in the United States for our football. Passion transmits itself across cultures and across borders. Passion is universal. It is the driving force for many projects in history and many things would never have been built without the passion for that effort.

In the military a famous saying goes like this, “Lead, follow, or get out of the way”.

For the empowered volunteer this is wise advice. If the passion you need is not found in the group or the service you provide to your charity, then either lead the group to the passion, follow a leader who is providing the passion, or get out of the way by going where your passion can be found and used.

How do you develop passion? Start with an honest evaluation of your habits and how they serve you. If your habits are not supporting the passion you need, consider changing them, one at a time until the environment evolves into one where your passion can emerge. See my post on habits and how to improve them.

Once you locate the precise habits that inhibit your pursuit of passion for your goals, consider modifying them or eliminating them and replacing them with habits that will support your goals.

For instance, if you find that a project for next year’s group which needs at a minimum twenty new members with specific talents and experience, and you identify with this goal, set your passion to action! Engage your leadership, develop a plan and show your energy in pursuing the goal. If you find that a setback holds you up, round up help by showing your enthusiasm and your energy and usually the obstacle will be eliminated. People rally to those with passion!

On Dec 22, 2003 Bret Favre played a football game with the Oakland Raiders right after his dad suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. He was so passionate that he had to play for the memory of his father and he would not consider stepping down that night. He passed for 399 yards with 4 scores in a 41 – 7 win. That night Bret’s receivers were not going to let him down. He led the team with a passion that just could not be stopped.

Passion is contagious. It is tangible. It is the one thing that can overcome seemingly mountainous odds.

If enough passionate empowered volunteers can be generated we will rebuild America’s volunteer groups and then we can do the same thing with the rest of the world too.

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With over 40 comments on this initial post on passion, and several directly requesting more information on the topic, I will elaborate on “passion” as it relates to the empowered volunteer and volunteer groups and the data or science supporting why it works and how it helps all involved, health wise.

One of many scientists writing on social intelligence, Daniel Goleman PH. D., author of Social Intelligence, the New Science of Human Relationships (2006) makes quite a strong case for human connections.

To quote him from this book, “Neuroscience has discovered that our brain’s very design makes it sociable, inexorably drawn into an intimate brain-to-brain linkup whenever we engage with another person. That neural bridge lets us affect the brain-and so the body- of everyone we interact with, just as they do us”. 

He continues to explain that this effect between people goes to the very cells of our bodies, as to whether or not our T-cells are activated, which are the basics of our constant battle against invading germs. That is some very fundamental influence!

To wrap up his thinking regarding the links between people, “That link is a double-edged sword: nourishing relationships have a beneficial impact on our health, while toxic ones can act like slow poison in our bodies”.

This is huge stuff for the empowered volunteer!

What it means is that someone with passions for a cause can instill very profound physically helpful health influences on another person’s body when they convey their passions to another person. They are really helping that person just by being so vibrant and intense, in a real physical way beyond any cheer leading type of temporary emotional lift.

It is real, science has documented this impact and the health affects enough to call this particular health benefit valid.

Another scientist, writing in her 2009 book, Positivity, Barbara L. Fredrickson, PH. D. provides top-notch research that reveals the 3-to-1 ratio that will change your life. In this book she associates human needs for positive things to the heliotropic effect in plants, where they will turn their leaves towards the sun as it moves across the sky.

In humans, who need what she terms positivity just as plants need the sun light, she calls our need for positivity the “broaden effect”. Humans need positivity for a great many good things and effects on our bodies her research proves, research proven over two decades long and continuing.

I present the science behind what I am suggesting the empowered volunteer has to offer because I want to drill home the idea that it is fundamental to human nature to associate with others who are positive and driven to helping others, to sociability. The science reflecting the abundance health benefits from social intimacy that many society has intuitively known for hundreds of years is now abundant and irrefutable.

Humans are hard wired to be socially intimate with each other, brain-to-brain connections that really align us for causes while helping us physically at the same time.

Passions generate these brain-to-brain connections and thus help provide the basis for the health benefits that are generated by such intimacy. Teachers connect with students, great leaders connect with their followers, religious leaders of renown connect with their parish members, political leaders sometimes connect with their constituency, and parents connect with their kids as examples of the intimate relationships that benefit from passionate exchanges between two people in face-to-face passionate contact.

So why can’t this effect be generated between two people by reading a great uplifting book or by viewing a popular but still positive internet post?

Face-to-face contact provides the communication of body language which seems to be the link necessary for the health benefits both parties receive when passionate communication is exchanged. The old rule, “it takes to to tango” is about passion and dancing, but it now holds much more meaning for the two participants!

A large percentage of human communication is by body language, much of which is only recently being decoded at the level of micro-expressions. These studies reveal that much of our communication is on a deep level in our brains, much of which we are not conscience about. Our brain registers the communication, but our minds may not convey the message to our conscience thoughts. The information is transferred into feelings instead.

To sum it up, science is understanding the power of emotions and gut feelings today. Unfortunately people don’t always interpret the body language correctly, such readings take patience and practice. Science is evaluating these emotions, their effects and how those effects last, and making huge strides on how to improve your life by small changes to be more positive in your own life.

The empowered volunteer can rest assured that the prospect who accepts the offer to join a group can if they are willing benefit greatly in a deep and personal way, just by the science showing how positivity helps the health of all those engaged in human to human interactions, particularly if those people are passionate and positive.

Thus, everyone wins when someone joins a volunteer group if these elementary issues are met.

Even if goals go unfulfilled, even if disasters happen, the human to human element coupled with passion and positive aspects guarantees positive health benefits of various kinds to the participants no matter what else happens.

Good things happen to positive people are doing good for others.

Barbara Fredrickson’s “broaden effect” shows that conclusively in the two decades of studies she and her students have conducted. Believe it and go forth with passion to help your group, which helps your charity cause, and in the process also helps every prospect you engage with your message.

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Even knights need face to face time!

In this post we will examine why face to face time is beneficial and superior to interactions that are conducted through other mediums, like chat rooms or other social media.

Barbara L. Fredrickson, a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill has written a new book about love. In it she goes through the data of love and its components. As a researcher she has followed that book with other publications in scholarly journals. The theme of her work is that positivity is good for individuals in multiple ways. She also looks at love from a science point of view and how to enrich the experience.

Humans view love in different ways, but one thing that seems to be true, love leads to social connections. Love also has a physical impact on our bodies. Some love is just connecting with others rather than romantic.

The kind of interaction the internet provides is very different from the face to face type of those who join fraternal or civic groups for instance. Physical interactions such as those found in volunteer groups, “ affects the cardiovascular system called the vagal tone”, she says in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science while writing in a recent Tampa Bay Perspective on March 31, 2013.

The brain is connected to the heart by the vagus nerve. This direct connection supports the old saying of a negative life experience in the area of love breaking the heart. The two are really physically tied together!

Fredrickson studied the health benefits and concluded, “In short, the more attuned to others you become, the healthier you become, and vice versa”. Furthermore, she writes, “This mutual influence also explains how a lack of positive social contact diminishes people”. If you can align yourself in a positive and passionate cause, you can’t seem to do anything but help your health and the cause in most cases, it would seem.

She goes on to explain that the ability to connect with people is a use it or lose it talent and can be strengthened or lost depending on how it is exercised. As any volunteer will tell you, interacting with others is one of the more frequent things that most do. To interact well and stay on course for helping the cause takes a lot of effort and attention. This is more often than not done face to face, with other passionate volunteers who also want to help.

The benefits of face to face time that volunteers get can be very helpful to the health of all participants. Positive interactions with positive people are the most beneficial it seems, which makes sense. However, connecting with other people is part of the human experience and that is what charity groups and the volunteer groups that support them offer in the volunteer experience.

Volunteers by definition are not paid so they must see other less obvious benefits if they are to justify their time and effort. With science hot on the trail of other health benefits seen in positive relationships, everyone should be considering somehow positioning themselves for more happiness as well as physical and mental health improvements.

Find a cause or charity that you can be passionate about and join. Make it a highly positive experience and the health benefits should show up, according to the research. However you might be too happy and busy to notice.

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