Conscious Living Series #2: Volunteering and Community Involvement

Though many of us find it difficult to incorporate community service an volunteering into our lives-due to time (and consequentially financial) constraints, I also find that if you consider something important enough you will in fact do it. When we talk about conscious living, volunteering seems to be kind of obvious on a "sure it's a great thing to give back to others" kind of way. But we don't really see the big picture, and we don't understand all the ways that "volunteering" can be interpreted.

Volunteering has been said to have wonderful emotional, psychological, and even health benefits-not only to the individual doing the community service, but to the community as a whole. My personal favorite benefit is the fostering of community. In our highly technological world where most of our interaction takes place via email or social networking forums, we tend to ignore the world around us, and not see the detrimental effect this social distance plays on our communities.

Do you have a community center? Do you know the names of your neighbors? I certainly don't. I'm not saying you should drag Bill from two houses down to go volunteer with you, but you would be surprised at how working toward a common goal brings those in a community together. Not only do you get out of that computer chair for a second, but you foster meaningful relationships and improve the well-being of your community as well.

There are many ways you can go about volunteering, and in so many different areas. Think about your interests. Are you politically minded? Join a campaign. Do you love children? Look into local after school programs or camps that need support. Does gardening strike your fancy? Perhaps there are local community gardens that could use some help. Look at sites such as Volunteer Match to search for volunteer opportunities in your area. You would be surprised at how many different ways you can give back.

The bottom line is that we're all here. We all have our problems, our issues, and our busy lives to contend with. But there are also serious problems in our culture-that may not have easy solutions-and rather than wondering what's going to be done about it we can stand up and act. Our culture is incredibly individualistic, which makes many of us think, "well that's not my problem." Whereas some issues may not be immediately of concern to us, that butterfly effect can be pretty brutal.

Even if you want to volunteer for selfish reasons-perhaps to pump up a school resume, or to get those wonderful emotional and psychological benefits, I say go for it. Altruism comes in many forms, and if you're taking steps to help others, I'm okay with having selfish reasoning behind it.

I would plead with you to believe in something, however. We tend to lose track of our passions, our beliefs, and live on autopilot. But understand that it is an amazing thing to embrace the person you are and work for positive change in our society. If the only thing we have in common with every other American is to be working to better our country, we'd feel connected enough to put aside some differences and get things done.

So find what makes you tick, and set aside an hour or so a week. Find an organization that is good for your time-constraints, and keep moving forward.