A Healthy Life Worth Living

By Valerie Minard

Albert Einstein once said, “Only a life lived in the service to others is worth living.”

Well, a study commissioned by American Express shows that serving others not only makes life worth living, it also improves health! The study measured body signals of over 1600 people as they watched video clips of people providing and getting great service.  These included clips of translating for a customer, returning lost wedding rings, and helping a sick friend. Approximately, three out of the four viewers had positive responses with the added benefit of reduced anxiety and stress.

Great servers also benefited.  Separate emotional testing indicated they experienced pride and peace of mind by giving. Likewise customers, on the receiving end, experienced less loneliness, annoyance, and stress.  “In fact, the American Express Service study found that both providing and benefiting from great service triggers the same basic cerebral reactions as feeling loved, and that it positively affects our emotional state of mind.”

Specifically, the study found that sixty-eight per cent of participants experienced slower breathing rates when thinking about great service.  But heart rates, in many cases, increased in a way similar to when one feels attraction or love.  Sixty-three percent felt their heart rate increase as they thought about receiving great service.  Seventy-four percent of servers felt their heart rate increase when planning to give great service.

A recent study by the United Health Group called “Doing Good is for You,” corroborates these findings. “Large percentages of volunteers feel lower levels of stress and have overall better health than those who don’t volunteer.”  Over seventy percent of these volunteers felt healthier and managed their own health better than counterparts.

People need to feel self worth and a sense of purpose-- that what they do makes a difference.  Volunteering--giving of one’s self without strings attached--accomplishes that.   It gives them “a sense of engagement with the community, that they’re not alone, explains Psychologist Barry Sarvet.  “They’re connected to a whole network of the community.”

These findings should really come as no surprise.  Almost all theological, moral and ethical teachings stress some form of the Golden Rule found in the Bible.  “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them:”  When this becomes the modus operandi of our daily living and giving, it has a ripple effect through out our entire life-- increasing happiness and health.

And that’s a life worth living!!

Valerie Minard is a health blogger/writer and the media and legislative liaison in New Jersey for Christian Science. She is also a Christian Science Practitioner.