I was giving a talk at Channel 4 last week to a group of bright-minded media and marketing women and in the Q&A found myself recounting the story of how I unwittingly came to be Chair of my son’s school PTA (why did I ever think sitting on my hands would be a sufficient precautionary measure when the Head glanced round imploringly?) In this month’s Flourishing Female blog post ‘m talking volunteering and community mindedness and I’ll be brief; I know you’re busy.

Tim Harford, economist at the Financial Times and voice of Radio 4′s More of Less programme told his listeners in a recent programme that there appears to be a link between selfishness and loneliness (albeit with lots of caveats about where the data was drawn from - listen to the 22/4/11 podcast to make your own mind up) and research by Dulin & Hill (2003) shows that volunteer work is associated with high life satisfaction and good health. Some great reasons, I’m sure you’ll agree, to put your hand up and get involved.

When you consider that other researchers’ work suggests there’s more benefit to giving social support than receiving it (Brown et al, 2003), you might spare a moment to think about who you could help. I know you’re probably thinking “but I haven’t got time, I work hard enough as it is and I just can’t commit to anything else right now,” volunteering doesn’t have to be arduous, formal or regular. I’ve started something you could easily get involved in today (and for those of you who are pre-children it might come full circle and help you out in years to come so do participate if you feel a smidge of interest) called “Mother the Mother.”

Mother the Mother is a social movement which recognises that mothers of young children have it hard whatever their social, emotional and economic circumstances (but that women rarely articulate this) and that people geographically close can make an enormous difference to her mental and physical wellbeing by giving a small amount of PRACTICAL help without waiting to be asked (because mothers rarely do). The lowdown’s on my website along with some funky vouchers you can use to give your gift of time. I’ve got a job lot of them in the office if you would like us to send you some to spread around your workplace to get this movement moving.

If you’re running at max capacity at work and can’t see how you could possibly add volunteering into your mix consider the wisdom of this client who told me she’s become more productive since needing to leave the office earlier than usual to get to the place she does good deeds every week. For another client I worked with many years ago, volunteering took her career in a new (positive) direction - something to think about if your career’s in transition or you want it to be.

So this month, please put your hand up because the more of you that do, the better the experience for all of us.

What Colour is Your Thinking?

Last January I wrote a column called “Grit & Grey” about developing resilience and the benfits of seeing the world in shades of gray rather than black and white (naturally full colour spectrum tends to be more enjoyable but you get the anaology). In that piece I touched on an internal battle in my own mind about my capability as a runner and mentioned the challenge of a half marathon. I’m pleased to say I did the St Albans half marathon on Sunday 12th June this year having taken my thinking successfully into the ‘grey zone’ (and no, I didn’t drop a step as I’d feared I might, but it wouldn’t have mattered if I did).

Yours with both hands in the air giving you, me and every volunteer a round of applause. Until next time, get in touch if there’s something I can do for you or women in your organisation - I can take something nebulous and work with you on the solution.

Jessica

References for this month’s Flourishing Female Column: 1) Dulin, P. & Hill, R, 2003. Relationshipos between altruistic activity and positive and negative affect among lower-income older adult service providers. Aging and Mental Health, 7, 294-299. 2) Brown et al, 2003. Providing social support may be more beneficial than receiving it: Results from a prospective study of mortality. Psychological Science, 14, 320-327

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