The benefits of volunteering: How giving back can enhance your life and the lives of others

With most of us leading super busy lives, the idea of volunteering ? giving your time and energy to a cause without financial reward ? may seem an impossible task. I mean, how can we fit anything else into our already jam-packed schedules? However, volunteering is important for many reasons and doesn't have to take up too much time. And, in fact, the benefits of volunteering are vast for the volunteer ? not just the community, individual or organization receiving their assistance.

Indeed, it's these benefits that could partly explain the rise in popularity of volunteering over the past few years. During 2012-13, 29 per cent of adults in England, UK, said they had formally volunteered at least once a month. The figure in the United States is not far off, at around 25 per cent (with slightly more women volunteering than men).

Promisingly, an increasing number of these people are young adults. In the UK, figures show that 2.9 million people in the 16 to 25-year-old age group volunteered during 2015, compared to 1.8 million in 2010: that?s a whopping 50 per cent increase.

So, why the interest in volunteering? The Greek philosopher Aristotle once said that the essence of life is ?to serve others and do good,? and it seems an increasing number of us are starting to wake up and see why volunteering is important. People are starting to understand how serving and helping each other and different communities benefits not just others but ourselves, too.