It’s no secret that cultivating gratitude supports your physical, mental, and emotional health. As it turns out, giving to others may be equally beneficial.
Practicing gratitude—or counting one's blessings—is a powerful way to support your physical, mental, and emotional health. The same is true for generosity. Nurturing a generous spirit and contributing to others through acts of kindness can enrich your health in the same ways that gratitude can.
Giving to others can deepen your bonds with them. It gives birth to stronger feelings of compassion, empathy, and cooperation—key ingredients for better relationships. Talk about a powerful way to ease isolation and loneliness and build a stronger sense of belonging!
Acts of kindness also do wonders for your mental well-being. They trigger a surge of feel-good brain chemicals, such as dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. These substances spark feelings of pleasure, ease stress, and boost your mood. Plus, giving to others activates and reinforces the neural pathways in your brain’s reward system while calming negative thoughts and emotions. When combined, all these perks lend more meaning and purpose to your life.
A generous nature supports the health of your body, too. Giving to others has been shown to quell inflammation, boost immunity, lower blood pressure, support heart health, and increase longevity.
7 practical ways to nurture your generous side
With this bounty of health benefits, practicing acts of kindness is a win-win for you and all the people on the receiving end of your generosity. Looking to grow your generous side? Take these 7 steps to nurture your inner giver:
1. Reflect on your own intentions. Research suggests that people tend to feel more joy and satisfaction when they give to others freely, rather than out of a sense of duty. These happy feelings are enhanced when the help given makes a concrete, positive difference in the other person’s life. Conversely, giving to others because you feel you should is not likely to do you or anyone else any good. If anything, you’re more likely to feel resentful—which others can often sense. Make sure any acts of kindness come from the heart.
2. Start a contributions journal. Reflecting on your gifts to others can help you derive more health benefits from them. Journaling is a great way to do this. Write down the big and little ways you’ve helped support others as you went about your day, week, or month. You can start small and think back over just the past day or two. Write down specific examples of your acts of kindness during that time. Maybe you:
Jumped your neighbor’s car battery?
Offered to walk a sick friend’s dog or bring them some groceries?
Comforted a troubled or grieving friend by lending a supportive and empathetic ear?
Offered to do the dishes for a tired spouse or roommate?
Donated or gave your volunteer time to a cause that you feel passionate about?
Reflect on your contributions and—more importantly—jot down how they made you feel. Maybe you felt a deeper sense of warmth and connection with a person you helped? Perhaps your act of kindness sparked a positive exchange with the person—or even launched a new friendship? Or maybe the visible comfort and relief the person felt as a result of your help triggered similar feelings in you?
You can also write down any recent encounters with people in which you didn’t help someone when they needed it—especially if you’re feeling bad about that. Don’t beat yourself up. Instead, ask yourself why you hesitated to offer your help. Be truthful and realistic. Maybe you weren’t actually able to help? Or perhaps you weren’t sure how to help or just didn’t have the energy to? That’s okay. This reflection exercise is to pinpoint potential barriers to helping others. But it’s also to help you let go of any guilt or regret you may be feeling when you’ve been unable to help.
3. Create an action plan for giving. Set small goals each day for how you’d like to give to others. This could be as simple as planning to smile warmly, make eye contact, and greet every stranger you encounter. Or you might think of one person in your circle who is struggling with a challenge right now. Make a list of the ways you can help support that person. If it’s a colleague or friend who is out of work, you might offer to write them a letter of recommendation. If a friend or family member is struggling with a health challenge, volunteer to pick up their groceries, make them a meal, or do a bit of housework.
It's also important to ask the person you want to help exactly what kind of support they need. Let them guide your contributions. Say that your spouse seems tired and stressed one night. Ask how you can help. Maybe they just need a night off from cooking dinner? Or perhaps a foot or scalp massage would help best? Or maybe they’d prefer brainstorming solutions together to whatever pressing problem is behind their stress and fatigue?
4. Be spontaneous. Planning concrete ways to give is a great idea, but you can also be spontaneous. As you go about each day, be mindful of any opportunities that arise in which you can offer your help. For example, you could:
Buy a hot meal if you come across a homeless person
Offer your place in line to the hurried, stressed person behind you
Take a project off an overly busy co-worker’s plate
Acknowledge a co-worker’s recent accomplishment with a genuine compliment
Bring flowers to a friend for their birthday—or just because
Call or text a friend who lives out of state to tell them you love and miss them
Leave notes of encouragement in self-help books at the library
Pay for the person’s coffee in line ahead of you if they’re a little too short on cash
Offer to take an elderly neighbor’s trash bins to the curb
5. Make it personal. Findings suggest that acts of kindness done in person can provide greater benefits. For example, bringing a bouquet of flowers or a hot meal to a grieving friend yourself, instead of having it delivered, creates a deeper, more rewarding sense of connection. But keep in mind that giving in person isn’t always possible. Don’t pressure yourself if a lack of time or other resources prevents you from doing so. Giving to others via mail, text, email, or delivery service will still benefit both you and them.
6. Adjust your expectations. When giving to others, try to let go of any set expectations of how you want the person to respond. If you get a lukewarm response to a gesture of kindness, try to shrug off any disappointment. It’s possible that the person is simply tired, stressed, or busy and distracted. They might need time for your act of kindness to “soak in” a little.
At the same time, it’s important to nurture connections where your support is valued. If you often give to someone who never shows appreciation, you may want to reflect on that relationship. Giving your time and energy to other relationships, instead, could lead to more fulfilling connections where you are truly appreciated.
7. Set realistic boundaries. There is such a thing as “giver’s burnout.” Generosity is a finite resource. So, seek balance when giving to others—and make sure to give to yourself as well. It’s okay to say “no” sometimes if your energy, time, money, or other resources are feeling depleted.
Living life with an altruistic, generous mindset can do wonders for your mental, emotional, and physical health. Giving to others forges deeper and more satisfying connections with friends and family. It lowers stress and bolsters joy and happiness. And it can boost immunity, lower blood pressure, and increase your longevity.
So, make a point of nurturing the giver in you. Then count your contributions, along with your blessings, and enjoy all the health, happiness, and joy you’ll receive in return.
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This information is not intended to take the place of regular medical care or advice. Please check with your doctor before using this information or beginning any self-care program. Images used for this article do not depict any members of the Silver&Fit Program.
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This article was written by Gail Olson, edited by Keleigh Somes, and clinically reviewed by Elizabeth Thompson, MPH, RDN, on October 30, 2025.