Helper's high is a term made famous by Allan Luks and Peggy Payne in their book The Healing Power of Doing Good. The term describes "a feeling of exhilaration and a burst of energy similar to that experienced after intense exercise, followed by a period of calmness and serenity." It releases the endorphins in the body and can contribute to an overall state of emotional well-being.
Among other things, helping mitigates both the intensity and the awareness of physical pain, reduces chronic hostility, and decreases the constriction within the lungs that leads to asthma attacks.
A study at Harvard University examined the Mother Teresa effect:
Researchers showed 132 Harvard students a film about Mother Teresa's work among the Calcutta's poor, and then measured the level of immunoglobin A present in their saliva. The test revealed markedly increased levels of Immunoglobin A, which is the body's first defense against the common cold virus -- all after simply witnessing somebody else involved in charity work.
1 comments:
Thanks for helping spread the word about The Healing Power of Doing Good.
And what a cool idea for a blog. The research must be a lot of fun.
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