There are many reasons to become a mentor. This noble and healthy path can add value to people’s lives and have a therapeutic effect on the mentor. Giving back can do more good for you than you realize, and here are some examples to prove that mentoring will make you happier.

Volunteering, giving practical help, or even providing someone with emotional support can make you happier yourself. Volunteer work has been associated with health benefits for a very long time. That’s because it goes a long way toward decreasing stress.

Focusing your attention on someone else and improving their lives is what mentoring is all about. It just so happens it will likely improve your overall health. At the very least, it will help alleviate stress - which helps keep your serotonin levels within optimal ranges and make you feel happier.

Mentoring is all about giving, but it’s far from a one-way experience. Mentorship is a partnership, and it involves back-and-forth communication. This kind of cooperation and collaboration can create a deep social connection between mentors and mentees.

Your exchanges become the basis of instilling a sense of trust in each other. The more you trust someone, the closer you get. As you earn their trust in response, your social interactions quickly improve, creating a strong social connection based on positive collaboration.

This is essential for good mental health. Mental health, positive social interactions, and earning trust have all been associated with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

Giving back is usually rewarded, and that’s why many mentors are successful. The simple act of giving something of yourself or sharing your experience will bring you more success. Whether you’re directly rewarded by someone you help or others is irrelevant - your success ultimately comes from an increased desire to improve yourself so you can benefit your mentees even more.

What else can you do to improve yourself? Mentoring is an excellent answer! Being a mentor allows you to guide someone on their own path toward success. You can foster another person’s sense of validation and self-worth and improve their life.

Doing that says a lot about your impact, experience, and personality and shows that your success can come from your mentee’s success. Their validation can be your validation and mark of approval that you’ve done something great. It’s one of the easiest ways to feel validated and happier about who you are and what you do.

Looking at your experiences objectively is one of the most difficult things you can do. Some go their entire lives without seeing the past in a different light. But what if you could do that consistently? Just imagine how many moments and experiences have shaped you into the person you are today.

Mentoring can be an exercise in self-discovery. Using your experiences to teach and guide others means sharing your experiences. Doing it out loud and not with the express purpose of self-reflection can help you see things more objectively.

Likewise, you might re-evaluate memories that should’ve had a more significant impact on your character.

It’s one of the many ways you can reshape your perception of self and gain valuable insight into what makes you tick. Think of it as getting out of your headspace for a while and learning what truly makes you happy.

Sometimes happiness is hindered by a sense of stagnation. After spending years knowing there’s more to do, a sense of stagnation can quickly affect your happiness levels.

Mentoring is a development process, as much for you as it is for your mentees. As a mentor, you keep working on your communication skills, you learn new things about yourself, and you get to master active listening.

You can polish your leadership abilities and increase your emotional intelligence. Mentoring others to succeed in their fields constantly boosts your own reputation and develops your capacity to provide useful feedback. As it stands, mentoring is one of the few ways to keep pushing your limits and notching up new achievements. If achievements make you happy, mentoring will make you happy!

Check out our article on Making the Best of Mentorship