Tag: Generosity

Spirit Of Generosity

Happiness, Health, Relationships

Christmas is a time of giving, as the saying goes. It is a time when we spend a lot of money on presents for our loved ones. We also spend our time with then too. I would argue that it is more meaningful and more of a gift to spend time with others. We can always get more money, but time is a non-renewable resource. Who we choose to spend our time with is meaningful and has a significant impact on our lives.

This generous spirit is not something we should limit to the Christmas period. Ideally, it should be a way of life. If we live our lives with a generous spirit then we will make those around us happier, whether they are family, friends, or colleagues, or people we are meeting for the first time. The wider we extend who we are generous to the happier our lives will be.

To help others without expecting anything in return is planting trees under whose shade we will not sit. The fruits of the trees will benefit those we will never meet. It is also true that one generous act encourages another and the wave of generosity goes out into the world making it better one small act of generosity at a time. Even a smile is a gift that can lift someone’s spirits. So go and be generous every day and see how your life changes and how you change the lives of others.

The Gift Is In The Giving

Happiness, Relationships

I was given a medallion with an embossed image of St Christopher carrying a child across a river by my father recently. He has carried it around with him for many years and the shiny outer brassy layer of metal has worn away in places revealing the shinier silvery metal underneath. It is well worn and well used.

I don’t believe that it will give me luck or protection, but it feels like a legacy, a gift that I should carry around with me throughout my life, which I will. The importance is in the giving and the belief of my father that it will help me. The gift is in the giving and its intention, and that is why I will honour the gift and keep it with me.

The Benefits of Generosity

Happiness, Health, Leadership, Relationships, The Pathway To Fulfilment

The other day I saw six or seven pigeons surrounding a slice of white bread that someone had left on the floor. They were all eating as much as they could as quickly as they could. Then one of them took a dislike to the pigeon next to it and started chasing it around. Perhaps it felt the other pigeon was eating its bit of bread, who knows, but for a good 30 seconds this pigeon chased the other around. Meanwhile, all of the other pigeons kept on eating. This reminded me of how our lizard brains can do us a disservice in contemporary life.

The lizard brain is in charge of fear, anger, revenge and reproduction. It is the early part of our brains that evolved which kept us safe from saber tooth tigers and from being kicked out of the tribe. It is why we survived as a species in our evolutionary early days. This served us well back then but it can ruin our lives today. It is largely the cause of stress, ill health and broken relationships. Even when we have a good life, objectively speaking, the lizard brain can take us away from the good things we have.

The whole time the pigeon was chasing the other pigeon it was missing out on the food that was lying on the floor ready to be eaten. There was more than enough food to go around, but fear that the other pigeon might eat their food turned to anger, which turned to revenge causing a pigeon chase around a car park.

If the pigeons were able to talk to each other and they had the capacity to have empathy, compassion or generosity, then they could have all happily shared the meal. The stress level would have been lower, and their relationships, pigeon to pigeon, would have been supportive, loving and generous. This is how we live good lives. We have good relationships, we are generous and we share what we have with those who need what we have.

The next time you see a homeless person on the street begging for money don’t automatically think, ‘why should I give them my money, they will only spend it on alcohol.’ Perhaps they haven’t eaten for two days and they need money for food, perhaps they need an extra £1 to pay for a hostel to have a comfy bed and shelter for the night.

They may have slept outside in the cold and rain for a week and are on death’s door and some change from us will save their life. And when you give them some change look them in the eye, smile at them and wish them well, because 95% of people that walked past them that day did not even acknowledge their existence. Be the 5% that cares and see their humanity.

The Gift Of Listening

The Pathway To Fulfilment

Recently I have started to try and really listen to people, to give them my full attention and it has uplifted those I listened to. To be heard is often rare in the age of technology and smart devices that demand our attention. We often spend more time interacting with devices than we do face to face with each other.

We have lived through a pandemic that has made the connection through digital devices a necessity and a lifeline for many, but as we come out of this pandemic and return to the office, and other places of work, we should remember that really listening to someone is a gift, a gift of your time, which is a finite resource for us all.

To be there when people have something to share, no matter how sad or exciting it may be, is an age old activity that bonds you and the other person, even if just a little. In our tribal days, as we hunted and gathered to survive, these sorts of bonds were part of being a tribe. Now we have no tribe as such, but the importance of listening has not faded with our evolution and revolutions, it is in fact more important as devices distract us from being with each other.

Generously Unlock Your Passion

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Success

I read this post by Seth Godin and the last line struck me and I made it the title of this blog post. Normally we talk about passion when someone is interested in a hobby or supporting a football team or something. Passion is also talked about when people start their own business or start writing a blog like this.

The point of generously unlocking your passion is that when we are generous with the capabilities we have, we often find things that we really enjoy doing. We also get the benefit of feeling good, because we have been generous.

A blog can also be good example of this, because you are using words to try and benefit someone else, who you will never meet. I suppose starting a YouTube channel could also be done in a similar way.

Success is often increased by the number of people you help. The more people you help the more opportunities and potential income you will receive. However, if you do it to get something back, you will be less successful than if you were being whole heartedly generous. You reap what you sow, so to speak.

Opportunities In Life

Happiness, Success, The Pathway To Fulfilment

I work as a complaint handler for a bank, which to many may be the last job they would ever wish to do, but I find great joy in doing it. The important question to ask ourselves is what opportunities are we looking for?

Opportunities to be rich, beautiful, happy or healthy. There are many things we seek for ourselves, but the most profound joy comes from seeking things for others.

With a complaint something has gone wrong, it may be the fault of the bank or the fault of someone else. The opportunity is to help reduce the customer’s suffering, to put right a wrong and rebuild the relationship between the customer and the bank.

I spoke to a customer recently who was so unwell and in pain that his Wife was talking on his behalf. His Wife was also suffering to see what her Husband was going through. During the call I managed to make the Wife and her Husband laugh and resolved the complaint successfully.

If you do your work with compassion and the intention to bring joy to other people’s lives, you will enjoy your work, and it will give your life purpose.

The Gift Of Giving

Happiness

Giving is a mind-set, it should not be limited to single acts of generosity. It is something that we can strive to do every moment of our lives. Each time someone shows me kindness by giving me something I try to do something similar for somebody else. I say try, because I do not always get the chance or think to do it, but I do try. And I think in giving back to others that which has been given to us, is putting positive actions out into the world, in the hope that they will be passed onto others again and again, so that we can all build a better world together, just by giving what we can, when we can.

One of the things that I have come to realise is a precious gift to give someone is to listen to them. To give your time to actively listen to what other people want to talk to you about. By ‘actively listen to them’ I mean to not allow your mind to wander, to give the person your full attention and to show them that you are listening to them, with your body language and the way you respond to what they are saying. It doesn’t matter if it is something seemingly unimportant, or something that is very difficult for the other person to deal with, whatever it is, just listening can be a gift.

Book Recommendation: Essential Spirituality: The 7 Central Practices to Awaken Heart and Mind by Roger Walsh

Book Recommendation, Happiness

“Our lives are rich with opportunities and our challenge is to live them to the full. All of us can be the creative artists of our lives.”
― Roger Walsh

Image Source: Amazon UK

Get The Book Here

Why Read This Book

This book covers seven practices that religions across the world include, practices that can help restore balance and create happiness in our lives. It is a book to read and then revisit to help you live a balanced and happy life.

Contents

  • Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
  • Introduction
  • 1.    Unveiling the Sacred
  • 2.    Discovering the Seven Practices
  • 3.    Using This Book
  • 4.    Spiritual Practices: What Do They Do and How Do They Do It?
  • The Seven Practices
  • Practice One: Transform Motivation: Reduce Craving and Find Your Soul’s Desire
  • 5.    The Secret of Happiness
  • 6.    Exercises to Reduce Craving
  • 7.    Find Your Soul’s Desire: Redirect Motivation
  • 8.    Exercises to Redirect Desires
  • 9.    The Higher Reaches of Desire
  • Practice Two: Cultivate Emotional Wisdom: Heal the Heart and Learn to Love
  • 10.    The Gift of Love
  • 11.    The Challenge of Difficult Emotions
  • 12.    Reducing Fear and Anger
  • 13.    Cultivate Love and Gratitude
  • 14.    The Higher Reaches of Love
  • Practice Three: Live Ethically: Feel Good by Doing Good
  • 15.    The Value of Virtue
  • 16.    What is an Ethical Life?
  • 17.    Exercises in Ethical Living
  • 18.    The Higher Reaches of Ethical Life
  • Practice Four: Rest in Peace: Concentrate and Calm the Mind
  • 19.    Your Meandering Mind
  • 20.    Develop a Peaceful Mind
  • 21.     The Higher Reaches of Concentration and Calm
  • Practice Five: Awaken Spiritual Vision: See Clearly and Recognize the Sacred In All Things
  • 22.    The Healing Power of Awareness
  • 23.    Exercises in Awareness
  • 24.    Seeing the Sacred in All Things
  • 25.    Exercises in Sacred Seeing
  • 26.    The Higher Reaches of Vision
  • Practice Six: Cultivate Spiritual Intelligence:  Awakening Wisdom and Understanding Life
  • 27.    What is Wisdom?
  • 28.    Awakening Wisdom
  • 29.    Exercises in Wisdom
  • 30.    The Higher Reaches of Wisdom
  • Practice Seven: Express Spirit in Action: Generosity and the Joy of Service
  • 31.    The Spirit of Service
  • 32.    Developing a Generous Heart
  • 33.    Exercises in Generosity and Service
  • 34.    The Higher Reaches of Generosity
  • 35.    Enjoy Your Self: Awakened Heart, Awakened Mind
  • Source Notes
  • Further Reading
  • Bibliography
  • Index

Summary

This book explores the different behaviours and ideas that cause us to be unhappy and to suffer, and practices to remedy them. There are seven practices, as the title of the book suggests, but there are also exercises within each chapter that are simple, but beneficial, for example “Exercise 9, Discover Your Future Self,” from the section entitled Exercises To Redirect Desires.

The author explores these subjects through the lens of the scriptures of our world religions and the writings of philosophers. It is practical, yet this book includes profound, deep wisdom. Whether you are religious or not, I recommend this book, it will apply some perspective to your life and help you find your path to a life well lived. The book is extensive, but you can dip into the section that relates to your current issues and find the guidance and exercises to help.

Poem: Having Purpose

Poems, The Fullfilment Framework
Striving and failing, repeatedly.
The defeated fall below their imposed par;
partly theirs, partly someone else's.
We often strive without direction, without purpose
on the treadmill of life, running and staying.
People, teams, businesses; we mistake rewards for purpose,
the spoils with the destination.
When we have no destination and no map or compass to speak of
we fail in our pursuits. Our purpose defines our destination
and our reason for going there. It is the means by which we transform
the world for the better. It is how we uplift others
and help them become their best selves.
To help others find fulfilment is to fulfil what it means to be human.

Having a generous spirit

Happiness, The Fullfilment Framework

“You often say, ‘I would give, but only to the deserving.’ The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture. They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.”

– Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

 

Christmas Spirit

Christmas is always a time for giving. Whether it be the cultural act of gathering and giving presents or the big push by advertising companies to get people to buy their products as Christmas gifts, there is no getting away from it at this time of year. It is a time when we put a lot of thought into the gifts we buy for our loved ones, because we want our gift to make them happy, to make them smile when they open it. The good feeling is a shared experience; they feel good when they get something they want and we feel good to see them so happy.

It is not the gift itself that makes us happy, as such, it is largely the act of giving and receiving that brings out our happy. So why is it that we are not as generous, generally, throughout the rest of the year. Obviously we cannot afford to be buying presents for people all year round. However, if the real meaning of generosity is in the act of giving, then we can choose how we are generous in ways that do not cost any money at all. They do however cost time and energy, two things that we all have.

 

Generosity is a Mindset

At any time we can give someone a smile, we can actually listen to someone, we can ask how someone’s day is going and care about the answer, we can help someone carry their bags up some stairs, we can hold the lift doors open so someone who needs the lift doesn’t have to wait for the next lift to be available, we can complement someone, we could wish someone good day, we could give our time to help someone with something that we are skilled at and they are not. There are countless things we could do to give our time, our energy and our words.

 

“Imagine if we could spread a little

happiness just by being nice to other people.”

 

As we gather together this Christmas and become more generous, loving and sharing let us begin to imagine what the world would be like if we treated everyone with the same love and respect as we do our own loved ones. Imagine if we could spread a little happiness just by being nice to other people. Imagine how happier you will be as a result of so much giving. We feel good when we give, so let us bring the Christmas spirit into our hearts and let it linger there beyond the New Year and on for the rest of the year.

 

Give more smiles, wish more people well, and if you are someone who prays, pray for everyone we encounter who is going through difficulty, even those we do not get along with. To be angry, jealous, frustrated or sad is to suffer, so let us spread a little love and start a generous revolution. Our world is shaped by how we interact in it, so let us shape our world to be a kinder, more loving place that we all want to be a part of.

 

Something to reflection on:

The way we perceive the world is our reality. Our actions in the world help to build someone else’s perception of the world. Positive thoughts, words and actions can change the world for others and ourselves.