Offer your helping hand, not your judgment!
You are driving your car late at night and you see somebody stranded, looking completely dejected, and begging for a lift. You thought of stopping to help but instead you just kept driving on deciding you would rather not because of all the negative news flying around or what people would say? Or perhaps a total stranger you are meeting for the first time needs a place to stay for the night or a place to live for a while; you have the means to help, could be a room in your apartment but you are not willing to help unless you get something in return for your help or not willing to help at all? Now let’s turn the table around. Have you ever been completely stranded somewhere with no money, no one to call, nowhere to stay and you are trying to get a lift to the safest place, to spend the night but nobody is stopping to help? How does it feel? I bet it doesn’t feel good! But there is a saying that goes ‘with one random act of kindness, we can change the world’ – Altruism, a selfless act!
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are – Theodore Roosevelt
Altruism is the principle or practice of concern for the welfare of others. It is doing things purely out of a desire to help and not out of duty, obligation, guilt, and loyalty or expecting something in return. ‘Altruism’ or ‘Selflessness’ is the opposite of selfishness. It doesn’t necessarily mean you need to have enough to share with another neither does it necessarily mean your helping hand should be limited only to people of the same societal class with you. It could mean you need to sacrifice the little or the only piece you have for another who clearly needs it at that point in time more than you do.
Altruism is usually considered a traditional and compulsory virtue that one must have in some cultures. It also forms the core beliefs of some religions. Altruism is putting others before you but the concept of “others” varies widely among cultures and religion. It could mean everybody or only people of the same tribe or only people of the same town or even only people of the same religion as you. Nevertheless, others mean others.
Help people whenever you can, don’t expect anything in return!
There are two types of altruism; the psychological altruism and the biological altruism. Psychological altruism means acting out of concern for the well-being of others, without regard to your own self-interest. Biological altruism refers to behavior that helps the survival of specie without benefiting the particular individual who is being altruistic.
Being altruistic could be good, nice and easy but sometimes, it could involve risking your own life to save another person. The old people need to teach the young to cultivate the habit of selflessness to everyone regardless of their tribe, ethnicity, race and religion. It is important because the young don’t see it as needful or as a virtue.
Be altruistic. Every once in a while, place other people before yourself, help others, donate things to orphanages, help the poor and homeless without expecting anything in return.
It is more rewarding than you think!
When you are helping others, you are helping yourself!
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