Help other people survive

Help other people survive 

Are we headed down the wrong path? The idea that helping others is part of a meaningful life. New research is providing more and more evidence that kind and helpful behaviour causes us to feel that our lives are meaningful. Aristotle wrote that finding happiness and fulfillment is achieved "by loving rather than in being loved". Relationship with others are a central feature of positive, well lived life. Yet today many of us seem to be struggling to find meaning by gathering up achievements, spending so much time at work that we are cut off from other people. Another's success does not mean I have less opportunity. In fact, another's success can actually be my success if I had an opportunity to enable, encourage and promote them along the way. Our greatest success in life are often found in helping others success.

Our most lasting and fulfilling achievements are often earned by helping others fulfill theirs. But does behaving in a kind and helpful way actually cause us to fell that our lives have more meaning? Humans are born especially vulnerable and dependent on others. we require a prolonged period of intense care giving following birth in order to survive. Helping others takes the mind and emotions off the self, allowing the mind to move past anxieties and rumination. Even when helping others as only external action,our emotions over time tend to shift to joy and kindness, especially with good role models.

Although happiness and meaning overlap significantly. Helping others is especially crucial to developing a sense of meaning. Inherently, we know we have been designed to live for something greater than ourselves. Our contribution to this world has to be measured by something more meaningful than the size of our house or the neighborhood where it is located. And our lives are going to find lasting significance in how we choose to live them and how we enable others to live theirs.

Now, just to be clear, I am concluded with an assumption that our greatest joy in life are rarely found in the relentless pursuit of selfish ambition. 


1 comment:

  1. Yes indeed Helping others is basically helping self, matter of showing gratitude

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