Why is sharing so important for our soul? Have you ever wondered why we feel so good when we share and care? Then why is it that we as a community losing out in this beautiful act of spreading joy and happiness?
In a culture like ours, the virtue of sharing is said to be engrained in our psyche. With festivals that require you to share sweets with neighbours, make human pyramids in public and splash colour on unsuspecting outsiders, it would seem like we live and breathe as a community more than anywhere else. Sadly this notion although beautiful cannot be more wrong. In India, especially with our slow rise as an economic power, societies are becoming more individualistic than communal.
More and more people live in tiny nuclear families, with children lost in their worlds of iPods and blogs; families never truly seem to have a need or the time to share a friendly word with the neighbour who's been there for over a year. I think this lack of 'sharing' is not just because of how our society has evolved in the past few decades; but also because of how competition is drilled into our heads throughout our lives. Be it in high school, college, the work place or even the gym, everyone seems to want to outshine one another.
Although there is nothing wrong with exploiting your potential to be the best you can, it is a tragedy when this need to be the best becomes a compulsive fixation that cannot be cured. What is worse, is that the feeling of achievement usually only comes at the expense of someone else's heartache. Think about it, in recent times haven't we turned into a society where siblings compete for the bigger room, family members compete to get a bigger share of the profit from family businesses, friends compete to get better positions in a corporation and amongst society we compete to have better status symbols? From the looks of it, we seem to be turning into a society that finds pleasure in tearing each other down rather than building each other up and being part of each other's successes. Sad, isn't it? Well, although this situation appears rather bleak, I for one think there is hope —all that's required is a shift in our perspective.
So how do we create this shift from being egotistical to being more society based? Well, think about the age old saying.
"Give something, and it will come back tenfold".
The saying doesn't mean I give away everything I have and get walked on like a doormat. It only means share whatever you have with someone in need, and the favour will always return.
If you're wondering where to start, the internet is a great space to do so. Despite the common notion amongst adults that "the internet detracts from social interactions", you will see that if used rightly, it turns into an environment where people share information about everything and anything for free. This information can be about something as small as how to clean your fish tank or it can be about something as life changing as 'Ten steps to a minimalistic lifestyle'. This attitude of selfless sharing between individuals, who in most cases have never even met, is the norm on the web. Now imagine this attitude incorporated into our day to day lives. If we all shared tit bits of things we know, we would reduce wastefulness and also build networks in the process. Sharing something small might then mean building into something bigger. If jumping on the internet and sharing ideas with random people is too big a step for you, well, here are a few more ides to get you started:
Sharing something small might then mean building into something bigger.
1. Smile. Be compassionate in all human transactions.
2. Help out friends wanting to start their own business. Don't ask for the money to be returned for at least a few years.
3. Make things and gift them to people.
4. Read to the blind, help the elderly, assist those with disabilities.
5. Volunteer your services with a homeless shelter, Langar kitchen, or other charity organizations.
6. Donate money, food, or other goods to charity.
7. Bake cookies or brownies and share with a neighbor.
8. Put your favourite recipes on a blog and share with the world.
9. Volunteer your expertise (whatever it is) to the world, and give those services to anyone who needs them.
10. Give step-by-step instructions for doing something valuable you know how to do, on-line, for all to read.
11. Give your books away to friends or charities.
12. Start a community garden in your neighbourhood, or contribute to an existing one.
13. Give people a ride in your car.
15. Let others use your car when you don't need it.
16. If you own copyrighted work, un-copyright it. 18. Perform random acts of kindness.
17. When someone wants to repay you for something, ask them to pay it forward instead.
18. Clean up a park near you. "
19. Help transform streets back into public spaces meant to be shared by everyone.
20. Share your tips with others on-line or through a free-book.
21. Create great software and give it to the world for free. This list is only to get you started. The ways you can share and make this world a better place, today, is only limited by your imagination.
Happy sharing!
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