Want to Help Others? Then Help Yourself!

Though the argument of "helping others by helping yourself first" sort of becomes one of those head-banging "Which came first....the chicken or the egg?" questions I think it's worth highlighting in this blog.

Service and assistance to others is an important part of life but I personally have come to believe that service and assistance more likely than not JUST HAPPENS NATURALLY when you know what your desires are in life and you chase them. How does that work?

Well, I'm not exactly sure but I think our desires often point to our purpose in life. "Purpose" is a deep scary too-much-meaning kind of word for a lot of people but basically our purpose is what we want to do to leave our lives behind with the greatest amount of happiness possible and generally its hard to be happy if 1) you're not happy and 2) if those you love aren't happy.

So, having said that I think that one amazing way to learn to help others is to get to know yourself. Anytime you put your resources into caring for your mind, body, or spirit (if you believe in a spirit of sorts), then you are getting to know something new about yourself. If this sounds unconvincing then just try one way of taking care of yourself and then ask yourself afterward what you learned about you. I think this works.

After you take care of yourself for a while you start to become more sensitive to your physical body's patterns, and to the patterns in general occurring around you. You'll start to understand why you desire what you desire and realize that your dreams aren't just unrealistic things that will never happen but that are actually within your reach. Then, believe it or not, once you chase your desires you will start to notice that you have more energy and are coming alive in a way that NATURALLY RESULTS IN YOU SERVING OTHERS.

This may seem contradictory to your beliefs about service. Maybe you believe that to help or serve others you have to sacrifice and be uncomfortable in some way. Ask yourself right now why you believe that and whether or not you could believe the following:

"I can serve myself and simultaneously serve others. They happen at the same time!"