Yoga Life Book
Page 4
THE GOOD THAT COMES FROM DOING GOOD
People who voluntarily help others—no
matter how demanding the work they take on—are happier and
healthier than the rest of us.
Altruism basically means helping
others voluntarily with no expectation of external rewards; the
help may even be at great personal risk or cost.
Altruists do not
limit caring to family and friends; they extend it to others. We’re
talking about a kind of activity that is a natural and spontaneous
expression of well-being and wholeness, not deficiency or neurotic
needs. Altruism is a sign of mental health because people who are
healthy aren’t worried about themselves.
Concern for the world is what’s left over after concern
for yourself.
The most “fully human” person is someone
who is compassionate out of the understanding that all of life
is interconnected and is to be lived not in isolation, trying
to satisfy only one’s
own ego, but rather in service to the community. Altruism, compassion,
love, and friendship are the flowering of seeds with which we’re
all born.
When we voluntarily enter into service even in seemingly stressful
activities, we actually relax. In fact, what happens is the opposite
of the stress or arousal response—we relax. Metabolism, blood
pressure, heart rate and breathing decrease. And we experience a
reduction in anxiety, depression, and anger. It’s pretty hard
to feel depressed when you see a smile that you helped to create.
The
act of giving selflessly can also be as effective as exercise in
energizing ourselves. Of 3,300 volunteers surveyed in 1989, those
who helped regularly were ten times more likely to report better
health than those who volunteered only once a year. Personal contact
is critical, however; giving money or donating clothes doesn’t
have the same benefits.”
Recent research reveals how dramatic the positive experience of
giving voluntarily may be. A study of 2,700 people for more than
a decade showed people engaged in regular volunteer work were two
and a half times less likely to die during the research project
than those who didn’t volunteer.
But altruists do not enter
into helping others because they’ve
calculated all the benefits to be reaped. There is an inner hunger
on the part of a lot of people who feel that the kind of individualistic
psychologies that have shaped our lives in the West—together
with families breaking down and communities fragmenting—have
left them disconnected and alienated, without a sense that their
lives or work have greater meaning. But when they decide “I’m
going to do something to make a difference,” they find that
they experience a sense of fulfillment and joy that they were lacking.
- By Mirka Knaster
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