The measure of your blessings

I had to write this on the 1st of Jan but did not find time until now. So basically this is a new year’s post 🙂

At the end of every year, I used to retreat to reflect on the whole year. Last month I noticed one thing in common with the years in the past – Eat, drink and do the work that makes you happy. Everything else is a vanity!

As I was pondering over this thought and moved towards the new year, as always, I was wondering what the new year has for me in store. Just as everyone else, I was expecting new hopes, new life, new blessings and everything I may receive in the new year.

However, over the last couple of weeks in December, I realized and was moved into thinking what I can give, rather than what I can receive in this new year. This thought in me caught a lot of my attention and I was constantly thinking about giving.

In a world which accounts for your wealth from what you receive than what you give, it was not easy for me to give myself into giving. We all make money for a living. We all believe in being wealthy when we have in abundance. While this is true, there is a secret to abundance wealth. The true abundance is when you give away as much as you can! The more you give, the more you receive. In the short span of less than a month, I noticed a few things you receive when you give.

The very first thing you receive by giving is the liberation! You feel like being set free from some kind of imprisonment or oppression you had no idea about. The reason for this feeling is because you start to realize the fact that you are no longer selfish. This very feeling of liberation also incentivizes us to give even more.

The second great thing you receive when giving is the love and acceptance from others. This is a very motivating feel that again makes us want to give even more! You start to see love and acceptance even from strangers you never dreamed about. People start looking up on to you. With love, also comes the respect and a heart to help you. That’s a beautiful and an enjoyable way to win the hearts of people who are the greatest treasure you can keep forever in your life!

The third best thing you receive when you start giving is the hope. In a few days you start to see how you build hope for yourself. You start to grow stronger and feel hopeful even in very hopeless situations. The reason for you to see this hope is because you have learnt to give your time and money for something more expensive, you have realized only now.

When I was talking about this giving to someone I know and when I tried to explain how better I felt by giving, she wanted me to understand “how to give”. According to her definitions, before you give money/material/time to someone, you will have to carefully examine if they are worth giving to.

I strongly disagreed with her idea because that completely defeats the purpose of giving if you had to give to only those who deserve. 

Start by giving anything – money, material or time. Start giving to people you know and move on to complete strangers. I felt very happy when I gave to complete strangers who I will never meet again.

Some easy and great ways to give:

• Spend some time for a coffee with a friend who you have not met for some time.
• Go with your friend in their car and at the end of the drive fill the tank.
• If you come across a stranger who may look very tensed/depressed, just hand them a ₹100 note and say “be happy”.
• Buy from a street vendor without bargaining and with a smile, even if you know they are cheating you on the price/product.
• Hire someone to clean your car, even though you may require cleaning every day.
• Spend some time thinking about a friend of yours, see if you can encourage them in something they are good at or help them with some ideas they may need.

I wish you great new year, 2017 and hope you can truly start experiencing the joy of giving. Let giving be your measure of blessings! If you have a similar experience or want to add to this post, feel free to leave your comment below.