Most days, we wake up and go to bed feeling guilty about that extra morsel of food you ate. Every pound we gain, every inch we lose, every visible stretch mark or the cellulite appearing on our body is what we tend to speculate and obsess over, all the time! Not that I am contending the fact that health should not be the priority, the only point I wish to bring to light is the excessive dwelling over our weight related issues. We all do it. We cringe over the thought of gaining weight or worry about the thigh-gap which is seen trending all over the internet. Sometimes this obsession takes another turn-crash diets, going under the knife and subsequent health issues building up due to that. With the generous amount of time we indulge ourselves in, maybe we could channel it into something better, something more meaningful because there is more to life than losing weight.
You read newspapers or watch news on television or probably browse through your news apps and the only thing that you constantly observe is the horrific gut-wrenching pages filled with so much crime and crisis in your city, state, country and the entire world.
You are back home, relax with a delectable cup of coffee and sticking to your new year resolution you go ahead with the daily workout planned for yourself. Sounds perfect? It sure is! But amidst balancing our life, we tend to disconnect from the greatest virtue of life-helping others. Don’t you think most of the time we are so fixated over certain issues that we just overlook the things which desperately require our attention.
There are innumerable issues our planet is suffering. Starting with droughts, the countries always falling in its spectrum are Asia, Africa and many parts of Europe. People have become victims to desperation with a hope to get hold of water for their daily needs and food supply. Did you know that there are around 750 million people who do not have access to purified drinking water?
With pollution mushrooming everywhere, our environment has been struggling to keep up. The devastating impacts continue to build up affecting the entire planet at some point, if immediate action is not taken. Rising sea levels since 1880, floods, wildfires, intense heat waves and subsequent increase in health risks are the cries of our planet for help.
More than a billion children over the globe fall in the bracket of poverty and sadly 22,000 lives are taken each day due to this ghastly issue! So many children are miles away from getting the daily minimum calorific intake which is essential for the proper growth and development of the mind and body. This results in abnormal development of the brain, stunted growth and bone disorders.
So how about we instead take a mere hour out of our busy schedule and yield it to make a difference? How about we help out the needy, young children, women and the debilitated? How about we volunteer ourselves into working towards a cause or start NGO’s? Just a few random acts of kindness in your regular lifestyle. There is so much to be done and so much we can do. An active participation in whatever way you can, whether it’s financial assistance, community volunteering or charity.
There are millions of people who are suffering from poverty, health issues, natural disasters and world hunger. No action however small it may be, will leave an imprint in the mind and heart of the person you helped, maybe changing his life forever. People may forget what you said, but nothing will ever make them forget how you made them feel.
The benefits are not limited to the recipient. There is so much goodness in store for you as well. You become grateful to every little thing and start appreciating the small joys of life. You’ll observe a boost of self-esteem, confidence, positivity and most importantly, inner peace.
“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.” – Charles Dickens.
