The Self-Healing Power of Helping Others
Recently, a friend shared her story of childhood abuse, drug addiction, kidnapping and rape, and fighting for survival while living on the streets. I was moved when she mentioned the acts of kindness that made an impact on her life - a man who let her sleep in the back of his shop, a banker who took $100 out of his own pocket and gave it to her. These generosities may have seemed small to those men at the time. But they served as reminders to a struggling, wounded person that there is some good in this world; that human beings, despite her experiences that testified to the opposite, are capable of profound compassion and generosity.
It's clear to me that those men did something good for her. But what did they do for themselves? We know helping others may impact their lives. But how does it impact ours? Is there self-healing power in helping others?
Self-Healing Power in Acts of Kindness towards Others
Stephen G. Post is a professor of preventive medicine and director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics at Stony Brook University says there is self-healing power in acts of kindness. He is president of the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love. Author of The Hidden Gifts of Helping, Stephen believes there is self-healing power in offering compassion and generosity to others. Helping others, he says, can get us through our own hard times.
We can be anywhere, so long as we are helping others and caring for them. This is probably the one source of stability in our lives that we can truly depend on, and so in the end we are never really out of place. - Stephen G. Post
Self-Healing Power, Acts of Kindness and the Deep Happiness Formula
Stephen says compassion and generosity are healing, not just to the receivers, but to the givers as well. Here's Stephen's formula for deep happiness:
- Love others
- cultivate moral integrity
- Enjoy thankful simplicity
- Stay true to your higher purpose
Read more about Stephen G. Post when you visit his website: http://www.stephengpost.com/
Video on the Self-Healing Power of Helping Others
APA Reference
Gray, H.
(2011, April 20). The Self-Healing Power of Helping Others, HealthyPlace. Retrieved
on 2024, December 26 from https://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/tvshowblog/2011/04/the-self-healing-power-of-helping-others
Author: Holly Gray
I was physically and mentally abused by both parents until I got away from them when I joined the military. My father beat me to the point I was petrified to the point that would kill me from the blows. I cant recall either parent ever touching me ever much less letting me know they love or even cared for me. My father I hated from my first knowledge of his existence and my mother never did anything to stop him from beating me. I said good by to my mother twenty two years before she died because she never loved me or even said or did anything that indicated she even cared for me ever. Its a very long story but suffice to say I hated them and because I inherited their nasty genes I hated myself as well because in many ways I was just like them, they made me. I have learned to find especially little kids that I can do things like buy them toys and give their mother or parents plastic money to purchase thing they like. My theory is to find some little child I can befriend and through their parents or parent do things for them that I don't have to do. They realize that this stranger likes me enough to give me things and do for me things that make me happy. They understand I don't have to do this but I want to do this for them. My theory is if I can befriend a child and affect them in a positive way as a stranger they learn through this process that there are some people love them for who they are. Beautiful little kids that need care and love. I was never a child, I had to bypass that in order that I could survive my childhood. When these kids meet me they give me love and their hugs are fantastic. They hold on like you can't believe. The feeling is unreal for me. I live for those moments, they stay with me for ever.
Thank you for listening to me.