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- Written by: Kamran Mofid
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Photo:allanluks.com
We live in difficult and troubling times, facing unprecedented global challenges in the areas of climate change and ecology, finance and economics, hunger and infectious disease, hopelessness, helplessness, loneliness, depression and anxiety, international relations and cooperation, peace and justice, terrorism and war, armaments and unprecedented violence. It is precisely in times like these – unstable and confusing though they may be – that people everywhere need to keep their eyes on the better side of human nature, the side of love and compassion, rather than hatred and injustice; the side of the common good, rather than selfishness, individualism and greed.
There is no doubt that the world is in a desperate need of change: A change for the better, a change for the common good. But the big question is: How? What can I do? The answer to my mind is very simple: Kindness, doing good, helping others. In short, volunteer and do it all for the common good. This is why I want to share with you the joy I have received reading a wonderful book, a book I chose as one of my main reading texts for the Business Ethics Course I teach at California Lutheran University.
Please get the book, read it. It is life-changing. Believe me, you will not be disappointed.
‘Allan Luks, author of The Healing Power of Doing Good, surveyed over 3,000 people involved in volunteering. His research included documenting the phenomenon that he called the "helper's high," which results from giving to others on a regular basis. A helper's high consists of sensations of warmth, greater energy, and a euphoric feeling. It was found to have long-term effects such as increased self-worth and reduced signs of stress.’
The Healing Power of Doing Good: The Health and Spiritual Benefits of Helping Others
by Allan Luks with Peggy Payne
‘Conventional wisdom has always held that when we help others, some of the good we do flows back to us. That satisfaction has always been thought to be largely emotional-feeling good when you do good. Now important, widely discussed research shows that helping others regularly produces significant health benefits. It is almost impossible to read this book without wanting to do good. Both for those who are already volunteering and for those who are considering it, this valuable personal guide tells you how to choose an activity that is right for you, how to maximize the health benefits, and how to overcome the main obstacle to getting started: lack of time. The Healing Power of Doing Good reaffirms and explains that when we care for others we care for ourselves. It is an important book for those suffering from chronic health problems as well as the health conscious, anyone interested in how our mind affects our body, and people in the helping professions. And it reminds us that never has there been such a need for caring as there is today.’
Allan Luks, former executive director of the Institute for the Advancement of Health and executive director of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of New York City, has studied kindness and the clear cause-and -effect relationship between helping and good health.
Allan's work, lectures and writing focuses on the difference in society that one person can make and the important role of nonprofit organizations as the public’s conscience. From his roots in the idealism of the ‘60s and ‘70s, he brings to the fore the personal benefits of volunteering, mentoring, and social change leadership. Among his audiences are business trade associations, fraternal organizations, religious groups, alumni associations, retirement groups, and both nonprofits and for-profit corporations with social change agendas.
Based on national research that Allan did 20 years ago, he introduced the term “Helper’s High”—the powerful physical feelings people experience when directly helping others—to explain the real benefits to volunteers’ physical and emotional health. Today, this awareness has become internationally recognized as a way to recruit volunteers.
People have known for ages that helping others is good for the soul. But the study that Allan Luks conducted of over 3000 male and female volunteers has proven it is good for the body and mental health too. His research concluded that regular helpers are 10 times more likely to be in good health than people who don’t volunteer. And that there’s an actual biochemical explanation: volunteering reduces the body's stress and also releases endorphins, the brain’s natural painkillers
His book: “The Healing Power of Doing Good” explains the relationship between good health and volunteering, and the factors that make it possible to allow individuals to maintain their independence as they grow older and face both physical and mental health challenges.
Some of the most significant findings of his research include the following:
1. Helping others contributes to the maintenance of good health and can diminish the effect of minor and serious psychological and physical diseases and disorders.
2. The rush of euphoria often referred to as a “helper’s high” after performing a kind act involves physical sensations and the release of the body’s natural painkillers, the endorphins. The initial rush is followed by a longer period of calm and improved emotional well-being.
3. The health benefits and sense of well-being return for hours or even days whenever the helping act is remembered.
4. Stress related health problems improve after performing kind acts. Helping others:
• Reverses feelings of depression.
• Supplies social contact.
• Reduces feelings of hostility and isolation that can cause stress, overeating, ulcers, etc.
• Decreases the constriction in the lungs that leads to asthma attacks.
5. Helping can enhance feelings of joyfulness, emotional resilience, and vigour, and can reduce the unhealthy sense of isolation.
6. The awareness and intensity of physical pain can decrease.
7. Attitudes such as chronic hostility that negatively arouse and damage the body are reduced.
8. A sense of self-worth, greater happiness, and optimism is increased, and feelings of helplessness and depression decrease.
9. When we establish an “affiliative connection” with someone (a relationship of friendship, love, or some sort of positive bonding), we feel emotions that can strengthen the immune system.
10. Caring for strangers leads to immense immune and healing benefits.
11. Regular club attendance, volunteering, entertaining, or faith group attendance is the happiness equivalent of getting a college degree, or more than doubling your income.
Read more:
The Value of Values: Why Values Matter
How volunteering saved my life
VOLUNTEERS
“Many will be shocked to find
When the day of judgement nears
That there's a special place in heaven
Set aside for volunteers.”-Author unknown
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- Written by: Kamran Mofid
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Photo:aljazeera.com
A three-part series looking at the history of France’s black community and their long struggle for recognition
Between one and five million French citizens claim African or Caribbean heritage. These numbers are, however, estimates, as population censuses do not recognise race. For over a century, black immigrants, though never officially identified as different, were treated as 'others'. Even today, of France’s 577 members of parliament, only five are black.
This three-part series tells the story of blacks in France - a long history of segregation, racism, protest, violence, culture and community building - from the turn of the 20th century until the present day.
This is a must-watch programme for all those interested in or struggling for peace, justice and equality.- Details
- Written by: Kamran Mofid
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“I found the greatest love of all, inside of me, the greatest love of all, is easy to achieve. Learning to love yourself, it is the greatest love of all.” An excerpt from the song, “The Greatest Love of All.”-Photo: alicehocker.com
‘The song "Greatest Love of All," written by Michael Masser and Linda Creed (performed by Whitney Houston) contains the following lyrics: "I found the greatest love of all/Inside of me/ ... Learning to love yourself/It is the greatest love of all." There are many types of love that we have for the people in our lives: love for a romantic partner or spouse, for our family, for our children, for our friends, for humanity, in general, and for ourselves. Which of these is most important? Which should be our first priority? Is self-love the "Greatest Love of All"? Or is it selfish and self-indulgent?’- Leslie Karen Lobell
Love Thyself: A Reflection by Harold W. Becker
Founder and President, The Love Foundation
“There is a great wisdom in the idea to “know thyself.” There is an even more amazing truth to “love thyself.” This is not love in a selfish sense, rather to fully accept ourselves just for who we are here and now without condition or limitation. The better we begin to know, understand and love ourselves, the greater we develop love for others and together, the more compassionate world we create.
The process of loving unconditionally begins by turning within and acknowledging our potential to love – even if we do not currently believe it is possible. We have to clear away our thick layers of old worn out and limiting beliefs that hide our light. We also need to look in the mirror of life and realize our current state of personal affairs. How much do we love? Why do we give in to fear and doubt? Why are we afraid to accept and love our self? What keeps us from loving all others? Do we even know what love really means to us?
In every moment we have the opportunity to embrace our natural ability to love unconditionally and to share this love with all others. Thankfully, we are not alone in this endeavor. We have our Higher Self, our indwelling higher nature that knows how to guide us personally through the maze of illusion and into our unconditionally loving selves. In contrast to our human side and focus, this is the spiritual part of us that understands and embodies love and knows the big picture. It brings to us the right ideas, impulses, people, lessons, and experiences that best encourages us how to love more deeply and release the judgments and opinions that bind us. It is ever ready to help us realize and use the higher response of love. We need only acknowledge this guiding force and potential within ourselves to reap the gifts.
Pursuing a life of unconditional love is an incredible journey of ever expanding freedom and joy, peace and harmony. The more we engage in it, the more our lives become enriched by this energy. Willingness is the key that unlocks our potential. Without our willingness to go beyond current understandings of personal and societal beliefs and to even try it out, unconditional love remains little more than a pair of words. It is especially during challenging experiences and events that touch us at our very core, that our readiness to find and use the qualities of forgiveness and love become vital to our individual and collective wellbeing. Without this willingness, we often shut the door to a loving response that could change generations of lives in a single moment.
The journey is as simple as embracing the love we already have within. We are the only ones that make it difficult or delay its attainment in our life. Experiencing and sharing love is the intention; patience and practice are how we get there. Whether we accept it or not, love is the only force that resolves the issues of life. It is the energy that dissolves the limitations of hatred, separation, anger, greed, ignorance and the many other negative and destructive forces that pass through and around us each moment. It is up to us to integrate and use the energy of love to transform the limitations into unlimited possibilities that benefit all.
It is our ultimate destiny to love unconditionally. It is also our freedom, right, privilege, and our gift to ourselves and life around us. Not only does it generate harmony and joy, wisdom and understanding, it brings reason and purpose to life. Be inspired to seek love for yourself and your neighbor and make this a better world for all. We have much to gain and nothing to lose in accepting and using unconditional love. So give it a try, you may never experience life the same way again.”
Original source of this article: Mailshot by the Love Foundation
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