Positivity: Help

There is great power in both helping, and allowing yourself to be helped.

Some people see needing assistance as a weakness. They see needing other people to do whatever it is they are trying to do as a sign of failure. But the truth is, we need people. What’s more, there are going to be times when we need help from people. Further, there are times when giving aid is equally important.

I don’t know anybody who can do everything. I know a lot of people with a lot of different skills and a variety of talents. But nobody I know can do everything. As such, situations will arise in our lives where we cannot find answers or solutions to problems without help.

Some people find accepting help a difficult idea. For some psychological reason beyond my own understanding, we find it easier to give help than to ask for help. Somehow, the notion of giving aid to another is one of strength, while accepting aid is one of weakness. But either way, giving or receiving, there is great positivity in helping.

How is help a positivity generator? Because when you give someone assistance, you feel grateful for being able to make their life better, or help them solve a problem. On the other side, when you have an issue and someone helps you resolve it, you feel grateful for their assistance. Gratitude is one of the most positive forces in the universe, and a massive building block for positivity.

Helping someone else seems easier because it shows your own abilities, skills, and knowledge base. You have the answer to that problem, the connection another person needs, the ride to the airport, or even the shoulder to cry on. It is harder for some people to accept that someone else can provide the answer you seek, someone else can help you network, you might need someone’ shoulder to cry on. We are only human, and help, given or received, is a positive thing.

Which brings me to the one caveat in this. It is important to know the difference between receiving help and taking help. Receiving is help that is accepted at face value, no expectation of reciprocation, no price. You receive that help with gratitude. Taking help is help that comes with a price, tit for tat, and the person helped is ungrateful for the aid. This notion is a further contributor to why some are less comfortable with being helped. But if you give gratitude for help received, you are not a taker.

Finding positivity is not hard, it just requires action. Knowing that both giving help and receiving help are generators of positivity, you can open yourself up to more helpfulness on either side. Allowing yourself to provide aid and to receive aid will build up positive energies, and help to dissolve negative feelings. When we take away negative feelings, we open up space to let in positive feelings, and that is something we can be grateful for. Gratitude leads to happiness. Happiness is the ultimate positive attitude. Positive attitude begets positive energy, and that is always a good thing.

This is the forty first entry of my Positivity series.  It is my hope these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone.  Feel free to share, re-blog and spread the positivity.