Giving For Me
I have always been a giver! From the time I can remember I have given freely and authentically. I actually know no other way of being. Fortunately for me, this is inherent and does not require me to think at all. It is natural, but the folly is that I sometimes forget that others do not have the same trait. Which, of course, has led me to challenge people by driving them toward their own spirit of giving.
Giving comes from the richness of the soul and not The riches of the pockets.
At the age of three, my parents were in hospital, both wounded and bedridden. We lived in New York and the grocer below my building knew me. I would go down and ask him for some flowers to bring up to my mother, so that she would feel better. He would very willingly give me the flowers and I would happily run upstairs and hand the flowers over to my mother.
This circle of giving brought about a great amount of happiness in the shopkeeper and taught me my first lessons in generosity. It also taught me that people love receiving and no matter how old I am, I am in the position to give.
The light of joy in my mother’s eyes when she received my flowers were irreplaceable. As a little girl I was delighted with myself at the ability to spread happiness. The feeling that one gets when giving to another is a wave of selflessness and it makes you understand how beautiful the journey of community, compassion and passion is.
Even as a child I was drawn to stories, songs and parables about giving. One of my favourite hymns when I was little (and it still is) was the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, ‘Make me a channel of your peace’, and my favourite line in it is ‘It is giving that we receive’
Time and time again, I loved unconditionally. I gave my whole self in every friendship. I never really realised it, but by the time I was in University I was a seasoned giver. I found joy in helping people heal. I found great contentment in uplifting the downtrodden. Community service became inevitable and I worked with the Salvation Army with battered East Indian women to help them recover from pain and anguish they had suffered.
Of course it is no rocket science that as an adult I would choose to be a professional giver. Both my company Mind Over Image Consulting and the Poddar Foundation work towards servicing communities and individuals.
The Poddar Foundation works towards giving knowledge to people in order to encourage them to live happier lives. We work with the communities of economically weaker sections of society to enable them identify risky behaviour that may move their mental health into mental ill health.
Mind Over Image Consulting on the other hand, teaches individuals to take care of this spirit, to take care of their lives, and to take care of their mental health. I realised a long time ago that when a person feels good about themselves only then can they be a giver. People in society need to feel good about themselves only then can they give back to society. As they say, if a person’s love toward themselves is not runneth over then a person cannot completely love another.
So fill yourself with love, self-worth and authenticity. Take those skills and start to give back to society and you will find your path to giving. May this year be the year for you to explore your gift of giving.
