One of the most selfless things to do in life is to stop thinking everything is about you.
It usually translates into:
- Talking about your situation when someone else is speaking about theirs
- Never listening or asking the other person how they are feeling, and always sharing your point of view (aka being a full-time taker)
- Not realising you are doing 1 and 2 above 🙂
I have figured, that being there for people is an act you can do only when you are there for yourself.
Which usually translates into:
- Journalling your thoughts
- Reading books
- Spending time with nature
- Anything else that is not energy draining, and makes you feel closer to yourself (which means YouTube bingewatching is not counted even though listening to an inspirational talk is)
The world has deluded us into believing that we can do all these things only when we have “a lot of time” or maybe all of these things are “gyaan” and do not work in real life.
The truth is, when you do the work, these things work.
You have to be able to get out of your own way to work on yourself, in order to have meaningful relationships that make you grow. Otherwise, most of us are stuck into cobwebs of people like us who just want to speak and never listen; leaving us wondering why people are so selfish.
Be selfless towards yourself. By being selfish for yourself.
And being selfless towards others would become a second nature.