A Time for Caring

People who voluntarily help others—no matter how demanding the work they take on—are happier and healthier than the rest of us.

Altruism basically means helping others voluntarily with no expectation of external rewards; the help may even be at great personal risk or cost.

Altruists do not limit caring to family and friends; they extend it to others. We’re talking about a kind of activity that is a natural and spontaneous expression of well-being and wholeness, not deficiency or neurotic needs. Altruism is a sign of mental health because people who are healthy aren’t worried about themselves. Concern for the world is what’s left over after concern for yourself.

The most “fully human” person is someone who is compassionate out of the understanding that all of life is interconnected and is to be lived not in isolation, trying to satisfy only one’s own ego, but rather in service to the community. Altruism, compassion, love, and friendship are the flowering of seeds with which we’re all born.

When we voluntarily enter into service even in seemingly stressful activities, we actually relax. In fact, what happens is the opposite of the stress or arousal response—we relax. Metabolism, blood pressure, heart rate and breathing decrease. And we experience a reduction in anxiety, depression, and anger. It’s pretty hard to feel depressed when you see a smile that you helped to create.

The act of giving selflessly can also be as effective as exercise in energizing ourselves. Of 3,300 volunteers surveyed in 1989, those who helped regularly were ten times more likely to report better health than those who volunteered only once a year. Personal contact is critical, however; giving money or donating clothes doesn’t have the same benefits.”

Recent research reveals how dramatic the positive experience of giving voluntarily may be. A study of 2,700 people for more than a decade showed people engaged in regular volunteer work were two and a half times less likely to die during the research project than those who didn’t volunteer.

But altruists do not enter into helping others because they’ve calculated all the benefits to be reaped. There is an inner hunger on the part of a lot of people who feel that the kind of individualistic psychologies that have shaped our lives in the West—together with families breaking down and communities fragmenting—have left them disconnected and alienated, without a sense that their lives or work have greater meaning. But when they decide “I’m going to do something to make a difference,” they find that they experience a sense of fulfillment and joy that they were lacking.

The desire to care is not all that is required to become a caring person. It is our inability to express our feelings that keeps us from caring. People cannot truly care for others if their anger and aggression is stifled or trivialized. We are so hurt by a hostile society that we cannot feel or care for ourselves let alone others. Our society has constructed taboos against the communication and expression of our feelings especially our anguish and hostilities.

In our schools individual expression is sacrificed for the sake of orderliness. In our family it’s “Don’t cry, crying is for babies. Just fit in, don’t make waves.” Our “nice” society allows little margin for safe release of anger and aggression, or caring. Caring is out of context in a society riddled with violence and hostility.

This writing represents the spirit and practice at Yandara Yoga Institute’s Yoga Teacher Trainings, Baja, Mexico.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Compiled and edited by Craig and Patti Perkins, Co-directors, Yandara Yoga Institute, Yoga Teacher Training, A.P. 116, Todos Santos, Baja. Calif. South. , Mexico 23305, Web: http://www.yandara.com/
eMail: yoga@yandara.com, USA: 1-877 490 9883

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A Time for Caring

ABOUT THE AUTHOR