8steplisten

In my opinion, helping others is a great way to build our own resilience and broaden our perspectives. It trains us to see things in a glass half full manner in more fundamental ways, it helps us acknowledge our own fears and insecurities, it helps us think outside the box, etc. What are some things you're learned from helping others?

Meghan watches as her mother finishes a telephone conversation. "Mommy, why are you crying?" "I'm okay," Meghan's mother answers. "I'm okay." Meghan leaves the room and returns moments later. "When I'm sad, I hold on to Mr. Brown," she says, handing over a teddy bear to her mother.

When we learn to help others, we learn to graciously offer our best selves to others. We're saying as gently as possibly that pain doesn't have to equal suffering, that suffering doesn't have to be permanent. We're offering coping mechanisms and other kinds of support. Learning to help is learning to be our best, to offer our best on command!

Hopefully this also sheds some light on the helping relationship. The best a helper can offer you (eg. Meghan's treasured toy) may not be good enough or appropriate for your specific need. You may simply hate teddy bears for very valid, personal reasons. Ideally your helper can help you determine if that's what's happening.

I'd love to see companies spend more money on soft skills training,and caring for others. I think teaching people to listen deeply and without judgment is much more useful than, for example, many trust building exercises out there. Any thoughts?

People who haven't received any mental health or sickle prevention training can sometimes say the wrong things. How can raise awareness and skills on a large scale?