The different ways we can flex our giving “muscle”
Giving doesn’t come easily to us. And it does, once you realize that we’ve been giving all our lives, just not in the ways we think. When we think about giving, we often think about volunteering at a charity organization, or making donations to a certain cause.
To me, giving has never been something at the top of mind. I had only thought of money donations or volunteering at a charity, until I became a volunteer at an environmental non-governmental organization, which exposed me to the many ways we can contributing to our community, outside of the normal charitable donations and volunteering.
Giving is a lost concept. Who knows why and how they want to give? What if I wanted to provide resources other than money? Here are some of the ways we can flex our giving muscle, without the contribution of our money or time. Once giving becomes a natural reflex, it will be much easier for us to nurture our spirit of giving:
- Do something kind for someone. Doing something nice for someone will help brighten up someone else’s day, as well as yours. You could bake a cake for a new neighbour who’s just moved into the neighbourhood, or buy flowers for an elderly neighbour who lives alone, and brighten up their days.
- Call a friend just to say hi. We never know when our days are bad, so just pick up the phone and call your friend for a chat. She could be facing a bad day and your call could have come at the best time to cheer her up.
- Surprise your friend with a visit from you. Friends don’t let friends be miserable. Drop in on your friend on a lovely afternoon (with some baked goods or chocolate in hand) to spend some quality time with her, and she’ll appreciate it.
Giving makes your heart grow 3 sizes
Indeed, performing acts of giving makes you happier [ Huffpost, New Republic]. But before you start giving all your belongings away, we should try as much as we can to be necessarily selfless in our actions and think of others before ourselves.
GIVE Asia hopes to develop a lifestyle and culture of giving in Asia by making it intrinsically the easiest and most natural thing to do via our platform. Visit our platform to get in touch, get to know how you can give back to your community, as well as get in touch with charities you’re interested in, to support social causes you’re passionate about.
