Altruism summary

Altruism is all about helping others, but there’s actually another word that describes such caring acts. It’s love – a feeling of appreciation and peaceful, contented happiness.

But love isn’t just a path to helping others; it’s also contagious. Every loving act builds momentum that creates more love.

Having good intentions may be well and good, but did you know there’s actually scientific evidence to support the benefits of acting positively?

It’s true! This research is based on the concept of neuroplasticity, that people in essence become more loving by having altruistic thoughts. But let’s back up a bit and look at how the scientific community arrived at this discovery.

While natural altruism is inherent in all of us, there are some people who feel that to succeed, one has to focus on one’s own needs alone.

But how true is this?

Meditation is a practice of introspection that’s existed for over 2,000 years, even before the Buddha’s time. But did you know that meditating is also a powerful way to alter your state of mind and cultivate altruism?

That’s because to help others, you first need to be strong yourself. It’s this strength and patience that meditation can gradually build. In fact, even a short daily meditation session can create fundamental positive changes in your mind.

Most people enjoy recognition for doing good deeds. Yet from the perspective of a true altruist, simply doing his part to help is what’s important – recognition doesn’t matter.

That’s because heroes do what’s necessary, regardless of the danger to themselves; when that task is accomplished, they don’t try to remain in the spotlight.

So you can cultivate altruism within yourself, but what about doing good on a collective level?

This requires a basic level of resources that allows each and every person to care for themselves and their family. Unfortunately, our current economic system creates and maintains levels of inequality that will need to change to foster a more harmonious and altruistic society.

Plenty of people enjoy lending a hand. While you might think such individuals are the exceptions to the rule, if you take a closer look, you’ll see that generosity abounds in the world.

In fact, both individual and collective altruism are much more prevalent than one might think.

We all hope for a brighter tomorrow, even though the world is full of challenges, few of which we can surmount alone. Learning from one another and building empathetic collaboration are two principles that are essential to the success of a peaceful society.

But what do we need to do to put these principles into practice?