A Simple Way to Be Thankful and to Help Someone in Need

Posted on Balanced Body | November 25, 2009 | 7 Comments

This post was written by Anastasiya. Follow me on Twitter or StumbleUpon and keep your life balanced!

Image by Hamed Saber

Being thankful for everything you have in life is the only true way to be happy with your life. If you are not thankful then you are not ready to accept what you are given and you are not ready to overcome any hardships that you meet on your way. Thanksgiving is the holiday that makes you think about that. I think that the true story of Thanksgiving is much less important than what this holiday is supposed to mean. The United States are so full of immigrants now (and I am one of them) that the real story does not really matter to all these people. The meaning of the holiday is what matters.

There is more to Thanksgiving than a traditional turkey dinner and a football game on the couch. This holiday is just a reminder of what we should do every day and every minute of our life – be thankful for everything we have. It is very difficult at first to learn to be thankful. We forget what we have in life and what we should value. We focus on what we want and what we cannot get for some reason; we focus on disappointments and hardships, on problems and trifles.

How can you learn to be thankful? Just look around. Do not look at people who have something that you desire (a better job, a better house, a better family, more money etc.), look at people who have absolutely nothing and be thankful for everything that you have.

I know that a lot of times we block out images of people in need in our head because we are afraid of the pain and compassion that we might feel. Instead of shutting yourself inside an unrealistic world just open your eyes and help those who need your help. You won’t feel helpless anymore and you will learn to be thankful for what YOU have in your life. You will be thankful for being able to help somebody else.

Your life is not just a puddle isolated from the entire world. Your life is a river that flows into the ocean and that feeds that enormous ocean with water. If there is only one thing that you can do to help somebody then do it. The next moment one of your neighbors will decide to help another person. Then another neighbor or friend will join, and another, and another… If all of us do just one tiny little thing then all together we will make a huge difference.

This Thanksgiving I am very thankful for what I have in life and I want other people to be thankful too. That is why I have decided to lend $25 to Nina Bilyk from Ukraine. She sells clothes in the central marketplace and needs money to expand her trade. If you do not know I am from Ukraine too and I moved to the US just over a year ago. I know that it is tough to start any business at all in Ukraine and it is even more difficult to keep this business going. Selling clothes at the marketplace is a horrible job because you have to stand outside for 6-8 hours every day no matter what the weather is (it gets pretty cold and nasty over there in winter) and you do not even know whether you’ll have any profit or not. I hope that I will be able to help Nina with her business.

I have joined Arvind Devalia from Make it Happen and Mary Jaksch from Good Life Zen in their Blog With Heart Challenge. The Blog with Heart Challenge works with the acclaimed micro-lender Kiva in order to give enterprising community leaders who live in poverty-stricken areas an interest-free loan so that they can establish a small business. Arvind has collected some great videos about Kiva that you can watch here. If you are ready to make a difference and help a needy person then here are three steps that you can follow:

Step 1. Sign up for Kiva here
Step 2. Log into your Kiva account. Go to the Balance In Me lending page and click the “Join Now” button.
Step 3. Go to the Kiva lending page and choose someone you want to lend to. When you get to the checkout, you’ll see that your loan has been added to the portfolio of the Balance In Me Team.

Kiva is not a charity and they do not just give money to anybody who asks for it. You can decide who you want to help personally and once that person pays the loan back you can use this money to help somebody else.

Please help us make a difference. It is simple and, I promise, it will make you feel great. Be thankful for what you have and help somebody else to be thankful too!

Keep it balanced!