Do Good Things For Others And You Will Find Happiness
How often do you do good things for others?
The boomerang effect or “Action Theory” tells us that “every cause has its effect and every effect has its cause”. Therefore, positive thoughts, feelings and actions return to us in a beneficial way. When these are negative, the opposite happens.
When we try to do good things for our neighbors, whether through thought, feeling, or deed, we automatically pave the way for our own happiness.
That is why it is so important to be aware of the way we think, feel and act. We must remember that what we do has the power to change the consequences we will face in the future.
Giving a glass of water in exchange for a glass of water only “meets” the law of reciprocity. Real generosity consists of returning actions that are worth much more.
Everything we do to others, we do for ourselves in one way or another. The key is to let our good deeds be nurtured by themselves, not by what we get back or what we have received before.
Most people who do good deeds do so in spite of the circumstances. They are inspired by the energy that comes from what they do, and not what they get in return.
Do good things for others: “Kill them with kindness”
They say that a person can be the driving force for big changes. Although the world sometimes seems hostile, there are small actions we can take to make it seem more inviting.
Many people are familiar with the popular phrase: “Do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing”. This means that we should do things because we believe it is the right thing to do without caring about who benefits.
This saying teaches us that we do not need approval or comparisons to do the right thing. When we see it in that light, kindness goes hand in hand with a selfless way of being. That, believe it or not, is where we find our reward.
Wishing bad things for other people comes back to us negatively. It gives bitterness and unrest. No one is completely happy if they want others to be unhappy. In general, someone who feels bad wants the other person to feel worse.
Ideas of good and evil
The branch of philosophy that studies human actions and classifies them as good or evil is ethics. Ethics is about doing good things, but not all philosophers have the same idea about it. In ethics, good is desirable and is the opposite of evil, which is undesirable.
Cultural relativism accepts that there are different ideas about what is good. Ethnocentrism is less lenient on this subject.
Regardless, there are actions that are inherently good or evil because everyone finds them morally acceptable or offensive. Helping others is the highest form of goodness, and attacking and harming others for joy is one of the highest expressions of evil.
The dispute over good and evil shows us that ethics is a battlefield. But it also shows us that it is not purely relative. It shows that certain behaviors are better than others. And we are talking about absolutely better, not better for anyone or in relation to cultural norms.
We should not be worried about a few murderers or terrorists. The good outweighs the evil, but we do not notice it so much because it is quiet.
In the words of Facundo Cabral: “A bomb makes more sound than a caress, but for every bomb that destroys us, there are millions of caresses that nourish life.”
