Your inclination to want to help someone in need is a gift most people are unconsciously unaware of. Most times, when you acknowledge the distance the good you did for someone traveled, you then realize that life is a lot more than your personal needs but more about helping someone get back on their feet. Your altruistic gift always puts you in a position to be able to feel other’s needs and concerns. It’s often sad when you can’t help someone in need but have the intention to. There are various ways to acknowledge this gift inside you.
Take a look below at five (5) ways to know that you are benevolent;
1. You always want to help out even without the resources.
Most times, when you find someone in a difficult situation that you may have once been in, you get an inclination to want to help out; you feel a little burden placed on you. That feeling shows that you have a disposition to do good deeds. Often times, our inability to offer help to someone in need changes the way we feel; we feel bad that we couldn’t do anything to help.
Take for example; one cozy evening, after getting all I wanted from a shopping mall, on my way out I met a young girl who looked stranded and needed help getting home. She came to me hoping I could be of assistance to her. All I had left with me could only transport me and my luggage back home. I felt like going back to the mall to return some of the items I bought to get some money that could enable her get back home, but then I remembered seeing a sticker at the entry saying “no refund after payment”. I felt so bad afterwards and wished I could have been able to help out.
When you feel like you should have helped someone but found yourself in a position which you couldn’t, you have a willingness to do good deeds. You are benevolent.
2. You show compassion for the less privileged.
Often times, when people come across beggars asking for alms, you notice that some are often reluctant to offer any assistance. People have little compassion towards the less privileged. But, for someone who has good compassion for people in need, it becomes absolutely difficult to ignore them; they get burdened with their needs. This pushes them to offer assistance anyway they can.
3. You treat people how you want to be treated.
People who are benevolent tend to treat people how they want to be treated; they do as they want to be done to them. They belief in the law of giving and receiving; karma. They understand that whatever they do now always finds a way to get back to them. Having this perspective causes them to do good deeds so as to reap the good when it comes back.
4. You forgive easily.
As humans we often find it difficult to forgive the people that hurt us or did us wrong especially when they don’t see the error in their ways. It could get really hard to forgive someone when they don’t acknowledge their wrong doing. They get fixed on the belief that people don’t deserve forgiveness especially when they don’t own up to their mistake. But a benevolent person holds a belief contrary to the first belief. They believe that forgiving someone who did them wrong sets them free from the bounds of the person. They understand that holding unto resentment deprives them of a healthy living. So, they forgive easily not because the person who did them wrong deserves forgiveness but because they deserve to be happy and at peace with themselves.
5. You are always happy with yourself.
It is difficult for someone who is always unhappy with himself to make another person happy. You cannot give what you do not have. Happiness is a personal job that needs to be first acknowledged from within. A benevolent person knows that in order to give happiness he needs to be happy and at peace with himself first. But most importantly he knows that happiness is not to be locked down as a persistent state because it fleets. Instead he lets happiness lead the way and not pursue it. This gives him a sense of appreciation for others and most importantly for himself.
