Gemeinschafsgefuhl

Submitted by John L on Sat, 01/26/2008 - 11:02am.

Gemeinschafsgefuhl

 

“Do Unto Others”

 

I am in a constant search for ways to incorporate this principle into my daily life. Last night at work I was headed for the elevator coming from the cafeteria, and there was a woman coming out of the elevator. She made a left turn and this indicated to me that she was lost. I asked if I could help her to find her way and she acknowledged she was lost. She was in search of the “family birth center” where her daughter was preparing to give birth to her first grandchild. She was about as far away from her destination as she could get. I was not in a big hurry to return to the emergency room at 8 pm on a Friday night, so I made the decision she was in need of a personal escort. After delivering her to the delivery area she apologized for inconveniencing me. I told her it was my pleasure and it really was. I returned to the high pressure of my job with a renewed sense of purpose I would not have experienced had she not got lost. Sometimes it is like there is a voice that tries to tell me I am too important or too busy to do the little things I know I should be doing, like just saying “Hi” to someone passing in the hallway.

            Something else I do on a weekly basis is to volunteer as a small group leader at a local spiritually based recovery ministry. To engage in the process of mentoring someone in changing their life has a very positive impact on my own life change process. I believe that growth needs to be constant and to not be growing in life is to be dying in life.

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Acting out a character strength
Mark A. Hurst PhD's picture
Submitted by Mark A. Hurst PhD on Sat, 01/26/2008 - 3:55pm.
Very nice, John. Often it is the "minute particulars," and not the grand scale events that make the difference in the lives of others, and in our own. I love how I feel when I do these things, and though I often think about how I could have used that time to do something for myself (see another patient, do another errand, look at my retirement portfolio, etc.), I am much quicker at this point in life, to catch myself and realize that when I do these seemingly little acts, I am "doing something for myself!"

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