Expressions

Down-turn Abbey

MNU-ICONS-EXPRESSIONS

  

It is really hard when you don’t feel well physically to keep your mental outlook sunny and positive.  Some days is it hard to be optimistic when it seems like your tough spot just keeps going on and on with no end in sight.  We all have these moments, illness or not.  How do we keep on going?

In the times when I have been most down and depressed, I try to remember what my mother taught me – there is always someone who needs your help.  Her remedy for the blues was to get out and volunteer.  Do something for someone who is having a harder time than you.  Work in a soup kitchen, read to an elderly patient in a nursing home, rock some babies in the NICU, help an underprivileged child with their homework.  Just. Do. Something.

There are a lot of great organizations out there for volunteers, like Do Something, VolunteerMatch, Idealist.org or Network for Good.  If you can’t physically participate, find a way to help online or by stuffing envelopes or creating presentations from home.  Find a cause that interests you and get involved.  It will make you feel 100% better on the inside, and it might help you feel better physically, too

For our CIO’s birthday memorial this past year, we volunteered at a food bank.  It made us feel good to pack up healthy lunches for local schoolchildren who otherwise might not have a good meal, let alone a meal at all.  It was the best way to honor her memory, and it was for a cause she passionately believed in.  We are going to make that a yearly tradition.

mlkdayIf you don’t have time to devote to a particular cause, then help a neighbor, do something kind for your child’s teachtake your parents to dinner.  Just go out of your way to spread some kindness for no particular reason, with no expectations of return.

Martin Luther King Day is coming up on Monday, January 20th.  It is now known as a Day of Service, part of United We Serve, the President’s national call to service initiative. Here’s a day devoted to doing something for your own community.  We encourage you to be a part of it.

So go on, get out there! Lend a hand, lend your skills, lend an ear.  We are here on this earth to be of service to each other.  It is the surest way to turn your down frown into a sunny smile.

 

 

-AK