We Rise by Lifting Others - a Misunderstood Concept

"We rise by lifting others." ~ Robert Ingersoll

This is a very simple concept but at the same time one of the most misunderstood concepts in today's world.

First, let's take a look at what "lifting others" actually means or more importantly what it does not mean.  It has become all to common in the modern world to think that you can lift someone else up out of a negative situation by providing them with a comparison to someone else who is in a worse situation.

How many times have you heard or maybe even said yourself, "Oh that's terrible, but don't feel bad because look over here at this other person who is in a worse situation than you are."?  This approach does nothing to lift that person up or address the situation they are in.  What is happening here is that the person who is in the negative situation is basically being told that they should add the feeling of guilt to their equation for feeling bad about their situation because someone else has it worse.

The real insanity of this belief that comparing yourself to someone worse off then you are is when you go out of your way to make someone else feel worse than you do so that you can see that comparison and somehow feel better about yourself.  This can take the form of someone who is having a bad day so they take it out on some teenage minimum wage part time cashier at the grocery story who likely has enough problems in their life as it is and then leave the store feeling superior about themselves with the knowledge that they just made some poor kid cry.  Or it might be the person who goes online to seek out conflict with a complete stranger believing that if they can insult someone enough that they will feel better about themselves.

Aside from the clear cruelty is this approach it has the complete opposite effect of what this concept is all about. By lifting others up you are helping to raise their vibrational frequency and in turn that very act will raise your own vibrational frequency.  If you go out of your way to break someone else down, the effect will only backfire on you and lower your vibrational frequency as well.

So let's take a look at a few ways that one might help lift someone else up:

• Be encouraging. Encouragement is an expression and assurance of one's hope and future in words, presence, and sincerity.
• Be understanding. Wisdom and understanding go hand in hand. Understanding starts by being an active listener (not planning a reply as one is speaking), asking intelligent questions to gain further insights, and being accepting of what the person is sharing.  Then answer without condemning. Or don't answer at all and decide to just be a listening ear.
• Share knowledge. Found an article or book that's useful?  Share it with your friends.  Sharing has been made easier thanks to the accessibility of sharing tools on the web, along with help from social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.  Sharing knowledge helps us learn, discover, and understand things that are interesting.  They have immediate application for better results in our work and life, edifies our soul, and improves our daily conversations.
• Stay humble. Humility and maturity are synonymous. A dignified person accomplishes much, but brags little.  They are secure in their standing without the need to make noise, often treating everyone with tremendous respect, regardless of position.
• Be positive! Positive thinking goes beyond having the drive and motivation for personal success.  Positive thinking is explicit, definite, and outspoken.  It's contagious.  Build others up with your positiveness, allowing them to be open for better things to come.
• Love. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails … And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13, NIV). Building up a person with any of the other ways mentioned is only made effective when done so together with love. Care for others how you would want to be cared for. Build up one another how you would like to be inspired. As a result, you will move up to a whole new level of breakthroughs in life.

Finally, I want to talk a little about the subject of giving financial help.

If you are someone who has been blessed with a financial abundance and you feel moved or motivated to give to help others less fortunate then please...Please...PLEASE do so directly do not give your money to some big box "charity" organization.   These so-called "charity" organizations are nothing but businesses and they do not help anyone who is truly in need.

Do you really believe that any of those big cancer research charities who take in billions of dollars a year in donations have the slightest interest in actually finding a cure for cancer that would eliminate the perceived need for their very existence?  There are countless numbers of natural and freely available cures for cancer available right now.  But these organizations never talk about them, they only talk about their next fundraiser and where you can send your check.

And I had to learn the hard way that the organizations that claim to help the poor do nothing of the sort.  I spent over 20 years of my life giving to organizations like the Salvation Army and then fell on hard times myself.   When I reached out to these organizations seeking only for help in preventing my electric from being turned off in the dead of a hard winter, I was told that since I had no income at the time I was not eligible for assistance.

So please if you truly want to help someone less fortunate than yourself then go out and find someone who needs that help and give it to them directly.  Believe me when I say they are not hard to find.  We live in a world where big corporations employ the majority of the population by paying them a less then poverty wage while at the same time taking billions of dollars of tax payer money to add to the insane amounts of money they are already squeezing from their own employees.  Then those very same employees are criticized by the masses when they have to sign up for food stamps so they can feed their children to keep them alive.


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