Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Feeling good makes me feel selfish

The more I help other people, the more I help myself. That thought makes me feel selfish or guilty. Selfish and guilt because I help others doesn’t really make sense to me, so I thought I would ponder on it for a little bit. Selfish and guilt to me are part of my ego. The ego is the “I” or “mine” part of my life, and the part of my mind that attaches itself to things. What part of helping others makes me feel guilty or selfish? I know I have spend most of my life on the receiving end of the helping others in life, giving is something new to me, but not something that I think would make me feel guilt or selfish. It is such a good feeling when I know that I am helping someone who needs help and then somewhere at that point of feeling good I turn it around and make it a negative feeling. Maybe I don’t feel like I deserve to feel good when I help someone else. It should be like doing work or doing a deed without expecting anything in return, but I get flooded with warmth and the feeling like I did something good. If I look at it that way I guess I can see where guilt and feeling selfish can come in, but that is not what I want. I am doing what feels natural to me when I help someone else, and my natural actions makes me feel good. If it happens to help others that is great, but I can also see how letting myself feel good about doing what seems natural as something good. Problem Solved.