Becoming rich by giving

A while ago I was standing in line at the supermarket. The woman in front of me took out all her accumulated discount coupons, a coupon for each product. I wondered if she was actually happier by doing that. Think about the time needed to collect all the coupons. And the extra time at the cash register, a place where no-one really likes to be. Free of charge often sounds like magic words. Have you noticed how much we like to go to ‘as much as you can eat restaurants’? And did you notice that you often take too much on your plate at a hotel buffet? Why do we want to accumulate, in ourselves or in our house?

We are focused on “me”, “my advantage” and “getting more”. In mindfulness we call it the I-me-mine syndrome.

What is that exactly? Suppose that the exquisite watch of your neighbour falls and breaks into pieces. You will not be bothered about it too much. Suppose that it is your new watch that is broken. Does it feel different? That’s because it’s about I, me, mine. The more fixation on this, the more tension. It does not make us truly happy.

Nowadays you can easily downloaded music from the Internet for free. Someone asked me: why then pay for it? From his own perspective, he’s right. But if you take the perspective of the musicians, if you think about the time and investment they have put in to their music to provide quality, it is a disappointment for them when their work is simply just taken. Paying for music is a way to express appreciation for what they have realized and that you enjoy now.

Research showed that people become more happy when they are giving. Sometimes just thinking of purchasing something for someone else can give feelings of happiness. This is inner wealth. Our fear will perhaps come up with stories that justify that you take without offering anything in return …. Our fear always wants to take over. Fear is short sighted and thinks in terms of surviving here and now and sees life as a struggle. Fear cannot be really happy and cannot give. It makes you a slave to ‘have to make a profit’ and always needing to fill a potential shortfall.

Pay the high price rather than always fish for the lowest price! That way you create a mind-set of abundance in your own experience. Try not to focus always on your own benefit, see it as an exchange. Maybe you want to pay the high price and see how it feels, not how you think about it. And yes, that is an act from a sense of abundance, both giving and receiving. It opens your inner joy. It will also ensure that your wallet is not full with discount cards. Every store wants to give you a card and we accept these happily in order to take advantage of it somewhere in the future. Throwing a stack of discount cards in the trash means a little less weight to carry…

To finish with some good advice when you notice that you have not paid the lowest price: perhaps that money will be better utilized than by you … You never know, but let it go, let it be. Look ahead and enjoy what is yet to come.