volunteer work

Started by Blueberry, August 16, 2017, 09:22:31 PM

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Blueberry

When I was at the yoga retreat, they talked about karma yoga, which is doing good things for other people, or volunteer work, basically. For me, it's easier to help people 'for free' or as an exchange system than to do it for pay. But since I don't earn enough money myself, that way of thinking is a bit warped. I spoke to one of the people at the yoga retreat about that and she said karma yoga can include just smiling nicely at somebody or opening the door for them and that if I have been spending years doing things for other people, I should stop that and focus on me.

But I'm discovering it's not that easy. I have all this time on my hands at the moment and I'm not using it much for anything. Like today it was sunny and warmish and originally I'd intended going into the garden with my pets in the afternoon and just reading a book, but in the end I didn't.  This is depression, in my books.

I don't do the precise work I do for pay free for anybody. I'm not that bad towards myself about these things, but today I offered to help my new neighbours with something similar, because I have time in August and they need the help and I know that with their circumstances they won't have much money. And immediately I feel more energised, less depressed, as if there is more reason now to 'keep going', even get out of bed and clean my apartment (in severe need of being done).

I haven't mentioned this topic yet in T, maybe next week. Interested if any of you experience anything similar.

I also realised at the yoga retreat that I have been doing work for years for my FOO, in being the family scapegoat. This is a new idea.

Three Roses

I was the rebel child, the one who spoke out and challenged the status quo. I got a lot of negative attention from it. These family roles that we have while we're developing as people can be hard to shake. ;)

I get a little energized around people temporarily and then spend days trying to recover. Doing things online or spending time on the phone or just one-on-one is the best for me. I get too depressed when I isolate myself too thoroughly.

Blueberry

What I was doing a little of yesterday and today was helping my new neighbours, who are Syrian refugees. I was talking to them, correcting their speech a bit (which they appreciate - they kept asking me how they can learn the language faster), showing them how to do basic things in this apartment building, and just being friendly.

That's not exactly volunteer work, but I have been wracking my brains a bit wondering where else they could get help for this or that. Last night I also planned to get up this morning and do some cleaning and tidying, but then I didn't. So I thought like you 3Roses, got energized temporarily, but not enough. I didn't need to recover I don't think because I hadn't done enough to warrant that.

This evening I invited them down into the garden instead (my apartment is out of the question still) and produced a game, which can be good for practising a foreign language. I arranged to meet them tomorrow morning too and look at their language text books and see in what way I could teach them to learn more efficiently. This is moving more into my professional line, but it does energise me. I just have to make sure I don't do too much of it and ignore my own needs. I'm going to have to get up before noon tomorrow. This is good.  :thumbup: Today it was good to go into the garden too. I even took my pets with me for the first time in days.

As I write this, I think I'm probably basically lonely, but OTOH I don't like having people around me all the time. I need a lot of time on my own so as not to get triggered into this or that. Quite a number of my friends are on holiday atm. It's that time of year.