1. Help heal someone’s soul by sharing your particular gifts and talents
Pablo Picasso once said: “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” You have gifts and talents. You were born with a kernel of them inside you and it’s your job in this lifetime to figure out what they are, to nourish them and help them grow, and then to share them with others.
The world is a hurting place. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, depression is the number one cause of disability in the United States. The World Health Organization is calling obesity a worldwide epidemic and it’s the second leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Illegal drug use and alcohol abuse costs the United States over $740 billion every year and are a leading cause of preventable death. Opioid abuse is also being called a national epidemic with annual costs reaching nearly $79 billion and a death toll from overdose that took the lives of nearly 50,000 Americans in 2017.
I could keep going with the statistics on all kinds of substances and behaviors that people are abusing and their associated costs (money, crime, health care, lost work productivity, damaged relationships, mortality rate, etc.). Suffice it to say: more people than ever before seem to be hurting.
And you have gifts and talents that can help.
2. You can heal your own soul in the process
All of us have a story. I’m sure you have been through something difficult, uncomfortable, that hurt you, may have even broken/shattered you, left you reeling, sent you down a deep dark pit of sadness/depression, made you question the world and your place in it, changed the trajectory of your life forever, and on the list goes. You may still be going through it. What will help you out of that place, what will heal your soul, is finding the lesson in whatever it is you went and/or are still going through.
The lesson is a favor to you (it really is if you’ll just look at it that way). You’ll learn invaluable things about yourself (what you want and what you don’t), about others (who you want in your life and who you don’t), about how the world works (what matters to you and what doesn’t), and a myriad of other things you might not have learned any other way.
Once you find the lesson, it’s part of your purpose in this life to share it with someone else. You’ll find that you can do that best by combining the lesson you learned with your gifts and talents, whatever they be. Sharing means being vulnerable, which means stepping out of your comfort zone and into the unknown without a guarantee of the outcome. It will scare you. Do it anyway because it will:
- cement the lesson in your own mind (you can’t teach it to others unless you understand it yourself).
- help someone out of that place you once found yourself because you’re lighting the way and acting as their shepherd/guide.
- heal you and continue to heal whatever feels broken/lacking/missing/etc. in your own life.
3. You can help heal someone’s soul by offering more life for all
Using your gifts and talents to share your story really will help you look more objectively at your own life, connect you to others who are struggling or have struggled with the same thing as you, and give you a sense of belonging that we all need to be healthy and whole. Telling the truth of what you’ve been through will also build your compassion, not only for others but also for yourself. And it’s the compassion (both for self and others) that’ll make a safe space for both you and others to heal and grow.
Helping someone else heal will also shift your perception. It’ll get you out of a scarcity mentality (competition; there’s not enough; I’ve got to get mine) and into abundance (creation; there’s more than enough for all of us; I can share). Once you shift what you believe and let go of scarcity, you’ll come to find that you’re saying yes to abundance. And once you say yes to anything, that’s when (and only when) it can finally enter your life.
Sharing part of yourself will also make you realize that you were never alone. You’ll come to discover that there was always someone out in the world who went through something just like you did, who once felt or still feels just like you did. You’ll also come to find out (if you don’t already know) that you: 1. are capable of saving your own life, and 2. can be a beacon of hope and inspiration for others to save their own lives too.
So how will you help heal someone’s soul?
