Sunday, July 20, 2014

Paying It Forward Seems Counter Intuitive, Or?

While listening to the radio this morning, I heard, on the Living Your Inspired Life Sunday Program with Susan Burrell, Nipun Mehta discussing his "Pay It Forward" philosophy.

Intrinsic in his message is "Giftivism" which changes a person who gives freely.  Generosity and kindness are the currency.  Nipun talks about a universal ripple effect. One of the projects he references is Kharma Kitchen; a restaurant where you arrive, eat and pay for the following people as someone else has paid for your meal already, since they have paid it forward previously:  Counter intuitive to say the least!

 Receiving too much can elicit a sense of guilt that can lead to an unresolved need to reciprocate with no satisfying way to do so. Many of us in America feel we have so much when others have so little. As long as we keep it local and personal, we don't feed into megalomaniacal politicians who claim to have answers to "help us" with our need to give. How many more bureaucratic entities do we need, anyway? Even though original intent is brushed off regularly, with workshops etc within agencies, during personal periods of scarcity, where basic survival kicks in and a feeling that "we don't have enough" seeps into the bureaucracies and ways to "game" the system often lead to corruption if there are not enough givers in an organization to keep them on track. Agencies, after all, rely strictly on "good intentions" because there's no free market using healthy competition with intrinsic checks and balances, only rules and regulations.

There is a varying percentage of people worldwide who have become aware of such universal truths and chose this method when available as they're in touch with their higher selves.  It can be a simple pleasure and they may appreciate an opportunity to share their sense of gratitude while meeting others who also share across boundaries.  Different parts of the world have connected to their higher selves by different methods and religions.  Our currently fractured world needs a strong frame of reference in solid leadership to be reminded the beauty of stability.