A Simple Way to Make the World a Happier Place to Be In!

By Yozhou

Human beings have certain basic needs, meeting which is vital for them to lead a happy and satisfying life. The need for food, shelter and clothing are some of these basic human needs. In addition to these needs which are of a material character are our basic needs that are affective or emotional in nature. Among the latter such needs is our need to feel wanted by others, the need to feel cared for, or the need simply to be recognized as someone of at least some value in another person’s eyes. In a world where many people are concerned simply with pursuing the satisfaction of their own needs and wants, this basic emotional need of ours—to feel wanted, appreciated—can easily be left unfulfilled, leading to a massive vacuum in our lives. This being the case, meeting other people’s basic need to feel worthy of a fellow human being’s care and attention can go a long way in bringing them joy and making their lives more meaningful. Going beyond ourselves by meeting another person’s need to feel wanted, even through little acts of kindness that may cost little or nothing in terms of money and time, can be a big way for us to make a major positive difference in the world around us.

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If we reflect on the course of our own lives we might be led to easily recognize at least some of the many different people who, consciously or otherwise, have met our basic human need to feel acknowledged, recognized, appreciated, wanted and cared for by someone else. Here is a list of just some of the many people whose kindness in this regard I have been a recipient of just in recent days:

· A friend of mine recently bought some things for me—foodstuff and other items—even though I think she ought to know that I don’t like her spending her precious money on me. And yesterday, she made me a delicious breakfast.

· A neighbour whom I have known for years recently gave me a bag containing an assortment of little gifts.

· At a spiritual centre where I was staying recently, a young man gave me set of prayer-beads as a present.

· Recently, a person I met whose field of professional expertise I am deeply interested in gave me a good deal of his time, freely sharing with me of his knowledge.

· Yesterday, a man who works as a cook in a neighbour’s house came over with a delicious dish as a gift.

· After I returned to the place where I am presently staying after having been away for some days, a man who works as a gardener here asked me where I had been, thus showing that he felt my absence.

· Some weeks ago, when I was returning from a morning walk, a person whom I likely had never even seen before offered to help me navigate a rough patch.

· The other day, I was heading to the local park when a neighbour gave me a lift in his car.

· A friend of mine helped me with some big issues I had with my website free of cost.

Now, none of these acts of kindness were indispensable as far as I was concerned: I could easily have done without them. But what made them particularly precious for me was the motive that lay behind them—positive acknowledgement and affirmation of my existence and concern for my well-being or happiness. The basic value of these acts of kindness lay in the thought that inspired them—the thought that my existence mattered, in some way or the other, to those who had engaged in these acts. These acts didn’t cost these people much. Not all of these acts entailed monetary expense, and none of them was a spectacular act of charity on a massive scale. Yet, each one of them met my human need to feel wanted and cared for by a fellow human being, and they touched me significantly enough and made me happy enough to commemorate them through this essay.

As these acts so beautifully indicate, we can impact another person’s life in a positive way by meeting their need to feel wanted and cared for through simple acts of kindness—even by smiling at them if we pass them by, wishing them a good day and asking them about their wellbeing. Such ‘small’ gestures of everyday kindness, opportunities for which are available to us every day, can be a big way for us to make the world a happier place to be in by meeting someone’s basic human need to be acknowledged, to feel wanted and to be cared for and in this way making them happier.