Service

When I was growing up, the modeling I saw for “service” was activities like missions work, volunteering, donating, etc. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to wonder what it really means to be of service to people, and are there other ways we can help that go beyond the obvious? 

I recently had a conversation with one of my sisters where I guiltily shared that I have never felt good after volunteering, and in fact often feel sadder about the state of the world and like I’ve wasted my time. I’ve been on day-long mission trips to Mexico, I’ve volunteered at dozens of organizations, I’ve reached out to organizations who I thought could benefit from my digital marketing skills and asked to help. None of it left me feeling like what people describe when they describe service. So, I started thinking about how I can incorporate service into who I am and how I live my daily life. 

Being of service to people can mean many things. Raising kind kids. Texting people to check on them. Writing letters to friends and family. Being a thoughtful coworker. Donating. Taking care of sick people. Sending a stressed friend $5 for coffee. Helping neighbors with a chore (i.e. “I’m mowing my lawn, want me to mow yours, too?).  It doesn’t have to be big. Or “one size fits all.” You can be of service in small ways. For example, I intentionally keep this newsletter free because I’ve had so many people reach out and tell me it offered them some kind of value. 

Service is a word that covers quite a few areas, so let's break them down to find places where we can incorporate daily service into our lives:

Service to ourselves

There’s the old phrase, you can’t pour from an empty cup. So, think of ways you can be of service to yourself. Can you change something in your schedule to give yourself a little down time? Can you be kind to yourself when you make a mistake? Can you put away savings each month in service to the future-you? Only you know what you need and the good news is that you also have the power to give it to yourself.

Service to others

This is the area where there are the most suggestions for how to be of service, the most popular of which I’ve already mentioned. Volunteering, donating, etc. but what else can you do? I like to consider how we can share our gifts when I think of this one. Nearly everyone can volunteer or donate, but they can’t do what you uniquely can do. Can you offer a free photography session to a young family on a budget? Can you offer to help a friend with home repairs? I give away my books and embroidery patterns if folks are in financial need because I create them specifically to help people unplug and find happiness or an escape for a little while. 

Service to our environment

There are so many things we can do to help our environment in small ways every day. Buying from local sources, picking up trash when you see it, turning off the sink while you’re brushing your teeth. The list goes on and on. But what I want to say about this one is that taking care of Mother Earth has somehow become this fraught political thing and (imo) that’s dumb. We all live here. We should want to take care of the place where we live, for ourselves and for others. I guarantee there’s a small tweak you can make in your daily life that will better serve the environment.

Service to a higher power

Whatever you believe in, you can do something to serve your higher power that affects people around you in a positive way. Churches of all denominations offer lots of ways to volunteer and that’s a big part of how they build community, too. If you don’t belong to a church, you can serve in other ways. As a reiki master, I often offer free remote reiki sessions if people need healing, and practice intercessory loving-kindness meditations multiple times a week. Whatever your higher power is, find a way to offer a service here on Earth on behalf of that power. 

I hope this helps you think of service differently. It was such a wonderfully positive shift in my life when I realized I wasn’t defective because volunteering didn’t bring me joy. It’s just that I hadn’t explored other ways to serve. And please remember, you can’t pour from an empty cup. Don’t serve others so much that you forget about yourself. There’s only one you, and you can’t give your gifts to the world if you aren’t energized and whole. 

So this week, how can you incorporate service into your daily life 1% more? How can you start by serving yourself and then letting that overflowing cup spill out to those around you? Can you leverage your unique talents to make someone else’s life better?

With gratitude,

Natalie