The greatest contribution you can make is that of your time

“The Joy of Giving Week”

The Joy of Giving Week’ to be celebrated all over India from September 27-October 3, 2009.

It was conceptualized by Mumbai-based NGO Give India.

The Joy of Giving Week will be held annually in the week of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary every year. It is the beginning of a national movement, which aims to get people from all walks of life together and pitch in with anything they can give back to society as part of a unique ‘Joy of Giving Week’ An estimated two crore Indians — celebrities, corporate leaders and common citizens are expected to join this movement.  So far, 35,000 schools, hundreds of colleges, governments, corporate, celebrities and sportsperson have signed up, and the fellowship is growing every day.

No one person owns or controls the Joy of Giving Week. A team of volunteers is traveling across the country to meet and motivate people to participate. GiveIndia is co-coordinating the effort.

Here are some ideas on what you can do to reach out and give joy-(anytime)

• Visit an orphanage and play with children. Give up extra food for a day and treat them instead. Read stories to them
• Visit old age home or elderly relatives. Give them your attention and time. Take care of them.
• Do your household work yourself for a day and give the day off to maid
• Share your food with someone less privileged.
• Buy or give clothes to those who need it more than you do
• Start a group in your locality to teach under privileged children
• Use your profession to give free service to those who really need it. You can give free education, medical treatment, medicines, nursing care, cooked food, professional advice, haircut etc
• Use your time, money and skill to give better life and joy to others.
• Readers, kindly give more ideas as feed back, so that others who read get more inspiration

If a person puts into his mind that he is getting old pretty soon he may soon find himself cut off from the physical world which he was involved in. I think though that the process of eliminating choices and accepting a more sedentary lifestyle should help the person understand how he is going to age “mentally”. Many times restrictions on how a person gets around is a precursor to how the person sees himself as a vital member of society. Analogies will be made between being less mobile and therefore being a less active participant in the enveloping society. A poor view of ones utility in the world around him would contribute to the mental aging process. Clearly if the person perceives himself as being useless because he is not as nimble as in his early years that contributes to depression which is in itself a cause of many disorders both real and imagined or psychosomatic.

A young person who is physically disabled will likely have a real block to deal with his infirm state. This is especially so for a person who was at one time physically active and popular with his peers. A gradual avoidance from his peers who are more physically able to play sports and date for example will impinge on his self-esteem. Here aging is insidious and indirect as the person does not see himself objectively putting his youth aside; he will more than likely be “aging” faster by putting himself in a more mature frame of mind. All this is a matter of perception.

There is no such thing as not enjoying the pleasures of youth when one ages. Historically we are not very far from a period where it was frowned on for older people to express their sexual desires or for their children to accept that their older relatives still have sexual needs. It has been documented that two older women having the same chronological age will age differently especially if one has a “younger” approach to practicing a healthy lifestyle that includes sex. The sexually active person will have a more youthful approach to living and mental aging will be delayed. Intercourse has long been known too a vital element in giving a person a healthier attitude in life. He is more likely to want to be more sociable and less withdrawn and laconic which would make him feel older. So the use of intercourse and how aging people partake in a wholesome lifestyle definitely influences their perception of being older.