Humans are givers.

When everything is in balance, when we’re in a good place, we naturally want to give.

That’s why kids love feeding ducks. There’s nothing particularly in it for them… except the pure joy of giving.

When we’re not in balance, this is one of the first things to go. Or at least joyous giving is the first thing to go. If we were brought up with any people-pleasing tendencies or in a compliance-heavy society we may have spent most of our life resentfully giving. That might still happen when we’re not in balance.

Resentful giving is the kind of giving that we do because we’ve been learnt that it’s expected of us, or that it’s ‘selfish’ not to, or because we’re fearful of the repercussions of not giving. It’s painfully common in our society, and it causes endless problems. I don’t think we do ourselves any favours at all when we resentfully give, and that we’d do well to eliminate it from our lives.

Burnt out from always forcing yourself to give? Take a step back, take care of yourself first (even if there’s a conditioned voice in your head telling you that that’s ‘selfish’)—and you’ll soon find yourself in a place where your tank is full and from which you naturally delight in joyous giving.