Something has been weighing heavily on my mind, so this week’s episode is about a subject that I’ll bet has been weighing on your mind, too. Every time there’s a stabbing, shooting, or some other act of violence in the world, one question that goes through my mind (among many) is “What can I possibly do to make a difference in the world to offset the hatred, cruelty and terror?”
I can’t say that I have “the” answer to that gigantic question — if there really is one best answer — but I do have one answer we can at least try. I believe that we can help to offset the fear and anxiety caused by such unfathomable acts of violence by being exceptionally loving to one another. Goofy? Maybe. Worth doing? Definitely. And that’s what today’s show is about.
In this episode, I present 35 simple acts of love to get this conversation going and to get each one of us thinking about how we can make a difference in our day to day lives. Let’s create a massive ripple effect that will go far and wide across the world.
Much love, Bob Olson AfterlifeTV.com & BobOlson.com
If you’d like to watch this video, Deliberate Acts of Love: 35 Ideas To Offset Fear & Anxiety, visit www.afterlifetv.com/?p=3029
Afterlife TV is presented by Afterlife Investigator & Psychic Medium Researcher Bob Olson, who is the author of Answers about the Afterlife: A Private Investigator’s 15-Year Research Unlocks the Mysteries of Life after Death.
Check out Bob Olson’s other sites: BestPsychicDirectory.com (a directory of hundreds of psychics & mediums by location with reviews & Instant Readings) & BestPsychicMediums.com (his personal recommended list of tested psychics and mediums) or visit Bob’s Facebook Page. Bob also has a popular workshop for psychics and mediums at PsychicMediumWorkshop.com.
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Hi, everybody. Bob Olson here with Afterlife TV, you can find us at afterlifetv.com. Today’s show is sponsored by Best Psychic Directory, where you can find over 800 psychics and mediums in one spot. You can locate them by location or specialty. And you can read reviews written by people who’ve had readings or sessions with these people right there, bestpsychicdirectory.com.
Now, today is a little special episode. I wanna do something a little bit different. It’s important to me, it’s just something that I’ve felt like I needed to do. So let’s just get right into it. I wanna talk about the state of the world, right? No, I’m not getting too deep into this. And this is not about politics, in case anybody’s worried about that. Really, what this is about, is the things that are happening in the world to cause many of us fear or anxiety.
And I do believe that we have a certain amount of control over the state of the world. Meaning, we have the ability to do things individually to offset the fear. And what is the opposite of fear? The opposite of fear is love. And so I wanna talk about each and every one of us, doing what I call “deliberate acts of love.”
Now, this is sort of a version of the random acts of kindness, that we’ve heard about for many years now. And I love that idea, the random acts of kindness. I wanna take it a step further. And to me the step further is rather than it be random, I think let’s make it deliberate. Because when people are doing things in this world to cause fear and harm to other people, it’s very deliberate. So I want each and every one of us, to deliberately, think about and then act upon, anything that we can do, that can spread love in the world.
I heard recently, and I don’t know who said it, so if you know, you can certainly let us know via social media or e-mail. I heard this analogy once, somebody said, and God bless him for saying, it’s a great metaphor, “If you think that you’re too small to make a difference in the world, just close yourself in a room.” Certainly, a dark room would even be better. “Close yourself in a dark room with three mosquitoes,” right? You think about that and you go, “Oh, yeah. I’ve been in a dark room, I’ve been in bed at night, where there’s just been one mosquito flying around my head, and keeping me up all night.” This is kind of what I’m talking about here.
When I am talking about, let’s do deliberate acts of love, let’s go out there and, we can even call it commit, right? We can commit deliberate acts of love, because we do need to change the meaning of that word. A lot of people think commit has to do with crime. And I’m trying to change the mindset around certain things here. Really, it’s about committing to an act. In this case it would be committing to an act of love and I want them to be deliberate. I want you to think about things that you can do in your life that can be a way of spreading love.
Some people might not feel comfortable with saying, “I’m spreading love around the world, one person at a time.” But they might feel a little bit more comfortable saying, “I’m committing, or you know, I’m spreading random acts of kindness.” Little more macho than love. Look, let’s just get over that right now, because of the state of the world. And I’m talking about where people are stabbing people, shooting people, blowing people up with bombs, hitting people with the cars, whatever it is. These are terrible deliberate acts of harm. They’re crimes of course, but even more so then the media catches hold of these things, and they tell the rest of the world about what happened. And it spreads fear and anxiety everywhere.
Well, what is our response to that? And we see it quite often, we see Ariana Grande, you know, we see what happened with her concert, ends. And then we see her response to it, along with the other people who joined her. And they have this concert that, oh, I don’t even know, I mean, I saw it, a live Twitter feed, I believe it was, of that concert. It looked like thousands and thousands of people were there. And everybody just getting along wonderfully, because the intention of this concert was to spread love. I think we can do that individually.
Now, I spent just 15 to 20 minutes coming up with some deliberate acts of love that we can do, and that’s all that the show is about. I’m gonna read them…I only wrote down 36 of them. I know that you can come up with more, the idea was just to get you started here. And I’m gonna go through them. Now, some of’em aren’t gonna cost you a thing, they just might cost you some time. Others might cost you a little bit of money, I’m sure there are things that we can do that can cost us quite a bit of money and I think I avoided those.
But let’s just go through this list, I only got 36 items. We’ll go through them, I’ll leave you with that and let your minds, you know, just roll with it. And if you want to, you can add to my list on all the social media. Wherever it is you like to respond to these shows, let us know if you support this idea of deliberate acts of love. And second of all, come up with your own ideas and share those with other people. Like I said, I’m sure we can come up with hundreds and hundreds of ideas. I’ve got 36. Just wet your whistle just to get you going, all right?
First of all, I just thought, cut flowers for someone. Now, you know, so many of these things, Melissa does for people, or our friends do. And so this is where I got a lot of these ideas, because I see these things happening every day. If you cut flowers for someone…we have lilacs in our yard. Mellissa often cuts lilacs and brings them to friends, or family members, her mother…she brings them to her mother quite a bit. Lilac smells so great, and you only need to cut a few of them to make a little bunch. And you give’em to someone, they put’em in a vase with water. And it just fills the whole, if not the whole room, the whole house with the beautiful scents of lilacs. You can do that with a single rose, you can do that with daisies. There are all kinds of flowers, many of them are wildflowers, that you might see on the side of the road somewhere.
All right, the second one, mow someone’s lawn. Now, this came to my attention recently. I know somebody who was down on their luck financially. And they had a house that they were selling. And they got to the point where they couldn’t afford to have the lawn mowed anymore. The guy who was mowing the lawn, of course stopped, because this person owed them money. And he actually heard something of this nature, I mean, he heard this idea about one of the things that he can do to make a difference in the world, is to do something, one person at a time. And he decided he was gonna go, without even telling the owner of this house, who’s trying to sell this house. Without even telling them, just went and mowed the lawn for them.
He got caught by the owner, which is brilliant. He got caught by the owner and the homeowner went and said, “What are you doing? You know, I can’t afford to pay you. I still owe you money from before.” And he said, “Look, I heard this idea, and this is something that I want to do for you, and I’m just gonna keep doing it until your house is sold.” And of course it brought tears to the homeowner’s eyes. And then that story got passed around, and I think it has brought tears to a lot of people’s eyes. This is what I’m talking about here. This is something that he was able to do, a deliberate act of love that he was able to share. He had the time, he had the equipment, he did it without any expectation of anything in return.
Number three, clean someone’s home. Melissa and I have done this for people. You know, they just get to the point where they’re not able to clean their home any more. And you hear them talking about it, and wishing that they could do this big spring cleaning. And you just go in and you say, “Hey, I can help you with that. Let me take a Saturday and, you know…” Or even a Saturday and Sunday, whatever it takes. “Let me take a day at least, and go and help you clean your home, and get underneath it so that then all you have to do is keep up with it.”
And it’s a wonderful, beautiful thing to do because one of the things it does is it changes the energy of the home. Any time that we clean our homes, you know how good it feels once it’s done? And if there’s somebody who for whatever reason, is unable to do it on their own, and you can go in and do that for them. And then, maybe, they’re able to keep it up with a little dusting, a little vacuuming on their own, what a wonderful thing you’re doing. When you change the energy in their home, you’re changing their life.
And number four, so many of us have old books, books that we love, a lot of them we know we’ll never read again. And so they just kind of stack up over time. And we love books, and we know there’s an energy to books as well. Donate those books. Sometimes you might know somebody who’s an avid reader and you can even just give them to them, because there’s a lot of people who can’t afford to buy books. And a lot of times the library can’t keep up with them. Because maybe there’s a particular type of book that they like to read, mysteries, or thrillers, or something and the library just can’t keep up. And so they’re just waiting. But they could be reading a lot more books if the library had them.
So donate these books to your friend and then say, “When you’re done with it, donate them to the library.” Or just donate them to the library, so that lots of the people who are like this, are able to join in that and read those same books. It’s a wonderful thing. Most libraries will take donated books, especially if they’re great books, especially if they’re are more current. And it costs you nothing. And it clears space in your house rather than those books, just being in a box in the attic somewhere.
Number five, call someone to say hello. Now, here’s something that’s very inexpensive to do, doesn’t even require much time. How often do we do this? How often do we just take the time to call somebody just to say hello. We always feel like we need an excuse, and just chat with them, “What’s going on? What’s happening in your life? Tell me about…let’s catch up.” A simple call to say hello, we’ll do it by email more than we’re likely to do it by phone. When they hear your voice, when you hear their voice, that takes it to a whole new level. Well, it’s just another example.
Number six, visit someone who might be lonely. You know, there’s a lot of people who go into the hospital, or out of the hospital they go into rehab, or they might be in a nursing home. When they first go there, all these people, all their friends and family members flood there, right? They flood there and there’s too many people in the room sometimes. And then the longer they are there, the less people come. And that’s really when they need you to go there, that’s when there’s an awful lot of space between visitors and they get lonely.
This can be true for people who are at home as well. You don’t have to be in the hospital, or rehab, or nursing home. But think about that. Think about who in your life could just use a visit, and maybe not just one, you don’t even have to make a commitment to them. But just in your own mind say, “You know what, I’m gonna go there at least once a month, or every two weeks, or once a week.” Whatever it is, that you feel as though you can do comfortably and would make you feel great. Because so many of these things, they are a gift to ourselves, at the same time that they’re a gift to the other person.
There’s this wonderful exchange of energy that’s taking place here. So it’s not just about giving to somebody else, it’s also about giving to ourselves. And recognizing the importance of showing love to other people, especially in this world in which we live right now.
Number seven, take someone out for coffee, ice cream, lunch or dinner depending on what you can afford, just do it. Sometimes you don’t even have to pay for it, you can just invite somebody out. You can each pay for yourself. But sometimes it’s not about who’s paying for it, it’s about getting invited out for coffee, or ice cream, or lunch, or dinner, right? There’s people who would never make the call to say, “I really need to go out for coffee with somebody, you know, would you mind doing that with me?” They feel needy sometimes, there’s a lot of reasons. Some people have a social withdrawal, and they would never make that kind of a phone call, reach out to somebody to do something like that.
Number eight, take someone out to a movie. This is kind of an addition to the last one. Same thing, whether you pay for it, or you know, each pay your own way, sometimes it doesn’t matter. It’s the act of going out together and enjoying this movie together which, you know, can take whatever, two or three hours. And it can be great addition to somebody’s, not just their day, but their entire week.
Number nine, read to an elderly, or blind person, or you know, just somebody, same thing. Like if somebody is in the hospital, you know, maybe it’s not easy for them to read to themselves. I understand we have audio books now, and I think audio books are amazing, right? So many people I know love audio books and I happen to be one of them. But sometimes having somebody there, reading the book to you, again, it’s a different thing, it’s a different energy. You can’t even really compare the two. It’s another way to spend time with somebody. These are the kinds of things that I’m talking about here, the deliberate acts of love.
Number ten, donate clothes to a shelter or church. I think that speaks for itself.
Number 11, send someone a letter of gratitude. How often do we really do this? Now, they sell thank you cards, right? Everywhere. And how many of us have some of these in our closet somewhere. Use them. And you don’t even have to write that much, just that letter alone, that card that says, “thank you on the front.” Just write a little bit inside, write love, whatever your name is. Letters of gratitude are enormously powerful and they are an act of love.
Twelve, buy someone a small, “thinking of you” gift. Whatever you’re doing, you’re in the mall, you’re out shopping somewhere. Whatever it is you’re doing and you see something that would be great for somebody, and it’s only a few bucks, buy it for them. So many of us have this obstacle between us, we go, “Uh, yeah, that would be great for them. Uh, I’m not gonna do that. I don’t know…” We talk ourselves out of it for a million reasons. Get over that little hurdle, that little procrastination, or something, whatever it is that stopping you. Buy it and then the next time you see them, give it to them and say, “I was thinking of you this day.” It’s enormously powerful. It’s a beautiful thing to do.
Thirteen, oh, bake someone some brownies, or chocolate chip cookies, or whatever it is that you love to bake. Bake it and give it to somebody. So I have a neighbor who brought me some brownies for my birthday this year, this was in May. And you know, they were delicious, just absolutely delicious. Every one of these things benefits both parties. And if you’re someone who loves to bake, or even you know, buying some beautiful chocolate chip cookies at the local bakery or something, do that.
I have another neighbor who knows I grew up near Worcester, in the Worcester area of Massachusetts, central Massachusetts. And she had some connection there, and she had a son who was going to one of these Swedish bakeries. And my name is Olson, so you know, a lot of Swedish ancestry behind me. And she knew that, and she’s Swedish. And she had her son stopped by this bakery which I think he does often, and there’s a connection with her father in that bakery. And anyways, he was sending her this beautiful like, how do I describe it, it’s like a cinnamon bread. He overnighted it to her and she said, “Send me an extra one for Bob.” And she brought that and delivered that to me. You don’t know how that fills my heart. And these are the things that I will remember for the rest of my life. And other people do too.
Fourteen, babysit for someone with a young child or children. If you’re a parent and you recognize how amazing it would be for someone to offer to babysit, if just for a few hours, while you, or you and your spouse go out to do anything, to a movie, dinner. Some few people think to do that. And we have nephews, and we love to do that, because we love to be with our nephews. And it gives us an opportunity to be with our nephews when the parents aren’t around. It’s like a different experience, right? When the parents are around the kids act one way, and then when they’re not around they act a different way with you, when they’re alone with you. We love that and so we would do that.
But [inaudible 00:18:57] this is how I recognized it, our nephew’s parents, the gratitude that they felt for having that time. And then, you know, we then extended that to, “Oh, have them overnight or we’ll take them for the day.” And we loved it, we had a great time. And so if this is something that you can do for some parents of a young child, or young children, certainly it would be immensely meaningful to them and it would be a wonderful thing for you too.
Number 15, invite a widow or widower to your party. So here’s the thing. Someone’s married, doesn’t matter really how long, 5, 10, 30, 40, 50, years, and then their spouse dies. Everything they did was with their spouse, certainly going to parties, you know, they typically went with their spouse. And now all of a sudden they just don’t know how to do it any other way. Sometimes they need a little push, they need an invite. There are a lot of people who are sitting home alone because the people around them, their friends, don’t really know how to invite them the way they did. Especially, I mean, this works with both men and women, but especially if the wife was the one who made all the plans, and the guy was just like, “Where are we going tonight?” You know you know this happens, right? And she would say, “Hey, we’re going over a friend’s house tonight and it would be great.”
Well, if that wife passes before he does, he’s lost. He doesn’t even know how to make plans with anybody and nobody knows how to make plans with him, because he wasn’t part of the pattern. So you get what I’m saying there. Invite a widow or widower to your party or any kind of gathering. You’re gonna do something, invite them along. It would be shocking to them probably at first. And then they might actually…if you invite them a couple of weeks ahead of time, it might be the one thing that they’re looking forward to for those couple of weeks. It can be really important.
Number 16, all right, this is one of those things that can be kind of expensive and not everybody can do it. But if you’re trading your car in for, let’s just say a new car or a new used car. If you’re able to financially, and you know somebody who’s really in need of a car, then give your used car to someone rather than trading it in. And granted, that’s gonna be costly. I know people who can afford that and they just don’t even think of it, right? And so if you’re able to do it, you’re blessed in that way, then bless somebody else with your used car, rather than just trading it in. And I understand that’s not for everybody.
Number 17, offer to drive someone to an appointment they have. This could be a doctor’s appointment, a job interview, it could be just something maybe, that they’re nervous about going to. And it would be great to not have to go alone, sometimes it’s difficult or dangerous for them to drive themselves. Maybe they’re going to an eye appointment and they put all that dye or whatever in their eyes and then they’re supposed to drive home. If they don’t have anybody else to do it, then do it. But other times it’s just like they’re kinda scared about this appointment, not sure what’s going to happen, go with them.
Number 18 is sort of the same thing. But the point of it would be to assist them. Sometimes we just need an advocate. We go to the doctor’s office and it would be great to have an advocate to listen, because our minds are spinning, right? When the doctor’s telling us these stuff and then you get home, and try to remember what the doctor said, and you don’t remember half of it. It would be great if somebody else were there to serve as your advocate, and maybe they took notes, and then you can go over it together.
But this goes so far as with 18. It could even be just taking someone to the store, you know, to assist them. You know, maybe that means pushing them around in one of the wheelchair like things that they have in the store, so that they don’t have to do all this walking. And then just, you know, help them out. This is like assisting people in their life. And it doesn’t have to be something that you become responsible for every single week, or every single month, or whatever it is. Maybe you’ll enjoy it, and maybe you’ll want to.
I think a lot of us don’t do things because we worry, if I do it once and I’m gonna have to do it all the time. You know, if you have healthy boundaries, you’re able to say “No,” you’re able to say, “I’ll do that when I can, but I’ll let you know when that is.” So don’t let that stop you from offering, right?
Number 19, teach someone how to use their computer, or smartphone, or tablet. And I know a lot of people think, you know, this has to do with the elderly. It doesn’t, you know. I just have friends who are not technologically advanced or savvy. And they could just really use some help with it. And maybe they’re using their smartphone, but they’re not using it to the extent that they could be. So they’re only benefiting from a fraction of what they could be benefiting from. Take the time just to teach them how to do it. The old one was, set up their VCR for them. Well, you could do that with CD players now, and the VCR still exist. Or maybe it’s their Roku or something like that. So help people with those kinds of things.
Number 20, teach someone to read. Wow, I mean, think about how amazing you would feel, if you actually were able to teach someone to read. You don’t necessarily have to be a great teacher to do that. If you know how to read, just give it a go if they don’t have anybody else teaching them. There are a lot of illiterate people out there. The second one is kinda related to that.
Twenty one, teach someone English or another language. So maybe teaching them English and learning to read, they gonna be locked together. But there’s also lots of people who know English very well and they can read, but they need to learn another language for some reason and you happen to know it. Offer to teach it or ask around, you know, “Is there anybody who needs to know French or Spanish,” or whatever it is that you know. And then some will probably raise their hand. “Yeah, I need this for my work, or you know, I need this for the social work that I do.”
All right, number 22, invite someone to take walks with you. I think you’re starting to get the point here, right? You know you’re taking walks anyway. And this could be the widow or widower that you know, who’s your neighbor, or it could just be anyone. And you know that maybe they could use a little exercise or a little social time with someone. I mean, if you’re taking these fast walks, maybe, you know, they’re not gonna be able to do that. If you’re just taking walks because you like to enjoy nature and it gets you a little exercise, and you’d like to have some social contact, where you chat as well with someone about things, invite them to take walks with you.
Twenty three, help someone weed their garden. Nobody likes to do that, right? But some people just aren’t able to do it. They’ve got bad knees, or bad back or something. And the weeds just grow. They get this gorgeous garden, maybe, offer to help them out, same thing. Doesn’t have to be, you know, “I’ll weed your garden for the rest of the summer,” it can just be, “I can help you now, and if I get to do it again, you know, later on I will do that. But I’d love to just help you right now if it looks like, you know, you could use that.”
Don’t do any of these things in an insulting way. Don’t say, “Look, your house is a mess. I’d love to clean it for you.” Be careful. You know, be cautious about the way you present it. But if they’re talking about how, “Geez, I really wish I could afford to have someone help me just do a spring cleaning. I really wish I could afford to hire someone to weed my garden.” Then say, “Hey, you know what? I’ll do that for you.”
Twenty four, and here’s a really cool thing. If you are technologically savvy and you have, maybe, some recording equipment. This could just be anything, this could be your iPhone, or videotaping equipment, same thing, it could be your iPhone. Set it up so that you can do one of these legacy videos. And legacy videos are just sort of a term for, when people later in life are telling their life story. It’s almost like an auto biography on audio or video. It’s an amazing thing for people to then give to their children, and grandchildren later on down the line, because many of those stories many of those memories are not gonna be remembered. And again, this is something that really just takes time and just a little bit of know how. And again, if you have a smartphone or tablet that, you know, has a video recording or audio recording, not really that hard to do.
So this would be a great thing to offer to do for someone. And imagine how much fun that would be to help someone just tell their life, their autobiography sort of, right there. And you get to hear the story and put it all together for them. It doesn’t have to be super professionally done, as long as it’s recorded, that’s really what’s important.
Twenty five, Melissa and I had this great business, I guess she called it a few years ago. And because we work so much behind the computer, we thought we could use some social contact. In the next town over we leased this space, where it would hold 50 people, and we would have different teachers in, mind, body, spirit, practitioners or authors. And they would come in and they would teach for up to 50 people. When we first started, you know, we didn’t know that many people in terms of, when you’re marketing on the Internet, or your marketing locally, they’re are two very different things. And so we didn’t have a big network locally.
And there was this spa that this woman named Wendy, right nearby and she said…she didn’t even tell us. She just did it. She emailed her whole list, which was all local people, about this new place. And it was amazing because all of a sudden, all these people who were like minded, there’re people who go to spas probably, be interested in sort of the self-help or mind body spirit practitioners or authors, and what they had to teach. And it did, it was really nice and it was a wonderful gesture.
So number 25, is just email your network, about your friends new business, or you know, their new book, or whatever it is. If there’s some way that you can help people with your network then do that.
Twenty six, help someone write the resume. That’s pretty straightforward.
Twenty seven, offer to walk someone’s dog for them. I guess that’s pretty straightforward too, can be really helpful.
Twenty eight, similar to that, offer to dog or cat sit when they go away.
Twenty nine, call people on their birthday. You know how you love to get those phone calls, maybe they’re saying happy birthday whatever it is. Even better than email, there’s some energetic quality to our voices. If there’s this hierarchy of love, you might call it, getting the call is above getting the email. Call people on their birthday.
Thirty, this is similar…when someone passes, when someone dies, this is what we talk about here on the show. Nobody really dies, but when someone dies physically, that is a loss. That’s the loss we talk about when we say, we’re sorry for your loss. We’re sorry for the physical loss, their physical presence, their everyday companionship. That’s the loss that we’re talking about. And that is when people need you to call them or just stop by. And so many of us are afraid of death, and maybe not people who listen to Afterlife TV of course. But in our society, so many people would just rather not have to deal with that and so they don’t call.
Maybe, they’ll send a sympathy card. But what I’m saying is, make that phone call and talk with them. And all you have to say, and I’ll make it easy for you, is just say, “Tell me about him, tell me about her. Tell me things that I don’t know, that you’d like to share with me about the person who’s just died.” All you have to do and let them do the talking. And they love to think about the memories, the great memories, and the wonderful things, and all the wonderful things that that person did in their life.
Thirty one, make some extra food to give to someone or a friend. So when you’re making food, this is sort of like the baking thing. But go beyond the baking of the brownies and the cookies. You’re just making a meal, make extra and then give it to somebody. You know how…same thing, when someone dies, a lot of people bring food, right? Because they’re probably not going to be in any place to be cooking for themselves. Well, a lot of times especially if the cook, the person who was the cook in the relationship is the one who passes. The other person’s never really gonna get back to that place where they are cooking for themselves, in the same way that they were used to.
So when you think of it, you’re making some soup make a little extra, you know, you can even freeze soup, right? And then just bring that to them frozen, they can throw it in their freezer and they can use it when they want. Anything that you make, you can make extra of, and then bring it to them. Don’t even ask whether they want it or not. Just bring it and they’ll let you know if they don’t want it, and then you don’t have to keep doing it. But it’s something, once again, that makes you feel good, it nourishes them, makes their life a little easier. It’s just another thing that’s easy to do. Just make a little extra.
Thirty two, this has to do with when somebody dies as well. Attend memorial services to comfort the surviving loved ones, if only by your presence. So many of us go, “You know, there’s gonna be so many people there, they won’t even know I’m there.” Yeah, even if they catch a glimpse of you, even if they look in that little book where you write your name down that you attended, and they see that you were there. That’s really meaningful, that means a lot. To have your presence there is what’s really important. Don’t worry about what you’re gonna say, nobody’s even gonna remember that, you could just say, “Jibber jabber” and it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you were there, it’s your physical presence.
That is an act of love, to show up in honor of someone else. And you know, remember when someone passes, let’s say you go to the wake or you go to the memorial service. You’re going for the people who survived, you’re going for them, to be there for them. Yes, it’s in memory of the person who just passed. But you’re really going to be there to support the person who is grieving.
Number 33, here’s one that I think is important. Sometimes when there’s someone you know who’s struggling with a challenge, doesn’t matter, that could run the gamut, be there to listen to them. Listening to anyone, our loved ones, and that which can mean, friends or family, doesn’t have to be someone that you would consider that you love, it could be an acquaintance, or a coworker. But when you go there, just don’t be the one who’s doing all the talking, if they’re going through something they need help. Listen to them. A lot of times people just need to be heard, because they’re processing, and it helps them to talk to somebody else in order to process their thoughts out. But if there’s somebody else is doing all the talking, then it’s not really helpful because they don’t get to do that.
Number 34, kinda goes back where I said, help people, email your network of friends about the new business. Number 34 is kinda similar to that, but it’s like using your network of friends, and coworkers, and acquaintances to benefit another. Maybe in their job search, maybe in their business, maybe they need some kind of help social services wise. Help people using the network that you have. There’s a Malcolm Gladwell book, he called these people connectors. So you connect one person with another. “Oh, I know somebody who does that. Let me introduce you to them. Let me connect you two together. I’m not making any promises, but maybe he or she can help you out.” Be a connector, every once in a while with your network and that can make a huge difference in someone’s life.
Thirty five, you know, so many of us discard things especially with technology, today we’re discarding things all the time. And I know there’s a lot of good ways to do that, thanks to many of these services that allow you to recycle, we can do that. But sometimes we know someone who could use that cell phone that we’re no longer using. You can do this with furniture, your television, clothes, your snowblower, or a lawn mower. You can just ask around and say, “Is there anybody who needs any of these things, or needs this thing that I’m going to be recycling, or just carting in some way. Could you use it?”
This is the last one. Thirty six, I’m leaving this one blank for you. What else can you do to help somebody else, in this idea of deliberate acts of love, taking the random acts of kindness to the next level. Not making it random anymore, making it deliberate, not making it just kindness, but making it love. Deliberate acts of kindness. I wanted to get you thinking in these terms. I hope it means something to you, I hope it gets you thinking, I hope these ideas make you realize how much benefit it can be, to not only the receivers of these deliberate acts of love, but to yourself as well and to the world. If you think about the ripple effects of our actions, we’ve talked about this on the show, then you recognize how doing more of these deliberate acts of love, is just gonna create more ripples. This is what we can do in response to the things that are happening in the world that create fear and anxiety.
I hope you enjoy the show. One of the things that many of you have been doing for me is, letting me know how much you love my new book, “The Magic Mala.” And I really appreciate that, and I’m so glad it’s resonating with so many of you. And I wanna thank you because it means an awful lot to me, when you leave a review on Amazon, because I know that people are trying to decide whether the book is for them or not. And when you write a review on Amazon, not only does it help them do that, but it helps me to go back and look every once in awhile and remind me, “Oh, this book really is helping people.”
And so thank you, if you’ve done it. Thank you, if you are about to do it. And if you haven’t read the book I hope you’ll check it out, okay? Leave your comments, as I said, about other ideas that you have, about whether or not you support this idea of deliberate acts of love. Share this. If you think it’s a great idea, share it. Get other people thinking about this and spread the love if we can. And we can be those mosquitoes that make a difference. All right, thanks.
Afterlife TV is presented by Afterlife Investigator & Psychic Medium Researcher Bob Olson, who is the author of Answers about the Afterlife: A Private Investigator’s 15-Year Research Unlocks the Mysteries of Life after Death.
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