Finding Your Purpose Helping Others

Focusing on helping others can give your life purpose. If you have bipolar disorder, the idea of helping another person takes on new meaning. If you have an extreme case of bipolar disorder, it may not work.

Find Your Purpose By Volunteering

Living with bipolar disorder, I constantly seek out ways of bringing meaning to my already roller-coaster existence.

Volunteering is a great way to get out, help others, and still contribute to society. There is a preconceived notion that you have to work to be successful and give back to society. Volunteering, and being a parent or a friend, are great ways to give back. It is not only monetarily based.

The Holidays

No other time of the year is helping others more prevalent than around the holiday season. It makes sense because that is the basic premise of each of the Holidays towards the end of the year. At Halloween, you pass out candy. During Thanksgiving, everyone gets together for a huge feast. Christmas is a time of exchanging gifts, honoring fun-filled traditions, and being around family.

As the year comes to a close, everyone wants to make their last-minute donations to their favorite non-profit and/or church. If you have some money, this is a great option.

I already mentioned volunteering. It is a wonderful way to bring purpose to your life. For example, many volunteer their time at Thanksgiving and Christmas to provide a warm meal in a soup kitchen or homeless shelter. The whole idea is to focus on helping another person. I have never heard of someone saying they wasted their time or resources when helping those less fortunate than themselves.

During the holidays, there is an extreme sense of satisfaction when you can warm someone’s heart with a smile, a “hello”, or a wave. None of these things cost any money. They are free and can literally change the trajectory of a person’s day.

Remember that.

Focusing on small things and going from there is what I have always tried to do—this is a way to give my life purpose.

The Bipolar Battle

I am at a point in my life where I can blog about my experiences with bipolar disorder. I get a chance to advocate for those specifically with bipolar disorder and general mental health issues. This has probably been the number one way to give my life purpose while focusing on helping others.

I created The Bipolar Battle to help empower those living with bipolar disorder. If I can help one person, I know I have done my job.

My Dad

My Dad is a perfect example of helping others while giving his life immense purpose. He does not have Bipolar Disorder, but still tackles issues in his life like everybody else. Not only is he my dad, but a mentor, friend, and close confidante.

He volunteers for the handicap program in Winter Park, Colorado, during the ski season.

In addition, he plays a very active role in his church. In all of his endeavors, my dad gives without the thought of reward.

My Dad has always helped others. I believe my dad instilled this desire to help others in my heart at a young age.

Your Life Can Have Purpose While Helping Others

Those of us living with bipolar disorder feel more deeply than others. It is just a biological reality. Your life can have a purpose living with bipolar disorder while focusing on helping others.

I have found that to get the proper treatment for bipolar disorder; you have to be selfish. You have to totally and completely focus on yourself to fully get stabilized. Here, the word selfish is not used in a derogatory sense because getting healthy should be your top priority.

If your mind is not functioning properly, everything will fall apart—that is a simple truth.

Helping other people shifts the focus from yourself to another individual. I think this can only help you grow as a person. It balances the scale of focus if that makes sense.

I want to be clear that I am not saying to help others at the expense of yourself. Once you get to a semi-stable point in your treatment, find a way to help others. Then, go from there.

Helping other individuals can give you a newfound purpose when you have bipolar disorder.