Selflessness is something most people recognize as a good attribute to have, yet in this day and age where society tends to encourage them to succeed on a totally individual level and one-up each other whenever they can, it sure can be difficult to see through the fog of selfishness.

To become more selfless, psychologists have discovered through many studies that loving kindness meditation can actually increase altruism in people.

You can train your brain to become more compassionate through a simple meditation sequence. Even if you have never felt very compassionate in your life, you can actually develop the skill relatively easily.

PERFORM RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS. Not only will it make you feel great to extend kindness to other people, but it will improve their lives as well. Think about it – what if you smiled at a stranger every single day? This would encourage them to smile, and might even change their outlook on the world as well.

LISTEN MORE. You can relearn compassion in this way by taking the focus off your own struggles for a while, and instead giving your attention to someone else in need. Everyone goes through some sort of troubles in life, but you could be the one to relieve some of the stress by simply opening your ears and heart.

One of the best ways to become more selfless is to give away some of your hard-earned money to those less fortunate. You’ll feel more long-lasting happiness from giving to others who have less than you do.

Don’t have money to give to a charity? Why not just volunteer your time instead? Many places such as homeless shelters & dog shelters desperately need volunteers. Although giving money to a charity also helps tremendously, actually being there in person will allow you to actually see your contribution put into motion.

This variation of the Golden Rule still applies today. One of the best ways to increase the selflessness in today’s world is to simply treat others with kindness, just like we would want from others. If we could just do that one thing, we would see huge transformation in the world we live in.

Being selfless starts with seeing beyond your personal concerns. If you’re constantly consumed by your own problems and status, you won’t have time or energy to act selflessly. Having a greater awareness of the world is the first step to becoming more selfless.

Listen when other people are talking. Yes – really listen! Don’t let your mind wander when someone is confiding in you about his or her troubles, or telling you an exciting story. Read, watch, or listen to the news. Be aware of major world events as well what is going on around you.

If you understand how someone else feels, you’ll be more likely to feel empathy for that person. Try to put yourself in the other person’s situation. If you were the one experiencing the problem, how would you feel? How would you want to be treated?

Selfless people don’t act with kindness and generosity because they expect to be rewarded. They do it because it’s the right thing to do, and because it feels good to help other people when you’re able to.

Take pleasure in the happiness of others. Do you know the feeling of making someone else happy? If you take pleasure in other people’s happiness, you’ll be more likely to find extra ways to be selfless.

Putting other people’s needs before your own is often extremely difficult when you have your own needs to attend to. That’s why having selfless role models can be a great encouragement.

Even something as seemingly insignificant as taking the last slice of cake and leaving none for others, defines a certain way of thinking. Avoid the temptation to cheat, steal, or act deceitfully, even if you’re certain you won’t get caught.

Don't value your time more than others. Do you get impatient when you have to wait in line? Remember that every other person in the line has a life just as valuable as yours. Their time is as precious to them as yours is to you. Keeping this in mind when impatience threatens to get the better of you.

Try not to hold a grudge. The selfless person sees the situation from the other person’s point of view. Better to foster peace, love and forgiveness than spitefulness and hate. Forgiving someone who you feel has wronged you can be incredibly difficult, but it’s also a great demonstration of selflessness.

Volunteer your time. When you volunteer your time and skills, all you get in return is the rewarding sense that you’ve played a part in helping another human being. There are numerous ways to volunteer, so identify a need and determine how you can contribute.

Donating money and goods is a selfless act that you should practice as often as possible. Decide how much you can afford, then commit to donating that amount. Select a few charities to which you can regularly donate a specific sum. Giving to those who ask for change is a kind, selfless act you can do on a daily basis.

Be selfless in everyday ways. Give up your seat on the bus or train to the elderly and pregnant. Hold doors open for people coming in behind you. You can’t be completely selfless 100% the time – you can’t give everyone in need the shirt off your back – but there are other meaningful things you can do.

To be selfless, you do not need to sell all of your possessions and live the rest of your life in poverty. You just need to change your mindset of how you see yourself and the world around you. You will need to reevaluate your role in society and how you can contribute to society and the lives of others.

If you want to learn to be selfless, the first thing that you must do is change this mindset in yourself. At first, you will need to make a point of putting others first and thinking less of yourself. As time goes on, you will begin to automatically think of others and it will become like second nature to you.

Be careful not to be taken advantage of though because some people think that selfless people are easy targets. You do not need to allow someone to keep using you over and over in order to be selfless and in fact they may hinder your selfless efforts.

A great way to help you learn to be selfless is to start doing good deeds when you see the opportunity open up. The idea is to do these good deeds for both people you know and perfect strangers and just out of the kindness of your heart without expecting anything back in return.

A selfless person will help anyone who has a need and they have the ability to help them out. Everyone has gifts and talent and you should try to find deeds that match your specific attributes.

Selfless people are not stingy with their money or material goods and they are able to separate the material things in life from the more important things.

Everyone of us has thousands of opportunities throughout our lifetime to give to others;all that you must do is make the decision to cease the opportunity. The idea of being selfless is not to consider only yourself and how things will affect you but to see the bigger picture and how things affect everyone around you.

Love others and to show their love for others. Selfless people do not judge other people and they look at everyone through the same eyes without any stereotypes or prejudice. In fact, they embrace the differences they see in people and consider it a blessing and what makes the world great.

If you want to be selfless, you will need to not just understand this type of unconditional love but embrace it and make it part of who you are. You will not be able to give of yourself to others if you are constantly judging them or consider them to be of less importance than you.

Start by really listening to people and their story because it will help you understand why they are in the position they are in. You will quickly learn that less unfortunate people are very much like you but they have just had some major setbacks. Once you bond with a person it will make it easier for you to love them

Instead of judging someone from your point of view or jumping to conclusions with limited information, seek to understand them better by digging deeper into their experiences. Open your mind, be curious, and ask about what you don’t quite understand.

Eliminate all of those negative reactions by expanding your awareness and acknowledging that a person’s opinion is based entirely on that person’s perspective of the world, including all the beliefs and experiences they’ve developed over their lifetime.

Selflessness is all about giving and knowing how to receive back with gratitude. You don’t have to donate all of your time and money to charities and volunteer organizations, but it’s worth making a small goal to give back to other people and the environment in some intentionally generous way.

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