At least once today, we each will see someone with a need that we can very easily fill. We will know instantly what they need and what we should do. It will be something on the order of a small kindness: a smile, an encouragement, a caution, an answer, a small favor, an acknowledgement.
But our histories and habits will stop us. To avoid some perceived threat (there are many and they follow what is for each of us a familiar pattern) in the situation, we will override our impulse and not follow through with the help.
The good news is that we are neither our histories nor our habits. We can catch those impulses to help and pause. We can then see that following through on these impulses is not a threat but a joy. And we will soon learn that regularly following through is an investment that pays us back again and again.
In your corner,
Mike