How to Feel Life as a Gift for Us

One of the lessons that I learned today from the lecture of a Malaysian ex-Mufti, Dr. Zulkifli Bakri said in one of his lecture that the impacts when we do good deeds and the fulfillment that we feel while doing it, we will be very grateful that we are alive in this world today. But I would like to contradict this perspective as many of us including myself, we often feel like the world is so burdensome, so annoying, and hitting so hard on us.

When I think back, there's always a moment in my life when I felt “empty” or blank, it’s like something is missing in my life. When I ponder back on what Dr Zulkifli said, it resonates with me very well. During these times, I often neglected the importance of helping others and performing good deeds. Yes, I have my own struggles. But I forgot about the transformative power of what kindness and empathy can offer to my life, especially during all those moments.

When I realized this, I started looking for ways to do good things or good deeds maybe, anything really, in any way possible. It could be helping others, like doing charity work, calling my mom to see how she’s doing, or reaching out to my besties whom I haven’t spoken to in a while, the conversation will be more like I check on them, ask how they are or may be lending an ear for them. Also, another good deed is like offering words of encouragement to my colleagues…