Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Eduardo Leyva
English IV
4-3-19
People often face difficult times throughout their lives and when I see this I think “How
can I help” or “How can I make them feel better”. Everyone faces a difficult time at some point
in their lives and I feel like things can be done to help. One way I have found that can help
people feel better in difficult times is trying to engage in new techniques which can help you be
more compassionate and helpful towards others. While this can work others in order to help
others out you must first help yourself and change things in your life for the better. All of these
ways of helping people to deal with issues can work and still others believe that being a better
listener is all that people need. These different point of views disagree with each other in ways to
help people overcome challenges and what the best way to do so is. There are numerous ways
Everyone has different way of solving problems or helping others out such as talking
with people, giving advice and just being an active listener. One way I found which can help you
be a better help to others is to practice techniques to make you a more compassionate person
which
Leyva Pg.2
can make you be more helpful to people who have problems. In an article it was stated
that “engage in compassion meditation, an ancient Buddhist technique to increase caring feelings
for people who are suffering...that people trained in compassion were more likely to spend their
own money altruistically to help someone who was treated unfairly than those who were trained
Science). This quote shows that when people practiced things to be more compassionate they
ended up helping others more than usual. Another piece of information that I found shows that
people can actually teach themselves to be compassionate. In the article I found it stated that “if
you orient yourself to compassion, then you’re going to change the whole orientation of your
mind. And the key here is to understand that we can select, on purpose, one of our basic
motivational systems—for caring—and we can cultivate it, help it grow and mature, through
practice “ (How to Turn Your Brain from Anger to Compassion...Greater Good) . This shows that
people who want to be more compassionate towards others can easily learn to do so and help
them in a positive way. The articles also states that “Compassion is going out and confronting
your anxieties.” which means that in order to be compassionate you have to face your own
troubles and see ways to fix it. This reveals that practicing ways to be more compassionate and
better towards other people can work and can even be life changing to a person's way of
thinking.
Leyva Pg.3
Another way in which I found that could help people is to judge what we are doing
wrong as individuals. In the article it is stated that “in order to help others you must “Start with
yourself”(Squillaci, Laurie). This is saying that in order to be able to help others you must first
see what you can do better yourself. Another article that ties into this also says that in order to
help other people you must “Start with yourself”. This article also says if you want to help others
you can also start with yourself and see how you can improve. The article says to “ Practice
radical self-care” and also “Heal your own trauma”(Rankin, Lissa) which means that you should
look for ways to help yourself before helping others because you can give people bad
advice.This reveals that in order to help someone who you want to help you must first see what
you can improve on in your life to give that best advice possible. This reveals that there are many
ways people can go about to help people going thru difficult times.
The third way that I found people were able to help others is by being an actively listener.
Being an actively listener is important because it shows interest in a person and it shows that you
really care about what they have to say. In the article it states that ”Think before responding.”
and “Know when it’s wise to interrupt.” are important because these things show people that you
are interested in the conversation and also pay good attention to it because the person on the
other end might think you don’t care about what they are saying. The article also says to “
Recognize changes in tone and body language”(How to Become a Better Listener.” Psychology
Leyva Pg.4
because it can say alot about how they feel or what they are thinking. This shows that another
key way to help people is to pay close attention to what they have to say and that sometimes it
People have different ways of helping others overcome difficult challenges. This idea
believes that its better to let people talk to you about their problems and just listen to what they
have to say because this can make a big difference. One way I found that people help others is by
doing basic things such as listening and paying attention. In an article it is stated that
”Sometimes some basic help can make a big difference”. This is saying that getting hep from
someone can make a difference. The article also said that “People who often focus on the
positives in their lives are less upset by difficult memories”(Deal Better with Hard Times.
Mental Health America). This could be a good way to help people feel better in difficult times.
This is saying that other than talking to a person about their problem just listening can make a
big difference in their lives. Showing people positive things or just being positive around them
can also help tremendously. This shows that there are small ways which you can help people
people alone and let them overcome their challenges. One article I found states that sometimes it
Leyva Pg.5
is better to try to let people resolve their problems if you see that what you are doing is not
helping. This article shows that depression is a difficult problem to tackle and often people
suffering from it cannot just “snap out of it” by sheer force of will. This article also says that
although there are many ways you can help recovery “ is in the hands of the depressed person.”
This shows that sometimes although you try to help as much as possible it is up to the person to
get better or try to get better and to think more positively about their future. This article then
goes on to say that “being a compassionate listener is much more important than giving
active listener than trying to give solutions. This reveals that although your intentions may be
good and you are doing what's best for the person it is up to that same person to try to change for
The last way that I found which shows that sometimes it is better to leave people alone is
the fact that not everything you say applies to another persons and the information you give out
can actually cause more damage. Going back to a article I found before it states that you have to
“Practice radical self-care...Heal your own trauma...If you hold on to unhealed trauma, you'll
Leyva Pg.6
that you should look for ways to help yourself before helping others because you can give people
bad advice. This adds to the idea that sometimes it is better not to try to give people advice
because you may no give the best advice and it is better to just listen to others problems.
In conclusion the articles I found mostly had different ways of going about helping
people overcome difficulties some ways required more personal involvement and change while
others just required very minimal things such as “being an active listener”. In my opinion the
way you go about helping someone depends on the person you are trying to help. For example If
you don’t know nothing about a person but you see they are looking very sad and you try to help
I think the best way to help them is to listen to what is wrong rather than trying to give them
advice because you don’t know everything about that person. On the contrary if you have a
friend who you know all about and see that they are going thru a difficult time you can step in
and try to give advice because you know more specific things that may have caused this
Works Cited
ww.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/compassion-training.html. (Pg.2)
Science, w
greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_turn_brain_anger_compassion(Pg.2)
www.cc-sd.edu/blog/10-ways-of-showing-compassion. ( Pg.3)
www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-do-life/201405/how-become-better-listener. (Pg3-4)
Deal Better with Hard Times. Mental Health America, 4 Feb. 2014,
www.mentalhealthamerica.net/deal-better-hard-times. (Pg.4)
Helping Someone with Depression.” Healthy Eating Tips to Prevent, Control, and Reverse
www.helpguide.org/articles/depression/helping-someone-with-depression.htm/. (Pg.5)