Be the Tree: A Guide to Well-Being

Aren’t you surprised by the title of this blog? I bet you are. I am positive that after reading the title you would be curious that what kind of blog title is it, yet after reading this blog, you will highly likely agree with me and will believe in the philosophy of “Be the Tree”.

Just think about the fact that every single thing in this universe has a purpose. Human beings have a purpose (I discussed that in my purposeful living blog), animals, insects, even the non-living things have a purpose as well. There is not even a single thing in this universe that doesn’t have a purpose.

Trees are living beings as we all know. What is the purpose of trees? And what can we learn from trees? Lets look at the following purposes of “the tree” (yes I will use the article “the” for tree here to make a point), and see how we can adopt this purpose in our lives and be more beneficial beings to the mankind and the universe as a whole.

THE TREE IS A GIVER:

If we analyze in depth how the tree is helpful to every other living being, we will notice that tree is one of those creatures of nature that is a “giver”. The tree always gives more than it receives; no matter what. Let me elaborate it more, the tree takes water, minerals, and sunlight but what does it give us in return? It gives us more than we can ever imagine…. The tree gives us fruit, a single tree is capable of giving us tremendous amount of fruits almost every year or every alternate year. If we compare the amount of care it receives from us, we will realize that tree actually gives us way more than it receives from us.

The tree gives us fruit, it doesn’t matter who will benefit from the fruit. Even if a gardner who is planning to cut the tree, can actually benefit from the fruits given by the tree. This gardener is actually an enemy for the tree but the tree doesn’t stop its fruit for this enemy.

My question is, “Can’t we learn from something from the tree? Can’t we be like trees? Can we give whatever we have to others without any expectation of return? Can’t we become givers? Trust me…the principle of giving is really powerful; the more you give the more you receive, just like the tree receives more care just because it gives more and more.

The tree that gives more fruit is later taken care of more by the caregiver for obvious reasons. Because the tree is giving benefit to the society, the caregiver also gets benefited by the giving nature of the tree. Hence the caregiver takes good care of the tree and the cycle goes on and on. The more the tree gives, the more care it receives. The same thing happens with us as well. If we decide to be givers and keep giving, the nature will take care of us.

The tree gives us oxygen, helps our environment by reducing the overall high temperature, thus making the world a better place to live. The tree also gives us shelter, and shadow to help us in bad weather and bad times. Not only that, the tree benefits the mankind even after it is dead; we use the wood of a dead tree and use it for furniture, our couches, bed, etc. Not just that, the wood of the tree produces papers that we write on, and the tree and plants give us a numerous amount of medications that treat our ailments and the cotton tree (gossypium for example ), also gives us clothing by providing us cotton, and the list goes on and on.

Why can’t we be like the tree? Why can’t we give and give and give. Why don’t we understand that the giver survives, its the survival of the fittest according to Charles Darwin, and I believe the fittest is the one who benefits others more than anyone else. Can’t we just decide that we will always give more than we receive? Can’t we give more in our relationships than we receive? Can’t we give more to strangers than what we receive from them, just like a tree gives fruits to everyone, even a stranger.

The tree even gives us something even after it dies, similarly, we should be that kind of givers who give even after leaving this world. For example, my blogs and videos you watch, will give something to the people after I die. I want you to think about it, how can you keep giving after you die? May be write a book, may be your research articles, maybe educational videos, or by actually growing a tree, or donating for a charity hospital or helping a poor child graduate from school. All of these are the actions that will remain alive after you leave this world.

You don’t have to be Nelson Mandela, or Mother Tresa to give something that keeps serving people after your death, you just need to give whatever you can. Not all of us can be like these greatest people ever born, but if you can just be a fraction of those greats, and give something even if it’s extremely small in quantity or value, remember, you will be considered a giver, and the giver is the fittest that survives. Your name will probably live even after you are gone or you will see the fruits in the next life.

CONCLUSION:

Be a giver like the tree. Remember, the old woman who just gave a penny to Jesus, and Jesus considered it more than everyone else’s donations; because she only had a penny?

Therefore, it doesn’t matter how much you give…you just need to make sure that you always try to give more to the nature than you take. It doesn’t have to be millions, because the key is your “intentions” and the quality of giving, not the quantity of giving.
Also remember not to show-off what you give, otherwise it will all be in vain.

Dr. Hassaan Tohid


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Hassaan Tohid

PROFESSOR

Dr. Hassaan Tohid MBBS, CCATP, CSOTP is a TEDx Speaker, Entrepreneur, Neuroscientist, Motivational speaker, Trainer, Certified Life Coach, and a Published author.

He has a career with three domains. An entrepreneur, an academic (neuroscientist, and a teacher), and a clinician (Addiction treatment).

As an entrepreneur, he is the founder of California Institute of Behavioral Neurosciences and Psychology. Where he leads the organization as the CEO. He is a trainer, a coach, and a teacher. His training includes Public Speaking, Research Writing and Research Data Analysis, Business training and coaching, life coaching, and Sales.

An academic he is a Neuroscientist and delivered a TED talk on his specialty Mirror Neurons and Dissociative Identity Disorder at TEDx UCDavissf and TEDxUAlberta. He has published over 40 scientific articles and written 3 books.

A clinician with substance use disorder treatment specialty. Dr. Tohid graduated as a medical doctor and chose mental health and substance use disorder as a domain of his clinical career.

Dr. Tohid has delivered lectures on the subjects of success, motivation, business, sales, and research writing and publishing in different languages to thousands of medical and non-medical students.

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