When You’re Stuck, Serve Someone Else

Feb 22
3 min read

Inspired by Guideposts Magazine and The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale

The Day I Found Hope in My Grandma’s Magazine

Years ago, in a season where everything felt heavy and unfixable, I found myself sitting in my Grandma Yolanda’s living room. You know those moments when life feels too loud, too uncertain, too much? That was me. I was exhausted from pretending I had it all together and quietly unraveling inside.

And then—almost by accident—I noticed a Guideposts magazine tucked next to her Bible.

Classic Grandma: wisdom everywhere, even in the stacks of things she saved “just in case someone needed them.”

I picked it up with the kind of desperation you only feel when you’re searching for

something—anything—to remind you that life doesn’t stay dark forever.

I read it cover to cover.

The stories were simple, human, unpolished. People stumbling, surviving, finding strength when

they thought they had none left. Ordinary lives, extraordinary resilience. It was the exact

reminder I didn’t know I was looking for:

You’re not the only one carrying something. And you don’t have to carry it alone.

That magazine didn’t magically fix my life—but it shifted my spirit. It steadied me. It gave me oxygen when I had been holding my breath for far too long. And it planted a seed that would change the way I navigate every hard season that’s come since.

The Power of Positive Action

Around the same time, I read The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale—a book with a title that sounds almost too optimistic until you’ve lived through something that shakes your foundation.

In one chapter, he talked about praying for others. Not the people you know. Not the safe circle of family and friends. But strangers. People you would never meet. People whose stories mirrored yours in ways you didn’t expect.

So I tried it.

I went on the Guideposts website and prayed for strangers—one by one—reading their stories, whispering their names, imagining the weight they were carrying.

And something surprising happened.

I felt lighter.

Calmer.

Less alone.

Serving someone else, even silently and anonymously, softened the edges of my own pain. It pulled me out of myself just enough to breathe again. Because when your heart turns outward, even for a moment, it makes space for hope to slip back in.

To this day, when I feel stuck, overwhelmed, or caught in a loop of overthinking, I go back to

that practice.

I don’t spiral—I serve.

I don’t isolate—I reach out.

I don’t freeze—I act.

Helping someone else find light is often the very thing that brings me back to mine.

Why It Works

Serving someone else doesn’t erase your struggle. But it does three unbelievably powerful

things:

1. It interrupts the mental noise.

Your brain stops catastrophizing when you turn your attention outward.

2. It reminds you of your strength.