Beautiful Receiving

Last week I went to a wonderful workshop with Sonia Choquette and returned home feeling uplifted, inspired, and joyous. The big message I took in was about RECEIVING. It seems timely as we enter the season of holidays and inward reflection. This time of year there is a lot of emphasis on giving. However, I’m realizing that the energy of giving and receiving is all the same, and we need to do both. If we are comfortable with giving and not receiving – it’s like being comfortable breathing out but never wanting to breathe in. That doesn’t really work… does it? Generally speaking many of us (myself included) aren’t very good receivers and my spirit is telling me it’s time for this to change.

This awareness isn’t new for me. For the past decade life has been teaching me that I need to embrace my vulnerability, let my guard down, and learn to receive. It started with learning to receive kindness from myself -to adopt a gentler inward tone and cut myself some slack. This may sound a little mushy, but I have to tell you it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done! Learning to allow myself the time to regenerate, meditate, create art, get enough sleep (these are all things that “the world” says are optional or insignificant) took a lot a lot of work. I had to actively choose to listen to my spirit instead of my ego in order to allow these things into my life – and my ego really put up a fuss! It likes to be in control of things. It tells me that I’ll be safer if I keep myself protected, put on the mask of perfection, and keep all of the messy stuff hidden. Well isn’t that just exhausting?

The 7 of Pentacles showed up the other day as I was reflecting on these things, and I realized that it’s about taking a look around, and welcoming whatever the Divine has extended to us that we need to receive. The woman is standing under a money tree with an empty basket and a ladder. So what is she waiting for? Does she feel she doesn’t deserve it? Does she feel she has to earn it before she’s worthy? Maybe she doesn’t trust it (if she climbs too high on the ladder the universe might pull it out from under her?) Perhaps she worries that others won’t think she’s a good person if she has too much. There are lots of reasons we don’t receive in our lives and although this card addresses the earth element (money and tangible things), my heart tells me that we are never far away from our feelings about love, acceptance and worthiness when these issues come up. True abundance is all of these things and we are all absolutely worthy and deserving of it all.

I realized over the past two weeks that everything that means something to me in this life is asking that I become a better receiver. Opening to intuition is all about developing the ability to receive – to be open enough to get the information and trust it. Acting on this guidance is how we give because we make the divine manifest through our actions. Being an artist is about receiving inspiration and sustaining that flow of energy long enough to create something. It’s blissful because we’re receiving – it’s filling us up and we’re giving at the same time through that act of creation. Of course you don’t actually have to paint or sculpt in order to be creative – everyone of us is creating our lives each moment. If we can fill our wells with love everyday by practicing receiving we’ll create such beauty in the world. Everything we do will be infused with grace and that’s a vision that makes my spirit very happy.

So where are your doors closed? Where do you control, worry, and feel constantly tired? This is a clue to where you aren’t receiving, and I want to share a beautiful 10 minute “Sourcing” meditation that I learned at my workshop. Find a comfortable place to sit and rub your palms together for a few seconds. Feel the tingling of the energy in your hands and lay them on your knees palms upward. Take a deep breath and let out the sound of “ahhhh” as you exhale. Ask for grace to fill you up as you sit and breathe gently. I would recommend listening to “Devi Puja” by Krishna Das, Baird Hersey, and Prana as you sit. You can find it on itunes. Receive this gift of grace and carry it with you as you go about your day. Many blessings! xoxo