2016 was a big year for cleaning and clearing and completing things and it taught me a lot about the gifts of receiving. I didn’t get much blogging done as the year unfolded but I picked it up again in December and wrote the following post for a newsletter I shared before Christmas. I’m sharing it here today… and you’ll be hearing new things from me more often and soon. Here’s to a wonderful blessed 2017-Happy New Year!!… and on to The Gifts of Receiving…
One of the biggest gifts of 2016 came as a result of opening the door for a deeper experience of Freedom & Support. These were my “words for the year”, but from the get go, all the arrows pointed me right to the gifts of RECEIVING. It was a big lesson for me, since this is something I have to work at. I know I’m not alone in this.
So, as we enter this season of giving, I wanted to share some of the Gifts of Receiving that I’ve learned have a huge impact on your level of abundance, creativity, joy and pretty much anything you’ve been trying to manifest in your life.
Here’s something to consider: Giving and Receiving work together. They are not separate energies. They are part of a beautiful cycle and both are equally necessary to keep this cycle balanced and the energy flowing.
In our culture we uphold Giving to be a virtue… the only virtue within this cycle. To put it bluntly, giving is good. Receiving on the other hand, is usually associated with selfishness, greed and other negative qualities.
Most of the people I work with are excellent givers but when it comes to receiving they feel a lot of guilt and struggle. But this inability to be a good receiver creates self-abandonment, it creates lack, and upholds an energy of sacrifice. It gets in the way big time when we’re trying to make space in our lives for things we truly desire.
One of the key components of the manifesting process is being able to receive. The Universe can and does dole out blessings all day long, but if we’re not open to receiving them… they won’t come into our experience. Here are a few ways to discern if you’re having trouble being a good receiver:
- You feel tired all the time and spread thin.
- You feel unsupported & like you have to do everything on your own – martyr syndrome.
- You experience lack in some area of your life: Not enough time, not enough money, etc.
- You feel resentful.
- You have to be in control all the time.
- You feel out of touch or even blocked with your intuition.
- You’re not a good listener.
- Whenever anyone gives you anything (a gift, a compliment, etc.) you feel like you have to turn around and immediately reciprocate or you feel bad.
- You feel guilty when people do nice things for you.
- You get uncomfortable when people give you praise.
- It is very difficult for you to make time for yourself.
- You feel guilty, frivolous, or like you’re playing hooky if you take a break, go on a vacation, or just do something that you enjoy for fun.
If you found that you resonate with 3 or more of these situations, there is definitely a block around receiving, but even if you only found 1 thing that struck a chord, it’s time to take a look at how you can be a better receiver. And here’s why:
- When we become better receivers, we become better givers. When we become more open to receiving, not only do we receive things that are more aligned for us… we also start to notice and observe better – we see those around us better and we notice where there are needs, desires, & preferences. Receiving is an energy of openness and it brings the world around us into better focus which in turn helps us be better givers, stewards, and nurturers of everything around us.
- Gratitude is a function of receiving.The reason practicing gratitude can transform your life is that it’s a way of being open to blessings – of RECEIVING the good that is around us. So often these things go unnoticed. But gratitude is something that naturally flows out of being better receivers. When we are in gratitude we are in the flow of abundance because we are RECEIVING our blessings and GIVING thanks.
- We can strengthen our intuition. We all have intuition, but we aren’t always in touch with it. Being a better receiver helps us open these channels – we literally receive information through our intuitive senses and as we fine tune our receiving mechanism this connection gets clearer and clearer.
- Listening is a function of receiving. If people tell you, you don’t listen or if you constantly miss messages, forget things or don’t register stuff when people are interacting with you… you’re not receiving. Consciously working on our listening skills can help us be better receivers.
- You open to greater support from the world around you & the Divine. We have to allow for support to come to us if we want it to show up.Often, it is right in front of us, but when that receiving door is closed, we miss it. When we start looking for it, being open to it… well, suddenly it seems to appear everywhere.
- Better health and well-being… because when we’re actually listening and receiving the guidance from our physical bodies about what they need…. we can become better givers by tending to these needs.
- You allow yourself to experience the things you actually value. If you are desiring something that isn’t showing up, you are not allowing yourself to receive it. We do this all the time and taking a look at those persistent stuck places can help us uncover where we’re not receiving and bring to consciousness what is in the way. Sometimes there are subconscious programs that override all our best efforts and keep us stuck in these patterns… and these can be cleared. It’s possible to unblock the places where we aren’t receiving – but we have to become aware of them. Often, we can feel quite downtrodden and victimized by what is really an inability to receive something we want or need. We can start shifting this whole paradigm and liberate ourselves by becoming conscious of where we’re not receiving.
More and more we are hearing messages about self-care – a need to nurture ourselves, our creative souls and our deepest desires. Yet it seems difficult to make these desires a reality. The call for self-care has become synonymous with taking a spa day, getting a massage or going to a yoga class… and these are absolutely lovely things to do…
But more often than not, we’re trying to address a severely depleted cup with a tiny little drop of receiving that’s relegated to one or two days out of an otherwise jam-packed year of sacrifice & obligation. It’s time to start actively learning to receive in our daily lives. And there’s no better time to start than during the holidays!
When we open to the gifts of receiving we become gentler with ourselves, softer, and we savor life more. We improve the quality of our days, we open our hearts, and we become givers of light.
Learning to be a better receiver is a win/win and a tool for transformation, so as the holidays crank up, allow yourself to receive. Let go of something that feels heavy and obligatory and make a conscious choice to dissolve the energy of sacrifice and uphold the energy of love and pleasure. After all… isn’t this really what we all want and what we love most about this time of year? I’m wishing you the most beautiful and happy holidays. With all my love xo