The Gift of Giving!

Have you ever noticed how good you feel when you give something to another person? It truly is one of the wonderful things about life – the ability to give to another human being. Now when I say give, I mean give! No strings attached and without expecting anything in return.

I don’t know about you, however sometimes this is easier said that done. As many of you know I love giving and do it a lot as I have so much to be grateful for in my life. There are also so many ways to give from your time, money to remembering a friends birthday!

One thing I did occasionally fail to do though, was not expecting anything in return. Yes, I was guilty of expecting a thank you in the past. However, I have also learnt to let go as I saw it as an expectation (on my part) and I was getting a little disappointed when the thank you did not happen. So now I have learnt to give to give (no strings attached – not even a thank you).

One other thing I learnt was missing here as well and that was allowing other people to give me things (or learning to receive). Now this was not in return for the gift I was giving them, it was any giving to me as I enjoyed being a strong independent woman and was more than capable to take care of myself (or so I thought).

After reflecting a couple of times after going out, I started to realise I was taking away the joy of giving from other people by refusing their gift and in many ways wasn’t allowing myself to receive. An example of this was when someone would give me a compliment, I quite often shrugged it off in the moment or deflected it – I didn’t allow myself to fully receive the compliment (as in many ways didn’t think I was worthy of these compliments).

I can see now energy goes out and comes back in – there is a balance. So I saw I was (unconsciously) blocking the fullness of life or my well-being. Over time I worked on this and became a habit, so now I am more comfortable accepting/receiving things and allowing people to do things for me!

Questions to Reflect on –

• What do you prefer to give or to receive?
• Is there a belief underneath your preference? If so, what is it?
• Are you blocking the fullness of life or your well-being by not allowing yourself to give and to receive?