Giving and Receiving
Shakti Gawain

  

Our abilities to give and receive are at the core of our capacity to create and experience true prosperity.

We each receive certain gifts when we come into this life.  These gifts take the form of our special talents, interests, and attributes, as well as our universal human characteristics, such as our ability to love and care for one another.

When we do our best to live our truth and express ourselves as authentically as possible, sharing ourselves as we are genuinely moved to, we naturally give our gifts to others and to the world.

In return, we may receive acknowledgement, appreciation, validation, nurturing, love, and in certain circumstances, money or other material rewards.  Receiving in these ways allows us to replenish the life force we have "spent," which in turn enables us to continue giving.

So receiving and giving are opposite energies that are inextricably linked together in the natural flow of life, like inhaling and exhaling.  If one aspect of that cycle doesn't function, the entire cycle ceases to function and the life force cannot move freely.  If you can't inhale, you will soon have nothing to exhale, and before long, your body will be unable to continue living.

This may seem fairly simple and obvious, yet we have enormous confusion in this area.  Many of us have difficulty with giving, receiving, or both.

In my observation, the more common problem is the inability to truly receive.  There are a number of reasons why receiving is difficult for so many of us.  Certainly, one factor is cultural conditioning.  Giving is generally viewed as honorable and praiseworthy.  Receiving, or taking, seems perilously close to selfishness, which has a lot of negative connotations for most of us.

More thoughts on giving.

  

We must realize that we cannot give love unless we can receive love. . . .
In order to give of ourselves, we must nurture ourselves.

John Gray

  


 
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