When you get this newsletter, I’ll be joining a couple of hundred other women (including my beloved mother!) at a gorgeous resort hotel outside of Phoenix, (Wild Horse Pass Resort if you want to peruse it here) for Baeth Davis’ annual conference: “Gifted.” This year’s theme is Receiving.
Last week I encouraged you to start treating your desires with a newfound respect, with interest, with playfulness, and with excitement. (If you missed it, read it here.) After you acknowledge the desire, you must be willing to receive it.
“So?” you say, and shrug, impatiently. “Obviously!” Ah… But here’s the rub. How good are you at receiving? When someone compliments something you’ve done, do you smile and say “thank you!” and leave it at that? Or do you explain away your achievement? When someone tells you how nice your new outfit looks, do you smile and say a heartfelt “thank you!” or do you say “oh, this is a hand-me-down, or “I got this for $5 at Good Will.”
Do you realize you are throwing dust in the eye of the beholder? Did you know you are creating a pattern that cuts off receiving? Do you recognize you are turning away blessings?
What about when you see a penny lying in the parking lot? Do you pick it up and say “thank you!” or do you turn up your nose? If you turn away a little, that tells the Universe you will also turn away a lot! And what about when your spouse offers to take you to dinner anywhere you want? Do you pick the place where you’ll have the most delightful experience, or do you say “no, let’s just go to _______ because it’s cheaper there? Or “let’s just get take-out. That’s good enough for me.”
Do you hear what you just said? You just told the world (and your spouse) that you are unworthy of generosity. That you don’t value the gift freely offered to you.
OK! The wheels in your head are starting to turn now. That’s great! It isn’t just about being willing to receive your heart’s desire. It’s about being willing to receive period. Because the way you do one thing, is the way you do everything.
Coach’s Challenge: I expect I’ll have a lot more to share about this topic when I come home. But in the meantime, pay attention, this week, to how you receive. Challenge yourself, no matter how uncomfortable it makes you, to simply smile and say “thank you!” or “Yes, please, I’d love that!” Each time you do it, you send a new signal out into the world about your willingness, and your ability, to receive. You are preparing to receive your heart’s desire! Go for it! Leave a comment to let us know how it goes…
Lindy MacLaine, of www.wecansoar.com, helps people in the second bloom of life pinpoint their Life Purpose and create the best possible lives they can imagine. She is using her creativity to attract a community who responds to today’s challenges by stepping up to the plate and into their gifts, while believing in each other and themselves.
