Over the last few days I’ve had the honor to receive some incredible kindness.
My dear friend made time from her busy schedule to help manage my table at the Vikasa Expo.
A stranger at Starbucks paid for my tea.
Another stranger paid my toll at the toll booth.
Truth is we’re constantly being showered by love and kindness. Sometimes our minds are pre-occupied and we don’t see it. Other times such acts of kindness make us nervous. We feel the pressure to reciprocate immediately, uncomfortable at the idea of being given something unexpectedly and maybe undeservedly.
When we learn to receive with grace and ease, we’re allowing the basic laws of the Universe to operate. Energy has to move. When we block this flow we’re interrupting a natural process, clogging up the divinity meant to flow from and through each one of us.
One of my new clients, an entrepreneur, is finding herself struggling to balance her roles at work and at home. Recently married, she wants to make time to nurture and expand her relationship with her husband. The problem: her busy schedule restricts her time for other aspects of her life: relationships, self-care, travel, meditation.
There are many components to finding this balance. Managing her time and energy, exploring her connection with self and God, understanding her hormonal and sexual gifts to do more with less effort.
And then there is mindset. The permission we give ourselves to live a desired lifestyle and express who we truly are.
One major mindset issue that comes up for most women is the ability to receive. My client, in her own admission, sucks at receiving. She can give give give but when extended support or kindness she shrinks and closes down.
While acts of unexpected kindness are great to give, they’re equally great to receive.
I often say
Inner peace is your biggest contribution to world peace. (Tweet it)
This peace is reached when we’re in full deep acceptance of ourselves and the universal laws our world operates in. Yin and Yang aren’t just two energetic polarities. They are laws that help us experience inner and external balance and harmony. Giving is yang. Receiving is yin. Without one side of the equation we’re incomplete, unhappy and disintegrated.
I asked my client to try this simple exercise for a week: to receive all compliments with grace and ease. I asked her not to deflect them, or dismiss them, or squirm. I asked her to be with that energy of receiving.
Where in your life can you receive better? How did you react to an unexpected act of kindness that came your way?