I just relearned a valuable lesson. One I've known and also teach. I talk about it, lecture on it, and have even written about it in Give to Live; The Real Secret to Manifesting Life's Rewards. Yet, I still struggle with it personally. What is it? One word--RECEIVING. Receiving what? All kinds of things. Compliments,gifts, and help to name but a few.
What prompted this confession?
Well, I was given a beautiful gift. The gift I am about to tell you about may seem huge to some and to others rather small.
But let me caution you. As I've learned, there are no small or insignificant gifts! A gift is a reward. It is born of love, an expression of love, and love is
purely of God. So in spiritual terms, no gift is small. I see them all as equal, all a divine blessing. A tiny morsel of bread though physically small,can be a life saving morsel and huge in the life of the person who needs it. And it is huge in the gift of love of the universe.
The gift I received didn't save my life, but it certainly rejuvenated and enriched it. So in a way, since it added to the quality of my life, it may have contributed to the ultimate saving of my life.
To be honest, at first I struggled to accept this gift. What was it?
A completely paid vacation to a fabulous resort on the Mayan Riviera including airfare, food, beverages, and private transportation!
It was given to my wife and I by Jay--a patient of mine who owns a travel agency. Why? Because he values the work we do in the office, our community, charitable work and our years of medical mission service. He simply wanted to say "thank you" and reward us.
What a beautiful, loving and generous gift. One that should very easily be accepted. You would think! But for me it tripped a lot of circuit breakers within. I actually struggled internally with this. My first comments to Jay were "no". "I can't accept this", "you didn't need to do this", "it's not necessary".
Wow!
Did you get all that? Those are terrible things to say out loud or in self mind talk. What kind of message am I sending to myself? Perhaps I am not worthy? What was I saying to Jay in rejecting his gift? How would it affect his self worth? What was I telling God, the universe, the Divine? I think I was shouting loudly--Don't bother ever sending good things my way because I'll just cross my arms, reject it and send it right back to you!!
Oh, no! That's exactly the opposite of what I want. Of course, I want as many blessings, abundance, gifts, rewards, love, etc. that God can send to me.
It's said--ask and you shall receive.
But then when it shows up, don't reject it, like I started to do! This is not good. How many times a day, a month, a year, do each of us do this? We reject the very thing we want because it makes us uncomfortable, or we perceive it comes from a source we didn't expect.
Now if I had won the trip in a contest that would have been easy to accept. But this was different.
So immediately I had to put the brakes on, backup, erase the negative thoughts and accept Jay's gift. Though as you can tell, I didn't exactly swallow it with ease.
As hard as it was, I graciously accepted. I needed to...
I needed to honor rather than minimize or invalidate Jay's generosity, kindness and love.
Also...and this is important; I needed to allow Jay to experience the gift of giving and thereby give him the opportunity to receive his own rewards for doing it. Essentially this was a gift back to him from me, and critical for his personal growth.
Also, I needed to accept his gift to promote my own growth.
And I needed to tell God..."Whatever you send my way, I lovingly accept. I am open to abundance of every kind and as much of it as you're willing to send from whatever the source."
As I said, I've found it's easier to be on the giving end than the receiving end. But I will continue to work through my unreasonable discomfort in this area, and confront this head on. The more gifts I willingly receive, the better able I am to grow and give to others.
So now to make it real...I am writing publicly for all to see.
That I am willingly, graciously, and cheerfully accepting any and all gifts.
(Don't thing it wasn't hard to write this...it was.)
Now I want you to confront your blocks to receiving and allow abundance to flow to you and through you.
Wishing you every abundance in this life and the next.
Yours In Service,
Dr. Rick Barrett
P.S. Check out an audio clip from Joe and I at:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/nevada45/rickandjoeinterview.mp3
P.P.S. If you need help with a trip, consider Jay! Check out his website at
www.grandtravelcruise.com
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