Receiving is a holy practice.

Open your hands and your heart.

Receive it all.

Receive the air you're breathing in, receive the food on your plate, receive the love of your partner and children and friends - receive love in all the ways it comes to you, receive the praise and the grace and the joy, receive the help and the correction and the wisdom. 

It's all a gift. 
Open yourself to it and receive.

In many forms of Judaism, being able to receive is considered the highest level of spiritual consciousness/awareness/wisdom. And yet, so many of us, in so many different faith traditions and communities, both subconsciously and consciously, are still busy trying to earn and prove and strive.

Many people in the world take by force (in small and big ways) what they think they need to survive and achieve and become significant.

Maybe you, like me, have trouble receiving because it just seems so much more spiritual and good and holy to give.

You've been taught that it is better to give than to receive, but what you haven't been taught is that giving and receiving aren't opposites; they're points on the circumference of a circle; they constantly flow and feed into each other.

When Jesus said, "Give, and it will come back to you,"* he wasn't talking about being paid back. He was talking about entering into the flow of generosity.

Giving and receiving is of one piece. It's not either-or. To do one, you must learn to do the other. Your life is made up of what comes into your life and what comes from it. 

Flow.

We've twisted scriptures like "It is better to give than to receive…"* into some self-denying, and even self-deprecating, creed that sets one practice above another. It's not the way it's meant to be, and it's not the whole story. 

The writer of Hebrews said: 

"Accept the mercy, receive the help."*

Whether you're in a season where you have no choice but to rely on the generosity of others; or you're in a place of abundance, and the gifts keep coming, or you're somewhere in between, and life is a mixture of sowing and reaping; receiving is a spiritual practice worth practising. 

Brené Brown said:

"Until we can receive with an open heart, we're never really giving with an open heart. When we attach judgment to receiving help, we knowingly or unknowingly attach judgment to giving help."

And this isn't just about help... you can receive all kinds of things as well as help. Receiving doesn't have to be "survival needs-based" for it be acceptable for you to practice. 

If The Divine truly is abundant; if God desires that you would find life in your living; if the source of all things - The Ground of Being - is generative and creative by sheer nature, then could there really be a more wise, loving, aware, and productive spiritual practise you could engage in than receiving? 

It's all a gift when you learn to receive, even the things that don't feel like it, the times when you're called in or out, the lessons that come through pain and heartache; the things that happen that invite guilt and shame... from these through to more blissful, wondrous, joyful things, how you open your heart and receive them has the power to change it all. 

Mindful Prompt: Receiving is not a 'lesser' spiritual practice than giving or any other 'thing' for that matter. Free yourself from thinking you have to do it alone, and open your heart to receive all the gifts right in front of you. 

* Luke 6:38, Acts 20:35, Hebrews 4:16

Continued in the upcoming series "Receive The Gift", this week with a subscription in the App.

Written by Liz Milani.
Instagram: @thepracticeco