This week on my radio show on Awakened Radio, my co-host, Susan Kern, and I were discussing the concept of unconditional receiving. I’ve long been familiar with the concept of unconditional love, unconditional acceptance, and unconditional giving. However, unconditional receiving was something I’d never given much thought to.
This is the season of giving. It is a time when we gift money, items, time, service, all kind of giving is going on. We’re even taught that it is better to give than to receive. But if we are all givers, then who’s receiving? Because in the cycle of giving and receiving, it has to go both ways!
Turns out that the more thought I gave the subject, the more twisted up my mind became! Almost immediately, my mind went to, “Well there are no free lunches. There’s always a price to pay.” Wow! There’s something to clear I thought!
The next thought was along those lines: “Well if there is always a price tag or a debt – whether implied by the giver, or pre-supposed by me – then is receiving a gift a form of being manipulated?” Followed closely by, “If I am unconditionally receiving, then am I energetically manipulating others or the Universe?”
Which brought up all kinds of stuff about:
- Obligations: Am I always obligated to return a favor, gift in return, what the social conventions for reciprocation are, etc., etc., etc!
- Manipulation: Is unconditional receiving a form of manipulation and/or is it completely out of integrity? Am I being manipulated by others when they give and I receive? Am I consciously or unconsciously manipulating others by my receiving? What are the rules? Where are the boundaries?
- Family relationships and interactions: What are my relationships with my immediate family members? Do I feel obligated to constantly give rather than receive? If I give, am I over-giving and unable to receive in return? How does that fit in to my self-worth/ self-esteem? Do I give because I am “buying” love or manipulating family members to act or behave in a certain way? Do I reject freely given gifts and acts of kindness and abundance because I don’t feel worthy to receive or because I cannot reciprocate with something of equal or greater value?
- Friendships: In my friendships, have I taken without giving? Have I given with the intent of manipulating or obligating someone in return? If I’ve received, has it really been given unconditionally or were there un-seen strings that were attached that may have damaged the relationship over the years?
- Business relationships: If I receive something of value does that obligate me to act in a certain way or reciprocate no matter what? If I cannot receive unconditionally, how much abundance and wealth am I unconsciously refusing? How am I limiting my business? How am I over-giving in my business so that people “like me” or feel obligated in some way?
- The Universe: If the Universe/God/Goddess/Creator (fill in your own version of Deity here) is all powerful, all loving, and all giving, why am I not receiving – and where are my beliefs and blocks to receiving? If I cannot accept a compliment without feeling uncomfortable, can I truly receive other gifts – money, service, love, health, etc. – either??
- And is what is right for one person not right for another? Who is to say that one person’s receiving anything is more right or wrong than my receiving – or vice versa?
- What does it say about a person if they are unconditional receivers? Are they greedy? Are they ungrateful? Do they simply expect everyone to give them everything? Does unconditional receiving make you lazy? A Horrible Person? A mooch or a bum?
And so my mind went. Around and around and around. In one conversation I had the realization that if I am receiving something with the expectation that there is some type of price tag, I cannot be in the present moment (pun intended), because I have already projected myself into a future where I’m already in debt for an unknown amount! Talk about messing with my financial abundance energy – both now and in the future! Yikes!
Honestly, I haven’t been able to fully answer most of the questions this topic has ignited. They seem somehow subjective. What is appropriate in one circumstance may not be appropriate in others. This concept has sparked deep debates with my clients, family and friends, as I’ve tried to get my mind completely around the concept of unconditional receiving.
Is it even possible? I mean we breathe free air, have free sunshine, have free thoughts (or are they really??), God’s grace (perhaps, some say). What else in your life has NO price-tag at all or is completely free? And if you think about it for a minute (saying you’ve thought of something that IS free – is it REALLY?) For a minute, as I was writing this paragraph, I thought, “I move freely.” But for me that’s not even completely true – at least not like it was when I was a kid or teenager!
Can we, even for a single day, simply say, “Thank you” for all the things we receive without feeling in some way obligated to reciprocate? And if we cannot do so, how are we limiting ourselves? What abundances are we turning away with our belief structures? If we cannot freely accept a hug, a smile, a free lunch, how on earth are we going to allow in millions of dollars of financial abundance? How can you win the lottery if you cannot even allow someone to buy you a cup of coffee without having to buy them a cup and a doughnut too?
I would LOVE to hear your thoughts about this. How has this concept of unconditional receiving made you realize the limitations we’ve allowed ourselves to play under? I really want to hear from you this week. Please email me at Michelle@QuantumSoulClearing.com with your thoughts, your insights, your ideas.
Join me Saturday, December 1st on www.AwakenedRadio.net/livechatroom at 11 a.m. PT/ 12 noon MT/ 1:00 p.m. CT/ 2:00 p.m. ET for an hour of Quantum Soul Clearing Healing the Holidays. We’ll be talking about my book and doing some live clearing work!
And then again on Sunday, December 2nd (and every Sunday) at 4:00 p.m. PT/5:00 p.m. MT/ 6:00 p.m. CT/ 7:00 p.m. ET for The Quantum Magic Hour with my co-host, Susan Kern as we talk more about this subject of Unconditional Giving.
Hello. I started googling UNCONDITIONAL RECEIVING as i just heard it in this affirmations video and it so deeply resonated with me, where I am on my journey.
I believe that is a place we can get to in our awareness. It is a realisation that God/ Universe/ The Divine expands trough our desires and that is its purpose. So it only makes sense to allow ourselves to have what we desire. But we often put conditions on what we can have as – i can only have that if i do this and than we keep going and going. The truth is we dont need to change anything about ourselves. WE ARE WHOLE AND PERFECT. Our beliefs about what we are might be not in alignemnt with that, but we can agin choose to have our mind and beliefs healed. And this really all points to a place called Unconditional Receiving. To me it seems like an extension of realisation of that awarness that we are Divine, we are whole, we are god itself. This is like letting God fully in.
<3