Every Day . . .
Every day you and I recommend things to other people without even thinking about it.
Sometimes it’s something simple like something we’ve enjoyed, a film or a restaurant for example.
We let them know because we think they might enjoy it too.
We give people advice (sometimes whether they ask for it or not) because we think it might help them.
Much of the time you and I are giving things to others to help them out
We give our time
We give our knowledge
We give our ideas
We give comfort and sympathy when needed
And sometimes we give money
Sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn’t and that really depends on two things.
Does the person you are giving to know how to receive?
Do you know how to give?
Sadly, many people only ‘give’ in the expectation of some reward, directly or indirectly and of course as a result of this many people are sceptical about accepting whatever is being given.
All this ‘receiving suspicion’ is so bad that you can’t put the word ‘free’ in the title of an email for fear of it getting shunted into a spam filter!
It’s the “what’s in it for me” and the “what’s in it for them” syndrome and not surprisingly something given with ‘wiifm’ in the conscious or subconscious mind always results in a ‘wifft’ thought from the recipient.
There are many, many examples of this throughout all religions and in many non-faith situations that clearly demonstrate that if we give conditionally with the expectation of receiving something in return it doesn’t work.
And the converse is that if we receive something while ‘wondering’ about the motives of the giver then things don’t quite work out as expected.
The weird thing about all this is that when you do give unconditionally and when you do receive gratefully then things do happen.
You are rewarded both as a giver and a receiver but not usually in a way that is directly related to what you’ve given or received.
This is well documented in all religious texts going back through the ages.
And if you know anything about the ‘law or attraction’ or as I prefer to call it the ‘law of consequence’ then you’ll know that this is true and possibly how it works.
Physics talks about every action having an equal and opposite reaction but that’s not the case with giving and receiving.
Every gift given unconditionally generates a response as does every gift received gratefully, but they are not ‘equal and opposite’.
Anything can happen!
What can you unconditionally give and gratefully receive this week.
It could be an idea or advice and it could be just listening to what someone has to say.
