Ep 2: Our capacity to receive is part of our capacity to expand.

In this episode, Abbey explores the often-overlooked skill of receiving. Through a personal aha moment and a deeper look at mindset, union, somatics, and excellence, she explores why receiving can feel so uncomfortable, what our bodies can teach us about it, and how our capacity to receive is connected to our capacity to expand.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Hi, guys, welcome back. I'm your host, Abby Daw. This is the Abby Daw Podcast. So if you're new here, last episode, and if you listen to it, thank you so much for downloading it and listening to it. It means a lot to me. But if you're new here, last week's episode was about introducing myself mostly. But if you're here for the first time today, hi, thanks for being here. And for everyone, this podcast is an extension of the work that I do in the world. I want to explore more and teach on this idea of embodying the energy of excellence. That excellence is an energy. And we embody excellence through our mindset, union, bringing mind-body together, union with the world, with our relationships, somatics, by and through the body. So that ultimately it is about becoming our own muse. Everything is inside of us. Our body holds the answers. And we don't tune into Dr. Body as much as we should for these answers. And I want to teach to these things and to specific topics every week that feel important to me. So before we get started, I do want to invite you to practice something that is really important to me, and that is breath. So I want you to take a moment and learn to just receive your breath. So breathe in through your nose, the stream of breath all the way up and pause to feel into the moment. And then exhale, let it go. Send it all the way out. And as you let go of that breath, soften your shoulders, unclench your jaw, unfurl your brow. And really just notice what it feels like to simply receive this moment. You do not have to fix anything. You don't need to figure anything out. You don't need to become anything. You just get to appreciate the abundance of your breath. I really do want it this podcast to be teaching moments for you so that you can actually feel better in the world and have these little aha moments. And I am basically teaching from my own experience, my own lived experience every single week. So today I do want to talk about receiving. And what does that even mean? Well, recently I moved into a new home. And what came with the home was a spot that I didn't expect would become so peaceful for me and important for my life. It has already been a place where I have discovered more about myself. I've been able to be curious about just my life and the future. It's a place where I haven't really had ever in my life. And it is my porch with a cute little porch swing. And I go out there every morning and I have my coffee and I sit out there and I get to watch the hummingbirds and I get to see the people running past in the morning with their morning workout or walking their dog. And I get to just experience the stillness of the morning before my daughter wakes up, before I start my day and my clients. And before I moved, I had sort of sort of gotten out of the habit of meditating. And meditating has been something that I have really made a priority in my life. But over the last year or so, it hasn't been as important to me. I've sort of let it drop away. And I didn't realize until coming to this new space and sitting on that porch swing every morning and moving back into my meditation practice how badly I missed it and how important it actually was for me. And I do believe that sometimes we have to not have something for a while to come back to it to realize the significance of it in your life and that it actually was something you needed and it was valuable. And I'm going through that right now. And I have been doing this meditation called Blessing of Your Energy Systems, and it is guided by Dr. Joe Dispenza. It is an hour-long meditation, and I make sure that I give myself that much time to actually do it because I have noticed some really beautiful things come from this. It's almost like I plug myself into the outlet of the universe, and my soul begins to speak. And what I am finding that right now that I am experiencing is we are the ones that block ourselves from receiving. This higher consciousness, God, light, love, it's always been there, but there's this film between, and I'm just gonna use me, for example, me and that source that I have failed to recognize has always been there. But it was just my job to slow down, close my eyes, and reconnect with it and let it in. And some days are harder than others. Some days it's hard for me to let it in, depending on where I'm at in my life. And then other days I feel it saturate me physically, energetically, emotionally. And it's like a homecoming. And it's this beautiful universe within me, or this pure unconditional love that meets up with this higher consciousness of love. It's a surrender to love ultimately. And when that happens, I feel like I have gotten this message that I have been trained to think that receiving was selfish or I wasn't worthy of receiving. And there was always this thread of shame or guilt attached to it. And if you can just receive without shame and guilt, to me, that is the ultimate surrender, is to receive. I didn't think of it that way. When we can allow ourselves to receive, that means we trust the universe. We don't need a control outcome by always giving, or sometimes when we give, we don't ask ourselves why we're giving. And I've been really good at that over the last two years, asking why I'm giving and coming to this resource place within and making sure that I'm giving with intent and giving without expectation. But what I've realized is I've been practicing that skill. I haven't been practicing the skill of receiving. And I'm having this aha moment that, you know, we get to this place where it's like, oh my gosh, universe, God doesn't love me right now. Why is it doing this to me? Why am I not, you know, manifesting the things that I desire, whether it comes to money or love or whatever it is, but I believe the universe is showing up in the way that we have a capacity for, if that makes sense. Sometimes receiving love, sometimes receiving money, sometimes receiving a lot of abundance is really, really uncomfortable. And we don't realize that even though we do want all of those things, our subconscious mind doesn't want those things. It's uncomfortable. And so what I believe, I believe that receiving is a skill that we have to practice. And I do think more often than not, we deflect what we desire. We deflect love, we deflect light, we actually question it. Are you gonna stay? Do you feel like you have to earn it? Do you immediately, when someone pays you a compliment, you have to give something back to them? Like you have to return immediately with a compliment. And what I'm realizing about myself is if I want to embody that energy of excellence, I have to continue to practice receiving. I will share a story with you. I was just starting my business. It was early stages of the pandemic. I went to the grocery store, I bought some Lay's potato chips and a Coke and something else for this homeless man that I saw outside. And I was so, so excited to give it to him. He looked really hungry. And I personally love to give. That is easy for me. I love to see people's eyes light up with a surprise. Or when I love somebody, I love to give meaningful, thoughtful gifts based off of listening to them and their needs. And it just, I like to learn people and then give to them something that tells them I care and I love them and I see them. So when I give, I give from a place of just excitement. And I ran outside to give him this nice meal that I got him, and he looked at me and he said, I don't need your charity. And he was angry about it. And I was taken back by it. And of course, I wasn't gonna force my charity onto him. I mean, I came from a place of I wanted to give, but it deflated me. And I went home and I asked myself, what is it that I have to learn from this? And what I got out of that was the message that's coming around now. Think of that man as us when the universe wants to give to us, and how we push it away through a compliment or through a nice gesture. That's how the universe feels when we deflect it, when we say to the universe, I don't need your charity. And we don't even realize we're doing it. So I've been realizing that it's a skill. And some of us weren't really taught how to receive because we have been taught that our earth, our worth is based off of what we give. But if we can learn how to receive, then that means we trust the universe and we can let go of the grippy control. If we can relax and let the beautiful tide come in towards us and kiss our feet and hug us, then we have also more to give back. We need the inhale just like we need the exhale. It's a beautiful thing. If we're over giving all the time and we can't receive, that's a huge imbalance. And it's hard, I know, but it's something that we should practice. We are taught how to work, we are taught how to achieve, we are taught how to give, we are taught to just always produce something, perform something, take care of everyone else, but we aren't necessarily taught how to receive love, receive support, receive compliments, receive money, receive opportunities, to receive rest, receive pleasure. And so maybe ask yourself, how comfortable am I actually receiving? So receive without deflecting. So think about when somebody compliments you do you say thank you, but oh my gosh, your shirt is super cute, and you have to honestly give them something right back, or can you just simply say thank you? That is confidence. That is like I am able to receive. What about receiving without earning? Do I believe I have to work hard to deserve good things to even deserve a scrap? If I work hard enough, I deserve love. If I achieve enough, I deserve success. If I give enough, I deserve to receive. If I'm useful enough, I'm worthy. But what if you didn't have to earn every good thing that comes to you? Sometimes our inability to receive isn't about generosity. It's about whether or not we actually believe we're worthy of being supported, loved, given to. And then there's this receive without control. Sometimes we're not afraid of receiving, we're afraid of not being in control. Now, think about that. Because receiving requires some surrender. You cannot control how someone loves you, when an opportunity arrives, how someone supports you, what your next chapter looks like. So ask yourself, what happens in my body when something good comes towards you? Do you brace yourself? Do you tighten? Do you get suspicious? Like, oh my gosh, the other shoe is going to drop. Do you try to control it? Do you feel like you owe something back, or do you push it away? So your body is giving you this information. So we got to bring it back to this mythology that I created with Muse. So mindset, what do I believe I have to do to deserve receiving? The union part. Can I allow myself to be supported without abandoning myself? So stay within. Somatics, can my nervous system tolerate goodness, love, support, visibility, and expansion? That's a big one. We got to teach our nervous system that it is safe to receive without shame and guilt. And then the excellence part of it is can I become someone who doesn't just know how to create and give, but knows how to receive and hold what you have created? That's a big one. You're not just producing and creating, but can you receive and hold that expansiveness that comes from what you create? Are you willing to step into being seen and visible and receive light from the world and feedback in a way that might be really scary for your nervous system? Your capacity to receive is part of your capacity to expand. So receiving isn't the opposite of excellence. Receiving is part of the excellence, and that is what I'm recognizing. Because excellence isn't just how you cre or like what you produce, how you love, it's also about your capacity to hold, receive, love, really, or everything you desire. So I am just so excited about the direction of my podcast. I want to teach something that you can take with you in your life and be like, yes, I feel that. I want to shift that and I want to become a better version of myself through the things that I've learned or these aha moments that you have, that you can really have these felt experiences within your body and then continue to transform in your own life. And ultimately, that can help others around you and that your light gets brighter and you feel that it is okay to shine and be that light in the world. And ultimately remove these blocks that you have between you and that higher consciousness and allow love to flow into you. Allow yourself to be loved ultimately. Tune into the love. So I want you to allow yourself this week to receive compliments and not feel like you have to give one right back. And then also ask yourself what when you give, why you're giving. And I always say to myself, is this for love or with love? And if I say for love, then I don't give it. If it's because I genuinely do it from my heart and with love, then I give it. If somebody wants to give you something and you feel yourself tighten, or if something good comes your way and you want to brace for the bad, I want you to practice relaxing again and telling your body it is safe to receive without shame and guilt and let it in. So that is what I have for you today. Let's take one more breath together. I want you to this time receive this breath a little bit differently. So breathe in through your nose. And then exhale out. And keep just close your eyes if you can, if you're in a place that you can, and just know you don't have to do more. You don't have to prove more to deserve more. Maybe the next level of your life isn't asking you to work harder. Maybe it's asking you to become available to receive, to receive the love, to receive the support, to receive the opportunity, to receive the version of yourself you've been working so hard to become. Because excellence isn't just about what you create. Remember, it is about what you are willing to let in. So this week, practice receiving. Until next time, go be your own muse and share your beautiful light with the world. See you next time.