Receive Generosity – Dr. Rick Hanson

How?

Start with something a friend has recently given to you, such as a smile, an encouraging word, or simply some attention. Then open to feeling given to. Notice any reluctance here, such as thoughts of unworthiness, a background fear of dependence, or the idea that if you receive then you will owe the other person something. Try to open past that reluctance to accept what’s offered, to take it in – and enjoy the pleasures of this. Let it sink in that receiving generosity is good.

Next pick something from nature. For example, open to the giving folded into an ordinary apple, including the cleverness and persistence it took, across hundreds of generations, to gradually breed something delicious from its sour and bitter wild precursors. See if you can taste their work in its rich sweetness. Open even more broadly to the nurturing benevolence in the whole web of life.

Then try something unliving, perhaps something with no apparent value, like a bit of sand. Yet in that single grain are echoes of the Big Bang – the gift that there is something at all rather than nothing. Who knows what deeper, perhaps transcendental gifts underlie the blazing bubbling emergence of our universe?

Take a breath and enjoy receiving trillions of atoms of oxygen – most of them the gifts of an exploding star.

Consider some of the intangibles flowing toward you from others, including goodwill, fondness, respect, and love. See if you can drink deeply from the stream coming from one person; as you recognize something positive being offered to you, try to experience it in a felt way in your body and emotions. Then see if you can do the same with other people. If you can, include your parents and other family members, friends, and key acquaintances.

Try to stretch yourself further. Recall a recent interaction that was a mixed bag for you, some good in it but also some bad. Focus on whatever was accurate or useful in what the other person communicated and try to receive that as a valuable offering. Open your mind to the good that is implicit or down deep in the other person, even if you don’t like the way it has come out.

Keep listening, touching, tasting, smelling, and looking for other overflowing generosity coming your way.

So many gifts.