The Cycle of Vitality-Way 1: Analyze Your Giving & Receiving
In Juniper’s blog on “The Cycle of Vitality” she wrote about how the cycle of vitality has an “outward and inward movement.” There are many ways to reflect and look at how we move outward (giving) and inward (receiving) in our life. We will first look at literally where is your energy going and how are you replenishing that energy by looking at what you do to give and receive. You probably have your own perspective and history about the words “giving” and “receiving” - some of them what you learned from those who raised you, societal norms or possibly your spiritual practice. For example, I noticed when reflecting that for most of my life “giving” = “good” and receiving = “...weak, a waste of time, embarrassing?” Somehow it was safer for me to give but receiving (restore and replenish) was trickier - for a host of reasons. Each of us have our own histories that have impacted our views on this, so let’s just take a deep breath, keep it as simple as possible and analyze our giving and receiving patterns!
Giving, as we consider the cycle of vitality is about what you put out in the world. The movement outward. We all can see the ways we give - going to work, feeding the kids, helping our neighbor, caring for aging parents, raking the leaves, fixing the sink, doing the laundry, organizing our taxes, writing a blog, etc. Each of these “gives” has a different way they feed, or break, our cycle of vitality based on our own individual desires, values, creative needs, mindfulness practices, and more.
Sometimes the giving is exciting, fun, exhilarating and feeds a value or belief we have. Sometimes it is not, possibly because we have to do it/or choose to do it, or we give in a way that isn’t life-giving (or should I say life-receiving!) For example, sometimes something might start as a giving that gives us a lot in return, but then, when we overdo it, it breaks our cycle of vitality.
For the sake of this blog, we will see “receiving” as the ways you replenish and restore yourself so that you can continue to give in a way that is life-giving, not life-sucking. How do you fill yourself with energy, joy, compassion, and love in a way that really restores you? What are those ways? It’s very possible, as I stated above, that some of the ways you replenish might be the ways you give! Your giving can be a receiving. It depends on whether your cycle of vitality is humming and unbroken.
And so we need to make sure we look at not only all the ways we give, but how we receive. What are the ways that we replenish and restore ourselves? Want to give it a try?
Use this tool to do a quick assessment and follow the reflection questions.
Watch the GUIDED REFLECTION practice to help bring it to life in your body.
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