What kind of receiver are you?

What kind of receiver are you?  This is one of my favorite topics because small shifts in this area can have such a big impact in the quality of our lives and our income.  How much goodness, pleasure, compliments, kindness, love, support, money are you allowing yourself to really take in?  And how much are you blocking those things?  If you had a receiving channel in your body, how open would it be?  How closed? 


So, for example, say you go get a massage and you get 10% of the potential pleasure available in that massage. What if you could get 50% or 100%? Because, I believe, how open we are to receiving all kinds of things effects our experience of abundance and wealth in the world.  If we have a hard time
accepting and taking in and digesting compliments, we probably have a hard time taking in money too.   But if we open our ability to take in, allow, and deserve, money will start flowing more easily.  And that may sound a little out there, but my experience is it’s really true.

Here’s some questions for you to reflect on to understand how you are as a receiver:

How do you respond when your client’s give you appreciation and thanks?
Do you deflect it? How much of it can you let in? Because the truth is, for most therapists, knowing
we made a difference in someone’s life is a huge hit to our pleasure receptors—this is a high for us.  For most of us, that’s why we got into this profession. But we’re often taught not to take that too personally, to give the credit to the client.  And of course, we want to honor the client and the work that they’ve done, but is it also ok to own our part in it?  Can we in some way take that in and let it nourish us? 

When you get a massage or have sex or another sensual experience, how much pleasure can you
let in?
Are you worried about the other person or wondering how it is for them? Is your mind wandering to your to do list? Even when you eat something delicious or have an amazing experience in nature, can you really allow yourself to take in the full pleasure of it?

Do you feel guilty when you take payments from clients, especially if you know they’re struggling financially?  
If we feel guilty, it’s often an indicator of an underlying belief that says we don’t deserve or we’re
not worth it.

How do you feel when people give you gifts?  
I’m talking about gifts from friends and family, not therapy clients (that’s a different issue).  What’s it like for you to open gifts in front of other people?  Does the attention make you uncomfortable? Or do you feel pressure about how you’re going to need to respond?

How much do you recognize and honor your own needs?  Many of us shut down our true needs at a very early age and that really effects how we receive as adults.

Here’s an assignment I give to clients around this issue. Go get a massage—the most you’ll let yourself have—2 hours, 90 minutes, 30 minutes.  Where I live, there’s this awesome little spa that give 10- minute chair massages for $10, and for some people, that’s where they need to start. Because it’s so hard for them to spend  money and time on themselves.  So get a massage and then challenge yourself to see how much of the pleasure available you are able to let yourself receive.  If you think you typically take in about 50% of the potential pleasure in a massage, challenge yourself to take in 10% more—so 60%. Just use it as an opportunity to practice opening your receiving channel.  Because I promise you, as you open to receive, you’ll see that there’s so much goodness waiting for you and as you work on this issue, it will inevitably start to change your financial picture as well.