The art of receptivity.
If our cup is empty we have nothing to give, and how we fill it is not necessarily based on self-care — it’s based on presence. This is the art of receptivity.
Receptivity is what keeps us nourished, our vitality up, our roots grounded, and our sight, actions, emotions, intuition, and thoughts stable and clear. Receptivity is also the driving force of what we give. Our resources are finite and unless we make peace with this, we will live constantly struggling in exhaustion, and angst in an attempt to survive on output not realizing we have nothing fueling us.
When I speak about receptivity, I’m not simply speaking about our willingness to accept help or support from another, I’m speaking beneath actions, beneath physical, material, monetary, or timely exchange. I’m speaking of the undercurrent that fuels these exchanges. There is a well of energy beneath our actions that is at play.
In many ways, receptivity is like listening. It cannot happen without stillness and acute awareness of the moment. It cannot happen without presence. It cannot happen without slowing down, attuning to the unseen and seen world, and awakening to the sacredness of our bodies and this life.
Receptivity is to awaken to what’s right in front of you. In some ways it’s gratitude, and letting the visceral sensation of awe and wonder fill your being to the brim. It's to awaken to the vast support that doesn't easily meet the eye. It’s slowing down enough to feel the gift of life within you, and to feel the gift of life all around you. It’s to feel the sacredness of love and connection, and it is to feel the sacredness of our dependence upon one another.
Receptivity is opening ourselves to the vitality in everything around us and becoming one with it. It’s allowing ourselves to be floored as we gaze into the beauty of the forest or the vastness of the ocean. It’s the invigoration of feeling winter's crisp air fill our lungs, or it’s taking in the sweet smell of rain after a dry spell or the warmth of the sun upon our hungry skin. It’s being present with loved ones and feeling the fleetingness, fragility, and resilience of life. It’s being present with yourself, and having the ware with all to be grateful for the bounty around you. Receptivity also means allowing ourselves to feel the high of new love, or the potential of new becomings without shutting ourselves down preparing for disappointment.
When we are living in our heads, planning and calculating the odds, or when we are moving too fast, scrambling, or rushing, we may mentally take note of what we have and of what we cherish, but we don’t actually breathe it into our entirety, alchemize the reality of into our being, or cherish it all for what it’s profoundly worth. Without presence, or pause we can’t truly receive the nourishment and support that is available.
Receptivity is to pause and have reverence. Gratitude, love, joy, and pleasure are all rooted in reverence for our lived experience.
Feel the inner expansion when you tap into a deep well of gratitude, or awe, and let this type of receptivity fill you up. This is the type of receiving that stokes our fire, passion, gifts, love, and service to thrive, and this is the type of receiving that fuels magic and divinity.
To give from our most authentic place is to allow our will’s natural drive to carry us where it wishes, but until we open and let life permeate us, our will, will be currentless.
When we genuinely receive and are touched by whatever it is, a surge of energy will emerge from within us that will then overflow and radiate out. It will carry us somewhere, in heart or action, but we can’t control where. When we start to slow down and really open to, and receive life we can find ourselves overwhelmed by the swells of energy that will start to carry us, but until we truly allow ourselves to receive, our output won’t be in genuine alignment.
Giving and receiving are not linear, and this is one of the biggest confusions that eats away at our vitality. It’s time for us all to allow the ebb and flow of give and take to be uncontrived and to trust.
There is a huge aspect of trust when it comes to giving and receiving because what you’re receptivity fuels, will not always be a linear return back. The dance between giving and receiving is a dance of the collective, and there is no way for us to trace the impact of this ripple, and we have to blindly trust where we are pulled. This is the art of receptivity — we have to have the presence and awareness to open ourselves to the life pulsing at our fingertips, and then we have to trust enough to be carried where this takes us. There is no way to control how this moves us, and it’s in all of our best interests if we stop trying to do so.
It can be uncomfortable to not give where we think we should, or where we want to want to when everything within us is saying don’t but is against reason. It can be uncomfortable to receive without an exchange in place because it validates our dependency and vulnerability. It’s uncomfortable when we begin to deeply listen and open, and then our drive takes us far from where we were going, or where we were aiming. It takes time to breathe through this resistance, but until we do, we can’t unleash that well of energy within us that will multiply tenfold if we do.
When we close ourselves off from receiving — meaning when we are too busy, moving too fast, trying to be overly sovereign, when we are too afraid, when we don't trust where the gravity of life is pulling us, when we don’t allow our inner selves to speak, be seen, heard or felt, and when we don’t let others in — we remove ourselves from a universal circuit that our vitality depends on. We cut ourselves off from a life force that is there to help us all thrive. So open your heart and receive what life has to offer.
How often are you too busy to take in the change in seasons, the waxing and waning of the moon, and the dance from dawn to dusk? How often are you too busy to respond to the messages your body and intuition give you? How many times has someone offered you a favor, and all you can think about is how to return it instead of allowing yourself to really feel the support? How many times has someone complimented you, and you reply with some tone or comment playing it down or brushing it off? Do you feel indebted when you receive? Do you feel protected or validated when you give? How much of your service in this world feels conditional? How much of your service or giving in this world feels obligatory, moral, or like a survival necessity instead of your will effortlessly driving you?
Until we allow ourselves to receive — the moment, love, and the sacredness of this life what we give will always be somewhat artificial. Until we allow ourselves to be touched at our very core, what we give cannot come from that place either.
Receiving is how we commune with the grandness of our existence and this world. Receiving is where bounty comes from. And receiving is not only receiving from the outside world — it’s receiving ourselves.
It’s receiving how we truly feel. It’s receiving what we truly think. It’s receiving the energy that is moving through our bodies whether it is uncomfortable or not. It’s receiving our grief, our rage, our joy, pleasure, happiness, and our yes and no’s.
When we cut ourselves off from our inner truth, we cut ourselves off from everyone, and everything around around us as well. And from here, our actions and compass are tainted. If we can’t pause and have reverence for all that we are, all that we feel, and all that is true for us, it leaves us disconnected blocking us from all that is beyond us and around us.
So slow down my love, and hold the intention to open yourself to the bounty of beauty in all its tender imperfections, and let the receptivity of this carry you forward where it will.
With love,
Abby and the Marigolds
