Episode 102 – The Capacity to Receive

This is Rebecca Clark Episode 102. Increasing the capacity to receive this podcast is for anyone that knows they haven’t yet found and offered up their best work but are compelled to seek it out and do it. Are you ready to move your desk? Mm hmm. Over the past few years, there’s a popular practice that a lot of people talk about online, and it involves selecting a word for the year. Now. A lot of us choose to do New Year’s resolutions, and this is kind of in conjunction with that. Or some people may decide not to do New Year’s resolutions whatever. But they’ll do a word of the year. And it’s kind of a word that encompasses your desires of what you want to become that year. What you want to focus on. So some people say my word is confidence or my word is classy or my word is powerful. Something like that. So the last few years I have selected a word or phrase for the year, and I believe one year I did classy. That’s why it came to my mind so quickly, and I decided everything about me. I wanted to be classy that year or classier right than whatever I was being in any part of my life, whether it was spiritual or at work, or in my interactions with family and friends, how I approached my hobbies, how I approached my professional growth, how I dressed. I had it as my word for everything. And I will tell you I was classier that year, right? I looked better as far as how I dressed and did my hair and makeup. I chose how to interact with people slightly differently than when I wasn’t conscious of that. And I generally just I did feel like I was classier. That year. Another year I really wanted to bust a move. So I had the transformation warrior as my phrase for the year, I guess, and I I fiddled with that for a few days and even a week. It made me sick. I was so determined to have a good word that year, and I wanted to be a warrior, but I kind of wanted to be a warrior with a certain cause, right? So I decided I wanted to transform. I wanted to become who I was meant to become so his transformation warrior. And it’s great that I chose that phrase for that year because there was a tough year in some ways by choice, because I wanted to personally transform, but in some ways, because at work we were going through this huge implementation effort, and it required guts and grit and working through all of these difficult situations. And so I had transformation Warrior. One year I had Frontier, which may not be a typical word for most people, but in my mind I was like seeking the wide open spaces, seeking something new, seeking to change. It’s kind of like the transformation warrior then goes into the frontier. If I look at it that way because I think it came right after that year, I don’t even remember what word I chose last year. I honestly would have to look back and see so it wasn’t front and center. And, of course, right during the time, I usually would choose. This word for the year was when I had bacterial pneumonia and was down and out. That’s so or I should say, I wasn’t down because I couldn’t sleep. So I was up walking around 24 hours coughing. But this year I got on a little conference call with a couple of friends, and we shared with each other are word for this year and why we chose it and that kind of thing. And so, of course, the week before this call, I was thinking about it going. What is my word for 2021? What do I want my word to be? And I couldn’t come up with a word, but I decided that this was the year that I wanted to learn a lot more about the capacity to receive, and I wanted to increase my capacity to receive. And it’s interesting because I have this compilation of notes I keep. I have tons of notebooks and everything, but I have this compilation of notes that I keep based upon different topics and things I want to create. And I wrote capacity to receive down probably a year ago, as something to talk about in a podcast, and I couldn’t bring myself to podcast about it yet because I felt like I didn’t understand it, really, and I wanted to understand the capacity to receive more before I talked about it and since that time I have learned more about increasing my capacity to receive. But I still feel amateur at it, and part of the reason is I have not received what I want, right and so I feel like I am not an expert in it. I have a long ways to go, but at the same time I’m curious. I want to increase that capacity. And what does the capacity to receive even mean? And I’ve thought about it, and it’s really complex and layered, right? Because you could say Well, the capacity to receive what? Like Well, this could be something very simple, like I want to increase my capacity to receive compliments. I want my capacity to receive more money. I want my capacity to receive more friendships or more freedom or flexibility. I want to increase my capacity to receive feedback from people or gifts or insights. I want to increase my capacity to be more forgiving and to change and move forward and to do hard things. I want to increase my capacity to receive the inspiration that comes to me and not push it away and not put boundaries on it. This really spans the spiritual and the physical realms and the financial realms and the relationship realms. It kind of crosses all these areas. And so I’ve even told my family I want to set up a time where we can talk about this. We can share what we think, and we can ask questions and work through it. In fact, even as I’m talking now, I want to set up just a call where anybody could call into it and we could talk about the capacity to receive. I looked it up online briefly because I was like doing a little search when I have a little idea that I want to talk about just to see what the Internet says, right? Not that I’m going to ever use any of it, but it’s helpful to see. And the first thing that came up with someone saying, You know the capacity to receive is like if you have a one gallon jug and someone has 50 gallons of water or milk or whatever to give you your like, I literally cannot accept that liquid. I don’t have the capacity to put it into anything. And that was a really good analogy for me to see right out the gate to go. Yeah. You know, if we don’t have a physical object large enough to accept something, we literally can’t accept it. It’ll just be wasted. So where does it go? Well, maybe the person goes and find someone that has 50 or 100 empty gallons or jars to put it in. They’ve created the ability to receive something. Now, I’m not saying this means go buy a huge house. You can fill it with stuff. But I would say that most of time, if you buy a bigger house, you will fill it, right? So it is kind of a great example. You have just created a bigger bucket to put stuff into. And how do we do that with our mind and our heart, right. How do we expand it so that when things come in, we have the capacity to absorb it? We have the capacity to accept it and use it in a way where it also increases our capacity to give to others. And that’s the important part of this equation I’m realizing is that once you start talking about increasing your capacity to receive. It’s important to also talk about the capacity to give because they are tied together. And one thing I have learned in this is that if you want to increase your capacity to receive, you can immediately start giving right. You immediately just decide I’m going to start giving. It might not be giving things or it may be, but giving of your time or your talents are your energy. One thing I decided recently as I’ve got all of these white chart papers, right, because I use it in coaching and I use it when I record things that I’m teaching and I love that paper, and it kind of fits in with my start with a chart thing that I also do because it’s a literal chart, but also on it. I’d like to put frameworks to help you organize your mind, and so I have a lot of this paper and I use it regularly. But I thought, you know, I’m going to use this paper to bring other people joy as well. Now I can’t choose for them to feel joy when I give them a piece of paper, but I can write to have a great day on it or Happy Birthday and color it with different markers and stick it up for them to see and be like, Oh, someone made me a poster or I send them in the mail right? So I can do that with simple markers and a piece of paper that helps me give. It’s also providing me a way to get in contact with a family member or a friend or a business contact, right? I’ve decided recently to create short videos to send out to different people. I know maybe some of you have received them from me. Instead of a basic email, I’m sending you a little one or two minute video, see how you’re doing. Share a thought. That’s it. I’m trying to give. I’m trying to connect. I am looking around and seeing if there’s anything I have that I’m really not using that someone else may need or want. Why not give it to them? 85% of what I own is replaceable, right? The things that aren’t replaceable are those special little things that someone’s made you a special thing. You’ve made your journals, your photographs, a couple of you know, you might have a couple pieces of artwork or whatever, but beyond that, most furniture and accessories and things like that, you could easily repurchase right on an online store or somewhere where you got it. Now, maybe I’m an oddball, right? But take a look around at your house and see if you had to replace something tomorrow. Could you? Because it’s readily available in the market. And if you could, it may still be valuable to you. Or you may say, You know what? I if I’m not really using this, someone else could use it. And if I decide I want to use it again, I could buy it again. That’s a whole different conversation. But my point is decide today that you want to give more and give more of whatever that means for you and give more knowing that you are consciously deciding to increase your capacity to give. And as part of that you are increasing your capacity to receive. I still have a difficult time with. This is I can increase my capacity to give. I am hesitant to receive back what comes back because it requires more communicating, and there may be more work involved, and there may be more giving involved. And it’s really tough because I’m like, Wow, I have this initial excitement of like, Oh, I’m so grateful that I’m receiving more And at the same time I start pushing stuff away, I start going, Wait, no, no, no. I can’t handle all this. I got to push some of this back. This is This is a little too much. And so pay attention when that happens as well, because it could be just a little self sabotage going on, a fear of having to step out there, a fear of being more known, a fear of being interconnected with more people, and that fear will prevent you from receiving the great opportunities that are coming your way. The truly great opportunities and what’s difficult about this for me, at least right now, is being able to recognize where I’m having trouble accepting what’s coming in and where it’s actually teaching me where I need to create a boundary. So, for example, someone decided they really loved my work a couple weeks ago, and after a short discussion, they decided they immediately wanted me to help them with some work, and they immediately started to pay me. They set up all the paperwork for that to happen. At the same time, someone else decided they loved my work. But they decide they want to just keep talking about it and having more conversations and having me do more stuff. And it’s not really going anywhere for me. I’m giving more. But I have not been increasing my capacity to receive in a way that is resonating with me. I’m starting to feel used in fact, and so pay attention to that and go. Okay? Do I need to work on my mind and go look at Rebecca? This is a great thing for you to be involved and you’re helping them. You’re learning from them. And this is an important experience for you to have. Or are you allowing a relationship to form? That is all. Take take, take from someone who never intends on paying. You never intends on honoring the work you’re providing in the time involved. And they’re just going to move on to this. The next contractor that shows up and is willing. See, I told you this wasn’t as simple as it sounded, which is why I want to have more conversations about this and I want to learn more about it. And I want to figure out how this plays into abundant thinking how this plays into using your talents, how this plays into so many different things that go on as we figure out how to offer up our best in life while also realizing that as we offer up our best and create value that we also attract even better things because you don’t want to increase the capacity to receive bad, do you or do you Do you want to have an increased capacity to be able to handle the bad stuff, maybe, or to recognize it early on and to shift out of it into the good or the capacity to realize If there’s something that seems bad, that may just be a little hard. That’s important for you to work through and learn from and grow from, and it’s part of your journey. It’s so interesting. I don’t have all the answers, but I’m curious about it and I want to figure it out and I want to share it, and I want you to share with me what you think about the capacity to receive and the capacity to give. But as a start, I’d encourage you to get out there today to think about it, to offer up your best work and to see what happens when you start giving a little bit more in an area that you haven’t been comfortable giving before. Have a great day and we’ll talk about this topic again. Talk to you soon. Mhm. Thanks for listening to the show today. If you enjoyed it, I’d love if you’d write a review and share the show with your friends, sign up for a weekly nudge at Move your desk dot com. See you next Monday. Okay, mhm.