I used to brush over the receive part of energy as I didn’t understand it. I kind of felt quite angry about the idea that I wasn’t receiving and how the heck could it be that it was ME stopping it.

I wrote in my journal what I wanted. I was good, always helpful and giving. In fact, I put myself out of my top 10 list, so was always ‘others’ first.

How dare my soul or universe not give me and then suggest I wasn’t open to receive? Yup that was me; privately and on the inside.

Sure I would manifest some huge things, money, business, homes; vision boards would suddenly be ticked off, as manifested with minimum effort, but it wasn’t consistent enough.

I’d waver between there must be something wrong with the universe and there must be something wrong with me. I let both those stories grow, ungoverned in moments, and take over the inner workings of my inner world.

I would get excited when someone talked about receiving. However, on closer inspection realised they aren’t actually saying anything. Receiving just became a word that hadn’t found its meaning in the human journey and was littered with half-baked ideas. We find the idea of receiving difficult to comprehend for so many reasons.

Ask and it is given – well who hasn’t asked, and found it hasn’t been given? And what interested me was why – what were we all missing?

My curiosity and inner relentlessness to find the gold stopped me from nodding that the emperor, who had no clothes, looked amazing. I couldn’t get excited about the nebulous notions of you just ask and it comes.

What does to receive mean?

We have limited it to mean given. If you take the word given, it is all about something external giving to you, except it too, like receive, has a deeper meaning.

Given is energetically about acceptance.

Receiving: to receive requires acceptance, the given part. Receiving is less about getting and more about responding. The response to the energy; to lift your mind and your emotions, it isn’t about being passive and waiting to get. That isn’t a partnership with the universe or your soul. That is a demand, with expectation and entitlement.

Imagine you are hoping to manifest some money for a holiday or new car. Last week you manifested a coffee, so already you are feeling on top of the game. You have written in your journal, pulled a few oracle cards and told the universe and your soul, pretty much in no uncertain terms, the amount you exactly want. You might toy with the idea of earning the money but when you live in a spiritual theory world based on memes on social media, the real thing you probably *secretly* want is for the money to just drop on your lap. Sure it happens, maybe not literally. But if you collude with the aim: everything is to be duvet days, combined with flitting about only doing things you feel like and money just being showered upon you by your soul and universe, then your idea of abundance and the role you have and could contribute and offer to the world is already distorted. The aim of abundance is isn’t to sit around doing sweet FA and being as wealthy AF.

There would be no point to abundance in a world like that.

So this manifesting a holiday or car isn’t panning out as easy as that coffee or empty car parking space and it is frustrating you, so what do you do? Most give up and wave a white flag to themselves and in what is often a blink of an eye surrender to the fact it is too hard, was an impossible amount – how could someone like me get that amount, etc.

If you want to step into what I call radical receiving, which is responding with acceptance, then this is what you need to do:

1. Acceptance – can come when you are willing to explore two things (i) the part of you that doesn’t accept you can get what you need and (ii) when you heal that part of you. This is about doing the work to change beliefs and fear and yes it is ongoing. You got to want to address your blocks and limitations, reframe them to step into a new frequency of acceptance so you can receive more.
2. People talk about getting clear on what you want – I am going to change that here. As the what you want narrative has become, I will tell the universe what I want instead of listening to what the universe needs from you for you to have the best life. There is this panic that what you want will be better than what your soul knows and what the universe sees. It’s a control thing and learning how to let go of the illusion of control and learning how to listen to your intuition and take intuitive action is the glue to receiving. There is this fear that there isn’t anything ‘out there’ or maybe your ‘out there’ isn’t good because you have a lack of acceptance about self, so the control kicks in. Additionally the soul, universe and your intuition defy logic and stir your fears and in a world of logic and safety; a world veiled in impossibility and who me and I must show I know best and am perfect; anything that challenges that status quo is uncomfortable. You got to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable.
3. When you learn to listen to the inner nudges from your soul and universe, then you step into responding. Responding is about playing with the energy. Accepting you are ‘here’, or this has come up and exploring the limitless journey of possibilities to be more from that place of acceptance, not defeat. When we give up and say it was never gonna work because who me kinda stuff that is reacting. There isn’t growth in reacting. It is maintenance of the status quo you want to move on from.

This is the first shift of your energy to receiving. It is how you will build your foundation. Without that, your ground is always shaky!

Share in the comments how you feel or think about receiving, and what in this article has sparked an AHA for you? Do you have questions, then ask in the comments, and if you have your magic and wisdom to add to the conversation, then leave a comment too. Let’s keep the conversation moving.

Sarupa Shah