Learning How To Receive

This heart-expanding meditation is a journey towards embracing openness, aimed at breaking down the barriers we set against receiving help and letting others in. It focuses on the importance of vulnerability, teaching us to welcome the support and time of others, and to understand that our presence is not a burden but a shared human experience.

Transcript

Hello my name is Lou Redmond and welcome to an Insight Timer premium track called Learning How to Receive.

This is a huge practice for me because I tend to have a very lone wolf mentality.

I feel like I need to do things on my own.

It is uncomfortable for me to ask for help or really just to let others in.

There's this wall that I tend to put up and so many of us who have no problem giving sometimes it can be challenging to let us be the receiver of other people's giving.

To let ourselves take up space or take up people's time.

I really don't like knowing that I'm taking up people's time when they could be doing something else and it's a whole mental thing that I go through.

And so this practice is really gonna be about opening ourselves to receive.

Letting others in and letting ourself take up space.

Quick little story of where this practice came from is I was on a holotropic breathwork retreat and it is a three-hour experience and if you're not feeling a sense of completeness at the end you can ask a facilitator to continue working with you.

And so I didn't feel complete,

Felt like there was still something I was working through and I had a facilitator stay over and received extra support while other people were leaving and getting dinner and it was a real practice in me of it's okay that this is what they're here for that I am worthy of this time that is extra so to speak.

And in the conversation with everyone else around the group some people had similar experiences where they had to ask for help.

They really noted this as a win in a sense to allow themselves to ask for help because so often they don't because they don't feel like they are worthy of receiving they feel uncomfortable receiving and so I thought how much that this is a part of my life and I wanted to do a little meditation around it and so let's shift gears now into this practice to open to receiving.

And so close your eyes begin to slow down relax your shoulders your jaw your belly feeling the lower body get heavy while also continuing to keep an alertness an openness through the torso stacking one vertebra at a time just a gentle tuck of the chin notice how that lengthens the back of the neck to feel the energy moving through the spine through the central channel and to drop in and practice a bit of concentration to start bring your awareness down to the center of your chest I'm going to offer a mantra for you to repeat silently over and over and the mantra is I am and so as you hold your awareness in your heart maybe you do it with each inhale you say I with each exhale am or you just gently repeat I am over and over as you continue to relax in your body give you a few moments to do so as we move through this practice at any time if you wander if you need to anchor back in maybe just come back to that I am mantra connecting you with yourself continue to keep the awareness in your heart and to practice this intention to open to receive imagine that your body is like a flower and with each breath the flower is unfurling to receive the light of the Sun the Sun that is always giving nourishing enlivening and we all just receive and so let this unfolding quality as you imagine yourself as a flower opening to receive the light of the Sun and we're gonna shift here instead of receiving this light as the flower imagine that you are now the light most like you are the Sun and now you are giving this light to the world so we're actually going to begin this practice of receiving by also giving letting ourselves open to that natural quality compassion for us to give and so as you connect with your light imagining that you are the Sun connect with someone you know who needs help it could be a specific person could be a group of people it might be someone you know or someone you don't know feel the capacity in your heart to offer this person or group support and then I'll offer you some words and intentions that you could share with this person and you're welcome to do it silently you're welcome to say it out loud or just feel this intention move outwards to them may you be cared for may you be guided may you receive love and support you need may you be cared for may you be guided may you receive the love and support you need and sense how this is to give this freely it might feel nice might feel comfortable maybe this is how you tend to show up and now release being the light and instead of what you notice is that night falls and that light turns into the dark side of the moon representing a potential shadow where you are living a lone wolf mentality where do you feel you need to do it on your own how often does that show up see if you can connect with this in your body this tendency to close down or to not let others in to not ask for help and sharing these intentions repeating them silently or out loud may I be open to receiving support may I allow others to help may I ask for help when I need it may I be open to receiving support may I allow others to help may I ask for help when I need it and then imagine someone in front of you it might be someone you know or again it could be anyone that comes to mind and this is just a human sitting in front of you and they are here for you with a loving attention and there's nothing that you need to do or give for their attention imagine as if their heart is the Sun's rays and all you are doing now is sitting and receiving their light letting them all for you their love their care and so just pause and see if you can open to fully receiving letting them in really opening and receiving and as this light keeps coming in maybe noticing where can you allow yourself to receive help in your life where can you ask for something that you need noticing if there's anything that comes up there might not be or there might be some guilt or some uncertainty just remember that people want to give it's as natural as the Sun gentle breath in and out once again the darkness shifts to light and you are again the Sun and lastly what we're gonna do is this time just giving to yourself caring for yourself as if you would another this is another block so many of us have with our criticisms of ourself if we can only shift to a caring loving nurturing presence for ourselves would do us so much good so imagining that you are witnessing yourself in front of you and you as a mature loving attentive energy are gonna give yourself the support and the care so sharing with yourself may you be cared for may you be guided may you receive the love and support you need and just take a few more moments to pour into yourself giving yourself that loving attention as you give to yourself you're also receiving from yourself at the same time notice what that's like and then you're welcome to stay here for another few moments or maybe you come back to your heart maybe you want to share with yourself some of the things that you've learned in your life that and then you're welcome to stay here for another few moments or maybe you come back to your heart maybe you just rest back in that I am that we started with just resting here feeling the impact of the practice and then taking one last full breath in and letting it go and in your own time no rush opening your eyes coming back to your day always such a pleasure to guide you hopefully you were able to open and notice where those blocks may be and so I invite you to take this into your day to ask for help where you need it and to give to yourself to care for yourself to be kind to yourself thank you so much for practicing with me if you want to stay connected on courses and tracks and things that I have released here on inside time or you can find my circle lose circle and yeah feel free to say hi sending you lots of love and until next time namaste

Reviews

Thank you 🙏🏻

Awesome. Many thanks Lou 🙏❤️

Loved this. Reconnected to a masculine aspect of god that needed healing in order to receive from again. Thank you.