Giving and Receiving

I'm ready to move beyond Pure Potentiality and into the next spiritual law, in this space anyway.  The next law is the law of Giving and Receiving.  There are two words Chopra uses that help me appreciate the law of giving and receiving - circulation and breath.  Everything in the universe is in circulation; nothing can resist transformation and continue to survive.  In other words, change in inevitable.  Got it!

Breath is in circulation, breathing in and breathing out, changing in response to how and what the body and mind are feeling.  If body and mind feel threatened, the breath will be shallow and quick, preparing to assist the body in response to that threat.  When the body is open and relaxed, the breath is deep, natural, calm.  The breath gives the body what it needs to respond to different situations and it receives direction from the mind about how it should manifest.  The breath is an amazing example of giving and receiving.

When practicing this law, Chopra shares three strategies:
First, to give to all those you encounter (material gifts. gifts of kindness, sometimes silent blessings).  Second, to be open to receive abundance from the universe.  And, third, to experience gratitude.

I love the idea of Experiencing Gratitude.  This says so much more to me than simply being thankful.  In meditation, this is called lovingkindness meditation.  I've shared a little of this before, but lovingkindess meditation involves recalling a time or moment when you help another person and made a difference.  You sit in the feeling that comes from these moments and then ask for happiness and ease of being for yourself and all living things.  In the space between thoughts and in the silence of meditation, this experience can be deep, moving, overwhelming, intense, and magical.  To me, this is what it means to Experience gratitude.

So, I will enter the practice of giving and receiving.  As the academic year ends, it is a good time to be open to this law.  It is now that students will share what I've given them along their four-year journey and I will have opportunity to share my observations of their development, their transformation in most cases.  I enter this practice hopeful and confident!

May you be blessed with a heart to give, openness to receive, and may you EXPERIENCE gratitude!