STILL so much to say about generosity and this week’s post will wrap it up.
You do not NEED my permission to be more generous with yourself, only you can give it, however, if you want it from me, you got it!
I want to bring the word MAGNANIMOUS into this conversation because it was a word I did not know until I began to study the world of attraction and prosperity. It’s a cool, expansive word that means generous or forgiving. Broken down it comes from the Latin magnanimatas- magna: “big” and animus: “soul,spirit”. It is the virtue of being of the mind and heart. (I have been studying this lately, too- both aspects are very important- more on that another time!)
I want to devote this post to you considering yourself. If you have read my previous posts, you know that there is a circle of giving and receiving and most of us are lopsided. In having worked with clients for many years, I see that most are good at giving, not so much at receiving. I have written about receiving from others.
Today I want you to look at the aspect of receiving from yourself. How are you generous with yourself?
Just as we think about the ways you can be generous with others, you can turn them all around to give to yourself, as well.
Things like:
Time, spending money on yourself, saving to put yourself in a better place, setting boundaries that work for you, resting when you need it, taking a walk, all forms of self care, engaging in hobbies and activities that fill you up, actually forgiving yourself for the mistakes you perceive you have made, spending time with people you love- all of these and more, doing them for yourself because they make your life happier and keep you going in the direction of living your best life.
So if you are giving too much, beyond your means financially, energetically, spiritually, you are not being generous with yourself.
You are being hard on yourself, pushing yourself to do things you think you “should” be doing or feeling things you think you “should be feeling, you are not being generous with yourself. There is no one who will every be able to be generous to you at the level that you can do it. And when you are in a healthy place of self generosity, you are in a place to receive at a higher level.
I have my own push and pull with generosity. I somehow grew up internalizing the notion that asking for and getting what you want is selfish. I grew into an adult who always thought she wasn’t doing even good, and in fact most of the time was not a good enough person. There was a lot of comparison to others and what they were doing and how I wasn’t measuring up. I have always been a giver, in fact one year my accountant told me that I had to stop donating so much money because I was actually giving most of my money away. That’s how much I was trying to prove that I was good. Not consciously, that was something I was only able to discern through my personal development work- working on myself.
Anyone else out there trying to prove your goodness by being what you think a “good” person looks like and acts like?
What I have learned over many years is that, first of all, we are ALL GOOD!!! I am good just as I am. No proving, no measurements, no judgements. If others are judging (and mostly they are NOT!), it is none of my business what they think. My only responsibility is to know what works for me, celebrate what I do, and to know for myself that I am good and that I am doing good. That is what generosity to yourself looks like.
Be generous with yourself and first forgive yourself for all of your perceived wrongdoings! I am using that word perceived again because most of what we think is just made up, not true.
Journal your answers to these questions:
How are you generous with yourself?
How could you be more generous with yourself?
Where are you being too generous and it is hurting your wellbeing in some way?
What could your forgive yourself for? (make a list, if warranted and then destroy the list, and let it all go!)