Are you willing to receive?

Over the years, I’ve had to do a lot of intentional work around learning to receive. It’s not easy to receive. It’s vulnerable. As someone who typically goes after what they want in an assertive way, sometimes sitting back, waiting and receiving can be hard. Just being open and vulnerable is challenging.

I remember a particular moment when I had this realization. I was at a concert at an outdoor venue. I had found this spot under a stairwell where I could be up on a little step and see over the crowd and not have people walking in front of me. As people started to trickle in before the show started, people started gathering in an open area next to me. A girl and her boyfriend came and stood in this spot. (This was a really prime spot; I was excited to have claimed it.) 

Suddenly, the couple started moving around and the woman stepped back a bit. Then someone came and took the spot in front of her. As time went one, there was a moment in which I could tell she couldn’t see as well and felt frustrated. I thought to myself, “You had the spot right there! Why did you give it up?”

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At that moment, I had the realization: someone can’t even give you what you’re not willing to receive. That may seem simple and obvious but think about it. It’s true! The universe can’t give you what you’re not willing to receive.

I have conversations with clients all the time about the places where they’re stuck. We work through an exercise to distinguish the limiting belief that is holding them back. It’s an incredibly powerful exercise; it always lasers in on some unconscious belief. It’s clear why they can never get the result they say they want as long as that belief is in place.

Imagine that you want to take your business to the next level, but you have a belief somewhere inside that if it’s too easy, you must be doing something wrong. While it might not make logical sense, there’s a belief that if “success” comes too easily, you haven’t worked hard enough for it; you must be doing something wrong.

If that belief is in place, you’ll never get the results you want. You’ll always over complicate things because of that limiting belief. Because if it’s too easy, you’ll feel like a bad person. So, the universe can’t give you the results that you want (getting to the next level in your business), if you’re not willing to receive them because of some limiting belief that you have in place.

Learning to receive is tricky in some ways. We have to be receptive and willing to look at what we’re seeing show up in our lives. If the results are not what they want them to be, we have to be willing to ask ourselves, “Is it just that I’m not willing to receive this?” You might think you’re working toward it but in some way be unconsciously blocking yourself. Is there somewhere that you’re preventing yourself from getting what you want—and don’t even realize it?

Maybe you’re like the girl at the concert who had the perfect spot for this amazing show, then gave it up and complained about not being able to see! That’s silly, but we do it lots of times in our lives, and we don’t even realize we’re doing it.

So, my questions for you are:

  • What’s your relationship to receiving?

  • Are you a grateful, open-hearted receiver?

  • Are you getting the results you want in life?

  • If not, could there be some unconscious belief that’s stopping you?

If you want to have a deep-dive conversation about getting unstuck, I invite you to reach out to me. I’ll move you through a powerful exercise. We’ll get to the bottom of whatever belief is stopping you. I’ll give you some practical ways to transform that belief and move beyond it immediately. I’d love to hear from you and assist you with this process.

See you next time!

Ashlie Woods