Receiving Wellbeing
A lot of time, money & energy are expended in the pursuit of well-being. Self-Help and Self-Care are mainstays in the mainstream these days.
There are recommendations on what kinds of foods to eat, when to eat them, and how to improve the way you digest them. Superfoods, antioxidants, biohacking, and food-combining recommendations abound.
The global fitness industry approached the $100 billion mark in 2019, with a growing population invested in cultivating physical health. Perhaps nowhere is the metaphor of chasing well-being more prominent than in the dramatic rise in popularity of marathon races in the past 10 years, increasing nearly 50% between 2008 and 2018.
Is physical fitness good for you? Absolutely. Does eating the right kind of food fuel your body in healthful ways and stave off chronic illness? You bet. Can taking time to declutter your mental processes and emotional programming improve your relationship with yourself and others? Hell yes!
But what if, in the chase for well-being, we’re forgetting to pause and receive? What if, in our doing-achieving-maximizing-perfecting-optimizing, we’re expending more energy than necessary? What if you could “do” less to achieve well-being and actually receive more of it?
YIN & YANG – THE TAO OF WELLNESS
Most of us are familiar with the concept of, or at least the visual representation of, the Yin/Yang. An ancient Taoist symbol representing the philosophy of balance, a Yin/Yang shows us that the whole is comprised of equal parts of opposing forces. Yang is the strong, active, fiery, “go-get-em” energy, often thought of as the masculine. Yin is the soft, receptive, flowing, “come-to-me” energy, often thought of as the feminine. Both Yin and Yang intertwine to create the whole, and, of course, there is always a little bit of Yin in the Yang and a little bit of Yang in the Yin.
Instead of pursuing wellness as an entirely Yang pursuit, we can all benefit from tapping into Yin energy occasionally. We can do the appropriate actions that generate wellbeing (eat right, get exercise, socialize, meditate) WHILE ALSO allowing time to sit in stillness and receive wellness.
THE POWER OF RECEIVING
A lot of people simply don’t know how to receive. In Western society, most prominently in America, we are raised with a “can do,” “go-get-em” mentality. You have to work for the rewards. Idle time is laziness. When we need to tap out for a moment from all the doing and achieving, we designate it a “mental health break” or “self-care”, because we can’t just stop without there being a special reason for it. And even then, those breaks usually involve zoning out in some way or actively doing things to pamper yourself. There is nothing wrong with this — I’m a huge proponent of self-care and of taking mental health breaks when needed. We should all probably be doing more of it.
BUT — What if you didn’t need an excuse to stop doing? What if you could comfortably settle into the expectation of receiving, without feeling guilty? Even if just for a day, for an hour. If the idea makes you feel uncomfortable, you’re not alone. To be clear, it’s not about being selfish, it’s about striking a balance in your life.
Spending time in receiving mode is SO. FREAKING. FREEING! And the best part is — it works. When you operate (at least part of the time) from the mindset that wellness is your natural state and your birthright, a lot of the obstacles and drains on wellness naturally start to fall out of your life. You start to listen to the intuition of your body, which will always tell you exactly what it needs at any given moment if you get quiet enough to hear it.
So, how do you practice slipping into “receiving mode”, let alone just kicking back and “receiving wellbeing”? Two of my favorite tools are: Meditation and Affirmations.
MEDITATION
Meditation helps us clear mental clutter to get out of “the monkey mind”. You know, that state of mind when your brain is jumping from thought to thought, always thinking about what should have happened yesterday (or 10 years ago), what’s coming next, and the long list of things that you need to do get there. Meditation gets you out of your “doing mind” and into your receiving body. By clearing mental clutter, you become more attuned to the subtleties of experience in your body. And your body houses a whole hell of a lot of wisdom you might not have known about.
AFFIRMATIONS
Affirmations, my other favorite tool to get into that Receiving State of Being, can sometimes feel silly at first. Especially if you’ve never done them before. They can conjure up visions of SNL’s Stuart Smalley giving himself those pep talks in the mirror. But you know what? Those pep talks WORK. Even if you’re a seasoned affirmationist (yes, I just made that word up), sometimes new affirmations that bump up against deeply held opposing beliefs can feel like a lie. But if you keep repeating them, eventually they wiggle under your skin until they become new beliefs. My favorite source of affirmations is Louise Hay. Do yourself a favor and read her books. I have her daily affirmation calendar in my kitchen, which I highly recommend. (Although, beginner affirmationists might find it more effective to stick with one or two affirmations on a daily basis until they become part of your new mindset).
HOW YOU CAN START RECEIVING WELLNESS TODAY
If you’re looking for a leg up on getting into Receiving Wellbeing, try the following affirmation:
Wellbeing is my natural state. I am healthy, I am whole.
Put it on a Post-It note on your mirror. Say it when you first wake up, every time you wash your hands, and before bed at night.
If receiving sounds like something you really want to try - today - check out this 20-minute guided meditation for receiving wellbeing.