“You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestation of your own blessings.” ~Elizabeth Gilbert
Dear Universe,
Lately, I’ve been reminded of how difficult it can be to graciously receive our blessings.
Often we manifest what it is we want (which is amazing!), but then we have no idea how to act when we get it.
It’s an odd paradox. Naturally, we should be happy and we know we should be happy, but for some reason we can act in a way that actually pushes our blessings away.
The ironic thing is we know how to be welcoming. When we invite someone to visit our home, we prepare. We might clean our house, go shopping for food and drinks, buy fresh flowers, light candles, play music and make our home as warm and as inviting as possible.
Our guests arrive feeling welcomed and comfortable.
We would never imagine inviting guests over and then creating a space filled with negative energy and bad vibes. Worse, we would never have them over, only to slam the door upon their arrival.
Yet when ask for a blessing, we often do exactly that.
We pray for something, work towards a goal, ask for a miracle, and then, when the blessing arrives or is about to arrive, our panic manifests.
Instead of embracing the blessing with open arms, we freeze. We find it hard to believe that what we’ve been waiting and anticipating for so long could actually be happening so instead of graciously accepting it into our lives, we deny ourselves the dreams being sent our way.
We block our own blessings.
I know it sounds counter-intuitive, and even crazy, but fear makes us do crazy things.
And I do think it’s fear that causes this irrational behavior. After all, it’s a big deal when a prayer is being answered.
So anxiety sets in.
We worry we are not actually as prepared as we should be for the promotion.
We are terrified that we are going to mess up this amazing relationship.
We doubt our ability to sustain the level of success we’ve just achieved.
We think at any moment the deal will fall through.
We wonder if the blessing will really last or if it will be short-lived.
The list goes on.
And so one of two things happen from there:
- That miracle we’ve been waiting for, that job we’ve been dreaming of, that love interest we thought we’d never meet… it passes us by. It was so close, but once our energy shifted from excitement to terror, it decided to move on.
or
- We get the blessing, but we can’t even enjoy it because we are worried about losing it. We become so busy fixating on the negatives—and telling ourselves lies like we don’t deserve such good fortune—that there’s no room for anything positive in that space.
The blessing gets lost on us; it becomes a burden.
So how can we stop ourselves from blocking our blessings?
We just have to. We have to be aware enough to catch ourselves sliding down the slippery slop of complete and utter battiness. We have to hit pause on our neurotic, nutty, no-good thoughts and flip the script to a more positive one.
We can start by giving thanks.
Gratitude is the best remedy because any time we are expressing appreciation, it forces the worries and anxieties to be shoved away.
We cannot simultaneously be grateful and worried so whenever possible, choose gratitude.
Gratitude is what creates that warm, welcoming atmosphere to invite blessings in. The more we practice appreciation instead of fear or worry, the more blessings will come.
Mantra: I graciously receive my blessings and enjoy their arrival. (Tweet that!)
It can be terrifying to watch the manifestation of our dreams. No one ever tells us that, though. Instead, it’s expected that we will know what to do when they arrive—that we’ll be so over-the-moon elated, that we would never self-sabotage ourselves by acting like we never wanted the thing to begin with.
The thing is, deep down we know we shouldn’t be acting this way. If we can quiet our ego long enough, we’ll be able to do what we are meant to.
We’ll be able to thrive. We’ll be able to recognize happiness and instead of pushing it away, we’ll be able to embrace and delight in it.
Get ready. Set the stage. Create a welcoming atmosphere. And invite your blessings in. (Tweet that!)
Invite them in for a long visit; invite them in to stay.
Isn’t that what you’ve been hoping for?
With Gratitude,
