If you’ve read my last few posts you know I’ve been blogging about the things I want to feel this year. My annual theme used to be a word or two for the year, and now somehow it has morphed into a veritable buffet of words. Words that depict feelings and emotions, because I’ve decided that it may be really effective to just decide how I want to feel and focus on that (yes, a pretty basic Law of Attraction 101 kind of thought).

I’ve already written about the first four desired feelings on my list – Powerful, Magical, Safe, and Prosperous. Now I want to reveal the fifth and final feeling word on my list: Generous.

In the world of Magic (or Conscious Creation) we often hear about how important it is to exercise our “receiving muscles”. Law of Attraction at it’s most basic is just two steps: 1. Ask, and 2. Receive or Allow.

(Actually, the truest Magic can be boiled down to one step – Allow.)

But that’s often easier said than done. Many of us grew up hearing that it “is better to give than to receive” and so learning how to allow abundance in can be somewhat of a learning curve. If you were scolded as a child about being selfish it may be difficult now to find a way to allow anything in. Or if you’ve bought into the concept of “deserving.”

The quicker we can learn that giving and receiving are two sides of the same coin the sooner we can experience both generosity and abundance. If we want to give, we have to have a receiver, and if we wish to receive we have to be okay with someone else doing the giving. These two things are so entangled that we can’t have one without the other, and when we shut down our receiving abilities we prevent others from giving! We actually shut down generosity when we can’t receive.

I’m sure we’ve all been guilty at one time or another of saying “No” to someone wanting or trying to give to us. “I’ll pick up the tab for lunch today.” “Oh, no, no, let me get it.” I’m thinking of a certain friend of mine, we would have to hunt the waiter down and pay behind the other’s back before the check arrived if we wanted to have any chance of buying the other one lunch. We used to practically fight over the ticket. Obviously we had great giving abilities but we weren’t so versed in receiving at that time.

The fear of being selfish often creates a deficit in the self-care and self-love department. It seems it’s especially difficult for us to be generous with our selves.

So this year as I wrote my list I realized that prosperity and generosity had to go hand in hand for me. I had made the choice to be prosperous last year. Now, I wanted to make sure that I was being generous as well.

It’s easy to make the mistake of connecting generosity with money. When we win the lottery we’ll all be sure to give a nice big donation to our favorite charity and we’ll do something nice for our friends and family as well.

But generosity isn’t just about money. It isn’t just about giving to charity or picking up the lunch tab. In fact, true generosity is much, much deeper than dollars. It is a way of being that shows itself in areas that have nothing to do with money. It has to do with being willing to give whatever we have now.

Generosity is being able to find a kind word when there isn’t much inspiring you to do so.

Generosity is loving someone who is behaving in an unlovable way.

It’s more than a Facebook “like” – it’s taking a moment to leave a thoughtful comment.

It’s a smile given for no reason. It’s holding the door for a stranger, a hug given with an intention of love and compassion. A look into a stranger’s eyes that contains the blessing of “Namaste“.

Generosity creates an open-heartedness that heals broken-heartedness.

Generosity happens when we stop rushing. When we recognize that there is enough time, there is enough love, there is enough money.

Generosity is choosing to take the high road when others are not.

Generosity is being willing to forgive. In fact, this may be the ultimate in generous acts.

Over at The Love & Magic Salon we routinely do an exercise where we consciously choose an “I AM” statement for the day as a way of bringing qualities we want to embody into physical reality. A few weeks ago my statement was “I am generous.”

Then I asked myself, “How can I show up as a generous person today?”

The answers surprised me, because all day long I kept finding opportunities, and pretty much none of them had anything to do with money.

I could answer a Facebook post with more than just a “like”. I could compliment someone. I could give a little extra time to a client. I could offer a free coaching session. I could hold the door for someone. I could let my judgments go and see someone in a better light, just by choosing to do it.

And then…I could forgive. Hmmm didn’t see that one coming.

I realized immediately that this – forgiveness – is probably the most generous action we can take. And it’s not only generous towards others, it’s generous towards our self – because forgiveness opens the door to abundance, whereas resentment and unforgiveness nail it shut.

When we hold grudges, judgments, unforgiveness,  and resentment, we weigh our self down and shut down our ability to receive. We close up. We dry up. And the more we refuse to forgive, the more others find reasons to hold things against us. That’s just basic Law of Attraction.

So here’s something I’ve come to learn. The easiest way I know to forgive is to ask for blessings upon those who have wronged me. Big blessings. Blessings of clarity and self-love. Financial blessings, blessings for perfect health and strong happy relationships. Blessings for success. Blessings for joy. Blessings for Bliss.

That might sound crazy, but it’s forgiveness in action.

And there is no way that I can keep holding a grudge or feeling resentment or unforgiveness for someone while I’m asking the Universe to bring them huge blessings.

Forgiving may be the quintessential act of generosity. And we can do it every day.

And here’s the beautiful part, forgiveness frees us. 

When we step into generosity we open the door for abundance to rush in.

Besides that, it feels amazing. 🙂

Generosity is a state of being. It will show up in our actions, yes, just like every other state of being we choose and develop for our self. Our outer world is a reflection of our inner world, and so the bonus is that when we develop a state of generosity the world begins to be more generous with us as well.

That’s a serious win-win in my book.

Love & Magic,