Give and Receive

Dris Mhammedi | Life Coach Sydney | Personal development

Hi, this week’s topic is about Giving and Receiving.

The holidays are approaching, and everyone is preparing for Christmas. Personally, it has never been a big tradition for me, but I understand its concept and appreciate it coziness. The warmth and the love when you gather with your family and loved ones around a good meal, the preparations, and of course, all the presents :).

Speaking of presents, do you like receiving gifts, and do you like giving them? And how often do you do that outside of moments of celebration?

Giving and receiving has become exclusive to specific special moments. Imagine if we could feel the joy of it more often!
By Giving, I don’t necessarily mean spending a lot in buying expensive things. Giving could be from small gestures, little words, helping someone with something, showing care, etc.

Now Receiving is another story. Most of us like presents for sure but how often we accept other people’s help? Individualistic society thought us to be super independent. We often say “no thank you.”
Did it happen to you to be offered to try your friend’s food and said – “no thank you, I am fine”? Or when you got offered a ride, and you said – “It’s ok, thank you, I am going to take the bus.”?
And when someone gives you a big nice compliment, and you feel like it’s not really for you. You think that you don’t deserve it. – That’s when you don’t allow yourself to Receive.

A while ago, I had a personal trainer that helped me get back in shape after a period where I neglected my physical health. I liked his professionalism. I thought he did more than what he was paid for. We also shared a lot. He told me about his story, his relationship, and his struggle getting more clients. I was working in advertising, and I decided to help him with his marketing and branding by setting a Facebook page, Twitter and take some professional pictures to put together a beautiful landing page for his business.

At first, the guy was very skeptical and was wondering why I would help him. He didn’t want to take anything from me. It had to put some real energy to convince him to allow me to help him, and that it comes from a sincere good intention.

I was happy to give back.

Everything about giving is a no-brainer. Obviously, when you give someone something, you make them happier. What you might not know is that the giver gets more benefits. Various studies show that being kind not only makes us feel less stressed, lonely and angry, but it makes us feel considerably happier, more connected and more open.
We’re happier when we spend money on other people than when we spend money on ourselves. It has been proven that when we give of ourselves, everything from life satisfaction to self-realization and physical health is significantly affected.

Bottom line here, we should give more often and allow ourselves to receive more often. Every time you see an opportunity to help, do it. And every time you get offered something, take it and say thank you.

Let’s start today with this 3 simple tips:

1- Help someone with something.
Help a friend with something. I am sure that you have at least one friend that need some help, whether personal or professional.

2- Give a compliment.
Just go through your Facebook feed, find that friend that did something nice or published a beautiful picture, DON’T like the photo or the status. Send him/her an inbox with a good genuine compliment.

3- Show Care.
Call a friend that you haven’t been speaking to for a while and ask about how they are. Don’t text, CALL.

Easy isn’t it? So how about doing that one time a week?