325th Week:  Giving and Receiving, Receiving and Giving
I was recently at a lecture where the person presenting reminded me of a living example of giving and receiving that I’ve mentioned in past experiments.  He talked about the way in which we humans – and all animals – breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide.  And, all of the plants all over the world breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen.  It’s a perfect exchange and one that allows each of us to both give and receive with each breath, in every moment.

It also reminded me of the importance of learning that receiving is as generous a response as giving.  Even though I’ve written about this before, it’s something we can all afford to remember to practice.  For some of us, giving is much easier than receiving.  We offer ourselves, our time, our money with ease, but it’s much harder to receive praise, care, honor from others.

For this week’s experiment, I invite you to explore your relationship with both giving and receiving, to discover if you are equally comfortable in each role – as giver and as recipient.  Notice your thoughts and feelings when you give and receive, and pay particular attention to the sensations in your body when you’re in each role.  For example, when you give to others, notice your experience.  Are you relaxed, open, spacious?  Or, do you feel constricted and tense?  When someone offers you something you hadn’t expected, do you feel expansive or tight?  Do you move toward what the person is giving you or do you back away?

As you explore this experiment, take time, as well, to pay attention to the constant interplay of giving and receiving that occurs everywhere around you in nature.  Notice your experience if you were to spend time each day remembering that nature demonstrates the reality of giving and receiving constantly with the interplay between oxygen and carbon dioxide.  Whenever you see a plant, a tree, any green growing thing, remember that it offers you oxygen constantly, even as you offer it the carbon dioxide that you exhale with every out-breath.

As with all the experiments, this one invites you to explore living more consciously, bringing your awareness to your moment-to-moment experience.