Giving

Image by ~Aphrodite via Flickr

What’s so wonderful about the Christmas season, despite the commercialism, is that our hearts open. During the ‘season of giving’, our generosity opens our hearts. There is a palpable shift in our individual energy and in the energy of the collective field. We more easily feel our connection to others – we feel the love.

A couple of students I’m working with have been grappling with money issues lately. What I’ve learned about money is paradoxical: instead of contracting and withholding when money is tight, do just the opposite – give. We can have the spirit and loving energy of Christmas year-round through the simple act of giving. When we give of our resources, whether it is our money, or our talents and expertise, or if we simply reach out in some way to someone in need, our hearts open. Beautiful and uplifting in itself, but in the open heart we actually open to a flow of abundance from the Universe that waits patiently to come back to us. And if we give selflessly, with no thought of reward, the power of love behind this gesture amplifies its potency. It’s a win-win!

Selfless giving is statement of belief to the Universe that we trust that we are always supported, which is true. It is only our belief that there is not enough to go around that blocks a flow of abundance into our lives. We create our own reality. If we believe in lack, lack is what will manifest. If we trust in the infinite supply that comes from the Divine, then through our generosity we will manifest a flow of abundance that will support and sustain us.

Sri Aurobindo, the great 20th century mystic, speaks eloquently about money in his book, The Mother:

“Regard wealth simply as a power to be won back for the Mother and placed at her service. All wealth belongs to the Divine and those who hold it as trustees, not possessors. It is with them today, tomorrow it may be elsewhere. All depends on the way they discharge their trust while it is with them, in what spirit, with what consciousness in their use of it, to what purpose.

In your personal use of money look on all you have or get or bring as the Mother’s. Make no demand but accept what you receive from her and use it for the purposes for which it is given to you. Be entirely selfless, entirely scrupulous, exact, careful in detail, a good trustee; always consider that it is her possessions and not your own that you are handling. On the other hand, what you receive for her, lay religiously before her; turn nothing to your own or anybody else’s purpose.”

May you open to a flow of love and abundance in your life in 2011. It is yours for the asking through selfless giving.