Giving To Live - Living To Give
By Debi Livingston, CI, CHT

The theme for this issue of the American Spirit Newspaper is “Giving, The Love Vibration.” Notice it doesn’t say “Giving, The Reluctant Vibration” or “Giving With Strings Attached Vibration” or even “Giving But I’d Really Rather Be Receiving Vibration”. Why was Love the vibration of choice in relationship to giving?
Let me share with you some words I found in the thesaurus that equate with the word ‘love’. Love means commitment. Love means to pledge. Love means devotion. Love means affection. Love means passion. Love means promise. Love means equal.
Now let’s see some of the words I found in the thesaurus for the word ‘giving’. Giving means generosity, charity, kindness, benevolence, compassion, open-handedness, opulence, bounty.
What we’re really talking about is a quality of energy or emotion when it comes to true giving. I know some of you reading this right now are thinking, “Well I’m a giver all right, I give to others all the time.” That may be true. But are you giving because you really want to, or because it’s what is expected of you? Are you giving because in your heart you really want something in return; maybe recognition, praise, a gift? That isn’t true giving. That’s called control.
Some people just can’t help but give. They give their time and energy and maybe even money to others all the time. They are the ones who can’t say “no” when asked to take on another project or do one more favor for someone. Yet at the end of the day they’re probably tired and drained, a bit cranky, because they gave all their energy away and didn’t save any for themselves! Sound familiar?
There is a balance that can be reached in the harmony of give and take. You may find yourself yearning to give and be of help, yet have no permission in your space to receive when something is offered to you. This is called lack and limitation.
On the other hand, you may love to receive and have no problem accepting. “Give me, give me, give me” has been your mantra since you were a child. Yet, you may find it very hard to go out of your way to give if there’s nothing to get in return.
None of this is right or wrong. However, if you want to achieve a level of true wealth and prosperity in all areas of your life, it’s important to be able to keep flow happening. How do you maintain flow in your life? By being able to both give and receive.
If you have a hard time giving to yourself without feeling guilty - even giving yourself a day to sit back and do nothing, indicates you have stuck energy or beliefs deep in your subconscious mind. If you can’t give without expecting something in return may mean you’ve been taught from an early age that it’s better to receive and the world owes you something. This perception can also be altered and brought into the present.
I remember the first time my teacher, Rev. Bill, asked this question: “Would you rather be the person who receives one million dollars, or the person who gives it away?” It was in the first class I ever took on my “spiritual quest” when I first came to SRF. I blurted out without hesitation, ‘the one who receives the free money!’ My teacher responded “and that’s why you’ll never be wealthy with that lazy-minded attitude. The person who receives the million dollars will only have that, but the person who gives it away has the consciousness to know how to get even more.”
This was a totally new concept to me, one I would spend many years learning to understand and how to apply into every aspect of my life, not just on a monetary level.
Rev. Bill also taught me by example, the meaning of giving from the love vibration. He always gave people the truth no matter how much it may have been uncomfortable to experience at the time. That’s the inner meaning of the word love - truth. To love someone is to be truthful to them.
Through Clairvoyant Readings and Hypnotherapy I have been able to go into my subconscious mind and clean out old beliefs around giving and receiving. I know, because I have been writing about myself in all of the examples I mentioned above.
Giving, The Love Vibration, is a wonderful space to be in. If you’d like help in removing blocks and obstacles that are preventing you from being able to experience this, call and schedule a hypnotherapy session or clairvoyant reading. Not only will you be able to release these old patterns... but you will be giving to yourself and receiving a whole new attitude! Have fun!