Receiving is an art…

Giving is easy, we all love to do that especially when it comes to material things. How about receiving?

I think we can all state, after looking at the people around us and including ourselves, that we might be pretty good givers, but we fail at the attempt of receiving – gifts, compliments, help, you name it.

Well, giving and receiving are key aspects of a complete experience when it comes to human interaction. Imagine if all of us would be great givers, who would receive what we feel the need to give? I know now, receiving isn’t easy, but how can we change that? And this one is a decisive question, not only because of the season we’re in.

Let’s look at it this way – How giving to others makes you feel? Do you feel appreciation? How about pride for making another person happy? So, it’s all about you. No problem, we all are kind of egotistic and do things in order to make ourselves feel better. Even when we help others. Let’s stop here for a second and look at the other person. How does he/she feel? Maybe, the thing you just offered saved them a lot of trouble. Or money. Maybe they truly needed your gift. Maybe they didn’t know they need it, and you just made them realize that. Again, it’s not about you – it’s about them.

So, why not let them give something back? Why not let them make you feel the way you made them feel? And eventually, in the most egotistic form, let them be like that for a change! Let them feel great for giving.

My personal opinion? I think we don’t know how to receive anything because of one single reason – We don’t know our worth. We don’t know what we deserve and we can’t accept the fact that someone figures it out (figures us out) better than ourselves. In the end, isn’t all of this about us and us only?

The next time you find yourself in a situation like this, remember the next: Those two – giving and receiving – should be a part of our daily experiences. If the giving part comes natural and we don’t always analyze its benefit, the receiving one is vital to our mental balance and spiritual connection.

Life tip: Accept compliments, enjoy gifts, appreciate the people you have around, make the most of every little thing that is given to you! How can you do that? Improving your communication skills would be an idea. A ‘thank you’ is nice, but how about ‘That is so sweet of you to say that’ or ‘I really appreciate you noticing that’? If you’re bold you can even try an ‘You made my day!’.

I challenge you to use of those at least once a day for a week, then watch your perspective change 🙂

 

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31 Days Challenge, Day 16 – I heart Burberry

burberry beautiful surprise present omg blog post anamariapopa.com ana maria popa wallet featured image

 

I do and I am not sorry. I think it’s the most classy, stylish brand ever. I only discovered it recently, like 6 years ago. And I loved their pattern, their logo, their commercials. I think ‘obsessed’ is the word…

But I was in highschool and I do not come from a rich family. So I had no chance in having a Burberry item of mine.

The year that I graduated from highschool and went to university was the year that I thought I deserved a Burberry thing, even if it was the smallest keyring. So I was in Zurich on vacation with my mother and her husband and I wanted to go into the Burberry shop. There, I honestly got lost in all the items they had. From a keyring I asked to see a wallet and my mother was encouraging me – ‘Let’s see that one, but what do you think about the other one, etc’. At some point, I brought my feet to Earth and started looking at the prices too, not just the items. It was far from what I had planned to spend, my well-earned money.

That was the moment that my mother took one of the wallets, the one that I liked best, and told the girl working there to wrap it as a present. Honestly, I was stunned, words can’t even describe the feeling… I started stutter and my face turned red, I couldn’t breathe and I almost started crying. My mum then hugged me and told me that I deserved it, because of the fact that I managed to graduate highschool on my own (she was out of the country for the last two years) and to get into university all by myself. I think that was one of the few moments she told me she was proud of me.

The girl working in the store asked if I was a only child and since I couldn’t talk, my mum told her that I was. The girl then smiled and said that it’s obvious. She made an art of wrapping my wallet as a present. I loved it. The next days I would unwrap it gently, not to get anything torn or damaged. I would just take the wallet out from the wrapping, look at it, touch it, smell it, and then I would put it back, just the way it was.

I still kept the wrapping, just the way it was back then, 4 years ago. Even the seal is intact.

 

 

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I unwrapped it and used it in my first day of university. I felt proud! Oh, and P.S.: I still have it and love it!

 

Now, I know this may not seem like a big deal. There are people who receive this kind of present for getting a good grade only.

I can’t be a hypocrite and say it wasn’t about the Burberry wallet, of course it was. But most of all, this memory is about a great wish of mine that I couldn’t have made real at that point, all on my own, with my own money. And it was an even greater surprise given the fact that I didn’t know about it, it wasn’t planned, my mum just saw the spark in my eyes looking at the wallets, and the sadness that I couldn’t afford one.

I think this is the biggest surprise and the nicest present I ever received. This one or another – when my mum was having a business trip to Santa Cruz de Tenerife and she bought a plan ticket for me to join her. I can’t decide yet… Hmm.