December 14 – Empowered Giving: Take a few moments this morning and identify three (3) of your most frequent &/or most powerful cravings … Instead of fulfilling them for your self today, attempt to give them to (or fulfill them for) someone else.

For someone who has been consciously working on removing all addictions and cravings from his life, this one was pretty weird in the beginning. Initially, I thought about my base-desires – fundamental longings shared by every living being:

to be touched …

to be fed …

to be protected …

& to be inspired.

And yet, as I set out to look for ways to provide these desires for others, I realized I had a dilemma. I had discovered over the course of the past several years that satisfying personal cravings does not bring lasting peace or any deep-seated contentment. In fact, I had discovered during this time that fulfilling superficial desires actually led to the entrenchment and intensification of my suffering.

As such, it became clear that – even though it might do others good to experience the Truth that giving “feels better” than receiving, I personally couldn’t engage this particular task in this manner. I had to find some way to approach my giving from a vantage point that I sincerely believed would bring others Peace.

Fortunately, I have experienced another Truth: that when one’s intentions are purposefully selfless, giving and receiving meld into One – that the conscious Giver knows that he/she is actually “getting the better end of the deal” (by receiving the Inner Peace that always comes while giving selflessly), and that the conscious Receiver knows that she/he is actually doing the Giver the greater service (by allowing them the opportunity to selflessly give).

So I applied this principle to today’s task, and experienced some very interesting enlightenments.

My ego yearns to “be seen”, which would normally require me to fulfill today’s task by actively affirming others (by giving them compliments or encouragement). While this is a nice thing to do, today I shifted my focus to my True Self, which desires not to “be seen”, but rather to SEE. As such, I satisfied this craving for others by actively being true to my unusually “weird” self – giving everyone around me the opportunity to See me anyway.

My ego yearns to “be heard”, which would normally require me to fulfill today’s task by actively listening to others (by reflecting back their opinions or even extending them compassion while they spoke). While this is a nice thing to do, today I shifted my focus instead to my True Self, which desires not to “be heard”, but rather to HEAR. As such, I satisfied this craving for others by being “flagrantly honest” while voicing my unusually “weird” opinions – giving everyone around me the opportunity to Hear me anyway.

And my ego yearns to “be loved”, which would normally require me to fulfill today’s task by actively caring for others (by offering to do them favors or giving them hugs). While this is a nice thing to do, today I shifted my focus instead to my True Self, which desires not to “be loved”, but rather to LOVE. As such, I satisfied this craving for others by being joyfully saying “yes” to every offer of assistance; by even asking others “selfishly” for acts of kindness – giving everyone around me the opportunity to Love me anyway.

And I did all of this consciously (& ironically) for them.

Now that was interesting (& emPowering)!

So remember:

See You when I see you …

… and until then, Be Now!

Scaughdt

Filed under: 366 Days of Kindness by Scaughdt