How Generosity Leads to a Higher Purpose.
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There’s a pretty harsh inner critic within me. She’s been there all my life. Time and again, She triggers old patterns of ‘It’s not good enough,’ ‘I’m not good enough,’ or ‘What’s the point anyway?’
This inner critic is my self-saboteur. She rises when I’m not feeling safe or pushing beyond my comfort zone. She rides with fear.
Being gentle and kind allows me to see the wound of self-criticism. Sometimes I catch my self-sabotage patterns in play. But know I am also learning to be generous with myself.
Being generous goes beyond just being kind or gentle. These things are still essential, but self-generosity ensures I have the time, space, and resources I need to transmute my fears. As we will see, generosity is an essential ingredient to unveiling a higher purpose in our lives.
What is self-generosity?
Generosity is about giving yourself the love you need.
You can be generous with your time, your love, your patience. You can be helpful with self-forgiveness when mistakes occur. You can be excellent with your imperfections to value your contributions to others and the world.
Generosity opens up space inside you. It unlocks the floodgates to your heart so you can deeply nurture yourself. It allows you to pause and look at what you need right now, at this moment. To be generous is to give from the heart to meet your own needs.
Generosity invites you to be the observer of your inner world.
What do I need right now? Love, compassion, kindness? A moment to center me or nap, perhaps? A walk? Time off? A holiday?
Do I need to arrange a time with a friend to talk through what’s happening? Or get some expert advice? Do I need solitude? Or time to express my creativity? Maybe some fun out on the town?
Being generous allows the nourishing, sweet waters of your heart to quench the landscape of your inner world. It lets you know, ‘Everything is alright. I am here now.’
Generosity is giving from the heart.
True generosity comes from the heart. When you give from the heart, you put yourself in service to the whole. The universe's creative forces can flow through you, which is the most incredible service we can offer.
Being generous gives you the inner space to make mistakes without being overly critical. It gives you the leeway to be imperfect without needing to compare or seek validation from someone else.
When you give from the heart, you are not giving away your power. Nor do you allow others to exploit you. Instead, you fill your cup first, so it can overflow to people, places, and situations that are receptive and fertile to your gifts.
“Everything in life, especially our many small daily events and activities, can be openings for generosity.” Richard Rudd.
Is it selfish to put your own needs first?
Some say putting your needs first is selfish. Instead, you should give only to others. After all, this is what ‘good people do, right?
No. Generosity allows you to fill your cup first to overflow to others through service in the world. Being generous considers self and others.
In contrast, the shadow of selfishness has no consideration for others.
Selfish actions result from fears like ‘there is not enough, ‘I am not good enough, or ‘they will hurt me.’ Such fear leads to behaviors that harm the whole.
Selfishness comes from an arid inner world. Selfish people need to take from others to survive. For whatever reason, their cup is empty, and they compete with others to get their needs met.
On the other hand, generosity comes from recognizing there is an eternal innerspring of nourishment within you. This nourishment allows you to consider others' needs and yourself, allowing you to take responsibility for your needs rather than projecting them onto others.
Generosity is based on the law that ‘to give is to receive.’
How much we give ourselves directly correlates to how much we can give to others. Self-generosity is the precursor to balanced, harmonious, and productive relationships with others.
When you give from our heart, your aura reminds others to do the same. A chain reaction triggers your relationships that permit others to be generous and take responsibility for their own needs.
As the shadow frequency of selfishness transforms, a communal net of safety generates within your aura. This safety allows people to explore and transmute their shadows, raising the collective frequency to make the evolutionary leap out of individual selfishness into communal survival.
To evolve as a species, our challenge is to raise our frequency beyond individual survival needs, to focus on communal survival.
A pod of whales, for example, teaches this perfectly. The pod's collective aura creates a ‘pod mind’ that monitors the group's safety. This ‘pod mind’ is felt by each individual and the whole. It establishes the communal safety net where if one member is in danger, the entire pod becomes aware and responds for the individual’s survival.
Communal survival based on generous, mutually beneficial relationships, where participants give from their hearts in service to the whole, is the next major evolutionary leap for humankind.
But we still need healthy boundaries.
However, overcommitment or giving too much to others can be a self-sabotaging pattern. Being
overgenerous, or giving without a natural sense of boundary, contaminates the frequency of giving.
Such self-sacrificial giving is one way for people in the shadow of selfishness to avoid their own dark side. Instead of facing their fears, they gloss over them by focusing all their energy on others. They allow themselves to be taken advantage of by others and give away their power, rather than giving from the heart. (1)
Another issue is when we give hope of getting something in return. Rather than coming from the heart, you give with agenda. On the subtle level, this can feel manipulative, and following the law to give is to receive; the gift is received in the same energy given, without genuine gratitude. (1)
Feelings of exploitation or resentment occur between the parties. The exchange is not balanced nor mutually beneficial; instead, it creates an energetic drain between them. This form of giving drains your life force and is a form of martyrdom.
In the words of Richard Rudd,
“Like a river with strong banks, we also need healthy boundaries to direct the current of our generosity in such a way that serves both ourselves and others.” (2)
Generosity and higher purpose — the eternally flowing spring.
How does generosity unveil your higher purpose?
Healthy giving from the heart puts you in service to the whole. It is one of the quickest ways to unveiling your higher purpose in this life.
At the core of every person is the seed of their divine purpose. It is an expression of your unique creativity, your divine spark. To bring this genius into the world, we must confront and transform our innermost fears now.
We cannot wait until the end of our lives, when we think we have finally faced all our fears, to leap into our higher purpose. It is here now, at this moment, calling you.
To live your divine purpose, you must met and release your fear-based patterns. Your light — the unique spark of your creative, higher purpose — lies hidden within your fears.
You can do this in small steps or giant leaps, but either way, you must evolve. The evolution of consciousness requires humans to push up against their existing limitations, dissolve and transform into something new.
As we make our needs a priority, we begin to trust ourselves once again. The inner critic's voice loses her power as we gently and lovingly wrap ourselves in self-love, appreciation, kindness, and patience.
We begin to meet our own needs rather than projecting them onto others. Generosity reminds us to take responsibility and create safe, natural boundaries that prevent unhealthy entanglements with others. It also tells us when a relationship or situation is no longer healthy and it’s time to leave.
When we give from the heart, our creative uniqueness begins to flow into the world.
We are no longer involved in self-sacrificial giving but rather a natural flow of time and energy towards the fertile ground of healthy relationships and fruitful situations.
When you are generous with yourself, you create a ripple in the field.
Your higher purpose is your answer to the question ‘How can I best serve humanity?’ When you give from your heart in a way that lights you up, you live your higher purpose.
Ask yourself...
How generous have you been today? With yourself and others? Where could you be more generous?
If you are not happy in your relationships, you may not be nurturing yourself enough. All relationships provide us with this mirror.
Please, be generous with yourself. If the inner critic rises, pause and take a moment to wrap her in your love. Go a little deeper, and you’ll see the fear she presents to be transmuted. This is your opportunity to take the next leap into your higher purpose.
“…to release your true creativity into the world, you must first meet your own dark side. ” Richard Rudd.
References:
1/ Rudd, R., (2015) The Gene Keys. Embracing your higher purpose. Watkins Media Limited, London, UK.
2/ Rudd, R., (2018) The Art of Contemplation. Gentle path to wholeness and prosperity. Gene Keys Publishing, Poole, UK. p53.