Giving is Receiving

The act of giving and receiving is a tightly interwoven phenomenon. So much in this universe operates through simultaneous give and take.

It’s widely accepted that the more we give, the more we receive.

That’s certainly been true for me.

Take my formative event as a mindfulness teacher:

After lunch, I'd been washing up the big pots in the soup kitchen on Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn. We'd served hot soup to a hundred poor or homeless people. Many in ragged clothes, dirty, smelly. Some remarkably well dressed but needing the handout of free food nevertheless.

Then, as I left to return to my office, it happened. 

A Nun offered me 3 pounds of fresh cheese. I was taken aback. She was from upstairs, where they gave away clothing. She didn’t know I was one of the volunteers. Did she think I was one of the poor?

She saw the shock and worry on my face and  that's when she said it, "We know that if we give you something, you'll repay us tenfold. You needn't feel obligated. That's just how it works."

I didn't truly understand her message then.

Five years later, I got to live that truth.

In my sangha, the weekly meditation group that I attend, my friend Mary had just completed her training to become a therapist and healer. 

Twenty-five of us sit together in this sangha for 2 hours and after it's over, many of us like to chat.

That's when the heart connections are formed, a great benefit of the sangha.

During one of these after-sangha chats, I offered to help Mary set up her private practice. I wanted to help her. She was such a shining light within the sangha. Her insight, smiles, and company had brought me much understanding and joy.

Perhaps I was summoning up some of the energy those nuns had when I was in the soup kitchen.

Well, their teaching happened.

In offering to give my skills away, I was rewarded many times more than the amount of my intention to help Mary.

Mary told me she didn't need any help with her practice, people flocked to her. (Turns out, that was actually true.)

But she had heard how a few therapists taught mindfulness to their clients and wanted to try it. It was taught in a group; she had a friend teaching it, but she was far away. Teaching it the first time scared her….. would I lead a group with her?

Thus, was I introduced to Mindfulness-Based - Cognitive Therapy (MB-CT), which became the focus of my personal growth and teachings for the next 14 years. 

We taught a group together in November 2006, and I've never looked back. 

Thank you Mary for birthing my wish to help you so that I could receive this great gift!

Beyond that, I have continued to gain at least as much from my students as they have got from me.  I have taught 49 groups so far. And now I reach even more people by teaching individually.

Thank you, Nuns of the Fourth Avenue soup kitchen, for nurturing my generosity.... with cheese and wisdom!

Curious about mindfulness?  Visit: http://learnmindfulnessnyc.com/