I have a good friend who is an energy-healer. She has a heart of gold. She extends to others from a place of love all the time. And she is in human form having a human experience which means she gets to wrangle with her humanness just like we all do.
The other day she confided in me, as good friends do with one another. She said, “Lynn, I feel like I give and I give and I give but no one ever appreciates what I do for them.” I found myself replying with words that caught me by surprise. I heard myself say to her, “Well, it is only the ego that wants and expects appreciation.”
I needed to hear that myself.
All too often we do for to others so that we can soak up praise, thanks, glory. Come on. Let’s all be honest here.
All too often we extend ourselves in service so we can show off on our resume how we’ve volunteered our time and service in the community or so we can demonstrate how spiritual we are.
The nature of true service has no ties, no strings no expectations. True services is showing up with willingness to help without a need for anything in return. Instead of feeding off the praise and thanks of others, what if we are able to feed off of the pure nature of true service?
We must recognize that part of the human experience is that we all have ego. And the spiritual journey is all about recognizing and transcending ego. Stepping out of the need for self-gratification and stepping into the expansive source of love. The spiritual journey is about realizing we are made of love and light and that it is our destiny and therefore our life’s work to step into that love that we are and extend love to every single person we encounter regardless of their response, reaction or lack thereof.
When we live our lives from a place of being and extending love we begin living off of giving. When we give purely and freely from this place of love at the seat of the soul we are energized and fed.
When we release the need to have people thank us, appreciate us or even love us in return we are being fed only by the purity of our giving. When we operate from the nature of true service we have no need for appreciation.
The hit we get from someone expressing appreciation can feel very good but I like to see it as simply an opportunity for me to reflect back the love they are extending and allow there to simply be a mutual moment of love and connection rather than a feed for me, me, me.
We must love, respect and honor the essence of our own selves first and from there, realizing we are in essence love ourselves, we can extend to others everywhere we go, to every person we meet regardless of how they respond.
