giving AND receiving

This week I really took on Making Requests and found out it is so easy! I planned on visiting LA and taking the train up. I had several friends that I wanted to see, yoga studios I wanted to go to, restaurants I hoped to eat at and they are all spread out all over the city. I thought, maybe I will just rent a car when I get up there. It is going to be so hard to get around! And I can not ask people to drive me all around town to do whatever I want and drop me with different friends throughout the week, can I?

I decided to suck it up and sent an email to 15 of friends in LA Making a Request for places to stay and rides around town, outlining the things I hoped to do, when, and where. And you know what?!?!?!? They all replied eager to help! I had so many offers that I had to manage all of it and have ended up staying 3 days past how long I planned to be up here because of all the people that reached out! I am doing all of my favorite things, things I have always wanted to do here, having amazing times with each of my friends. Even the car rides are precious catching up time, and I don't have to drive in LA?!!! Amazing!!!!!

Through my breakthrough of going outside of my comfort zone to ask for help I had another huge breakthrough. Giving and Receiving is one and the same. I have been repeating this phrase often in the last few weeks, but I am not sure if I ever fully felt the power of it until this week. I was more saying it as a comfort when I was receiving (I am not a natural born receiver), and almost using it as a reason to give. In my exercise of making a huge request of my friends in LA I had a hugh AHA! moment. By putting my request out there I originally saw myself only as a receiver, but then I realized I WAS GIVING MY FRIENDS SO MUCH IN MY RECEIVING. I was GIVING them the chance to GIVE to me. They were able to become bigger people. They were able to support me. I GAVE them the opportunity to support me, to show their love for me and so much more. So I was really GIVING AND RECEIVING! GIVING AND RECEIVING ARE ONE AND THE SAME!!!!!

So, I am not going to hold back any longer. I am going to put my requests out there! Now that I think about it, the main reason I stop myself from making requests is because I expect people to say no. So, if I am already expecting a no, why not just put the request out there. If they say no, it is not going to hurt, because that is the result I expected, but you know what? I don't think they are going to say no.

I would love to acknowledge the amazing family of friends that supported me up here this week. V, Schibel, Babs, Fin, Keeks, Conor, Anya, Jessie, Jacquelyn, Gina, Doug, Dougie, Tina, Mona, Jillian, Gary, Danielle, and Lucy. They may think that they just gave me a ride, or a place to stay or even just an offer that I didn't take them up on, but they gave me so, so much more and I know I gave to them too!

GIVING AND RECEIVING ARE ONE AND THE SAME!