What Are You Ready to Receive?

A New Moon Reflection on Trust, New Beginnings and the Courage to Make Room

There is something about a New Moon that has always invited me inward.

Not necessarily to make another list of things I want to manifest or accomplish, but to become quiet enough to notice what is beginning—sometimes before I fully understand what it means.

Today, I found myself standing inside two beginnings.

This morning, I facilitated the first session of The Wellbeing Leadership Experience™ — Leading Without Losing Yourself, my flagship series with International Internship University.

Later in the day, I sat with my first mentee through the Purpose & Profit Incubator, delivered by Purpose Spaces in partnership with Bridges for Billions.

Teaching and mentoring.

Two things I have done in different forms throughout my life, yet today they arrived differently.

Perhaps because I arrived differently.

The Cup

This morning, I invited participants to bring a cup of tea or coffee and a journal.

I brought mine too.

I didn’t want us to begin another wellbeing conversation by immediately talking about meditation, exercise, journaling, self-care routines or all the things we have learned we should do for ourselves.

Those practices can be valuable.

But the practice is not the product.

The practices are pathways of return.

So we began with the cup.

I asked:

What have you already poured out today—or what are you preparing to pour out?

For some people, the day was just beginning.

For others across the world, the working day was coming to an end.

Yet all of us knew something about pouring.

We pour into families.

Businesses.

Students.

Clients.

Organizations.

Communities.

Dreams.

Relationships.

Responsibilities.

We pour out ideas, patience, creativity, emotional support, problem-solving, money, wisdom, leadership, care and presence.

Then came another question:

What is replenishing what you are pouring out?

And perhaps the more uncomfortable one:

What are you continually pouring out that is not being replenished?

That question stayed with me.

Receiving Is Different

At one point, we simply took a sip from our cups.

But I invited everyone not merely to consume the tea.

Receive it.

There is a difference.

We can consume food without really tasting it.

Consume information without allowing it to change us.

Consume encouragement while secretly believing we don’t deserve it.

Consume opportunities while immediately worrying about what we have to prove.

Even our wellbeing practices can become another set of things to accomplish.

And sometimes we become so practised at giving that receiving begins to feel unfamiliar.

Today reminded me that wellbeing isn’t simply about becoming better at replenishing ourselves so that we can hurry back out and give everything away again.

Sometimes we are allowed to receive because we are human beings worthy of receiving.

Then Life Asked Me to Practise It

After the session, I was happy.

I felt accomplished.

And I was also carrying real concerns about my life and responsibilities.

Both things were true.

There was part of me that immediately wanted to move into doing—solving, calling, planning, figuring everything out.

Instead, I stopped.

I lay down.

I meditated.

I listened.

For a little while, I allowed myself not to solve anything.

And I realized that the very experience I had facilitated for others that morning was asking something of me too.

Could I support myself inside the life I am currently living?

Not the life where every problem has been resolved.

Not the life where every bill is already paid.

Not the life where every opportunity has matured.

This one.

The life I have today.

Perhaps that is one of the most important things wellbeing continues to teach me:

We do not have to wait for life to become uncomplicated before we learn how to remain present within it.

Trust

Then came my second beginning.

I sat with my mentee.

There were no grand speeches.

We talked.

I listened.

She shared some of what was happening in her life and business, including a difficult decision she had made that day.

And once again, I found myself thinking about trust.

An institution trusts someone with a platform.

A participant trusts a facilitator enough to enter an experience.

A mentee trusts another human being with part of her journey.

Friends trust enough to show up.

People recommend us for opportunities because somewhere along the way they saw something in us worth sharing with the world.

None of us arrives anywhere entirely by ourselves.

So much of what I know has been poured into me by teachers, friends, colleagues, family, mentors, experiences, disappointments, opportunities, faith and life itself.

And now I am being given opportunities to pour some of it forward.

But perhaps the lesson of today is that the movement cannot only be outward.

Pour. Receive. Learn. Share. Return.

Again and again.

A Different Kind of New Moon Intention

So tonight, I am not approaching this New Moon with a frantic list of everything I need to make happen.

There are things I want.

There are responsibilities requiring my attention.

There are financial matters I am actively stewarding.

There are dreams I am building.

There is work to be done.

But perhaps intention can coexist with receptivity.

Perhaps stewardship is not only asking:

What must I do next?

Perhaps it is also asking:

What is already trying to enter my life that I need to become willing to receive?

Support?

Opportunity?

Rest?

Partnership?

Wisdom?

Visibility?

Help?

Love?

Money?

A difficult truth?

A new responsibility?

A new version of ourselves?

Receiving is not passive.

Sometimes receiving requires courage.

Sometimes it requires us to stop insisting that provision must arrive through the door we expected.

Sometimes it means allowing another person to help.

Sometimes it means believing someone when they say, I see something in you.

And sometimes receiving means becoming quiet enough to recognize that something we once prayed for has already begun.

My New Moon Practice

Tonight, perhaps you can join me.

Take your cup.

Take your journal.

Sit somewhere quiet for a few minutes.

And ask yourself:

What have I been pouring out?

What is replenishing me?

What is not being replenished?

Then ask one more question:

What am I ready to receive?

Don’t rush to answer.

Let the page remain empty for a moment if it needs to.

Sip your tea.

Listen.

And remember:

You do not have to receive simply so that you can become more productive.

You do not have to replenish yourself only so that you can return to serving everyone else.

You are here too.

On this New Moon, I honour the beginnings I can see and the ones I cannot yet see.

I honour the people who have poured into me.

I honour the people who are trusting me to pour into them.

And I am learning to honour myself enough to receive as well.

Perhaps that is my intention for this lunar cycle:

To pour with wisdom.
To receive without guilt.
To steward what comes.
And to remain present in the life I am creating.

— Rev. Joslyn Farray Pierre