How Do You Rank As A Receiver?
When someone gives you a compliment such as; "I like that dress you are wearing,"do you say Thank You with a sincere heart or do you dismiss the compliment by canceling it out with something along the lines of, "Oh, this dress? It was the only one that I could find to wear today." 
The way in which we receive compliments, gifts and help has a lot to do with how we feel about ourselves and what has been ingrained in us as we were growing up by well meaning loved ones. To keep us in our place often comparisons were made such as, " Why can't you be more like your sister?" to "Don't let your head get too big!".
The act of receiving is a gift to the one doing the giving.
We all love to give. In fact, if you were to ask any group of people to raise their hands if they enjoy giving; you would get a majority response of hands being raised.
In order to really understand what receiving is we must first remember what it feels like to give.
When you give a gift, advice, a helping hand, money to a beggar or food to the hungry- it makes you feel good in your heart. There is a special feeling that comes to you when you are in the act of giving.
When someone is giving you a gift, help or a compliment it is easier to receive with an open heart if we remember how that person is feeling right at that moment of giving.
When we discount the gift or the compliment by shrugging it away we are robbing the giver of their heart felt response to giving.
I used to be very bad at receiving until I learned this lesson of putting myself in the shoes of the person doing the giving. It does not matter whether we feel worthy of the compliment or even believe the compliment or not- we should allow the giver their joy in giving by graciously receiving.
The other lesson that I learned is that there is a universal law of giving:
- Give that which you exactly want without any attachment of the return.
- Give without expectations of the return.
One of my favorite quotes if from Zig Ziglar:
Help enough people get what they want and you will always have what you want.
In freely giving you open up yourself to wonderful blessings, follow that up with an attitude of gratitude and you will receive gifts beyond measure.
How Do You Rank As A Receiver? by Katerina Gasset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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Katerina, it's difficult for many people to accept a compliment without feeling embarrassed. It took me a while to realize that a smile and a simple "thank you, I appreciate it" is sufficient!