Learning to Receive and Filling your Cup
- Claire Skinner
- Sep 25
- 5 min read
Meraki Acupuncture | October 2025 Blog
I have just come out of a Breathwork practice, and though I have my daily practices, I realised that this was needed in such a big way to help fill my very empty cup. Often, when I step away and am reintroduced to what is needed I am then able to land and see clearer. In a sense, when silence meets an integrated awareness, then BOOM the ‘AHA’ moment occurs like a small flame that then explodes.
What truly resonated with me in my state of exhaustion, and profoundly came through in my practice, was the concept of receiving. And even deeper, why do I struggle receiving? I knew this concept was there but has been like a lingering veil opaquely hiding in the background. It had no defined shape to it and I couldn’t define it.
On top of this, the concept of receiving also contained a light residue of guilt (even though I always say I don’t struggle with this emotion/behaviour). Perhaps somewhat of a cultural phenomenon and perhaps a subtle and quiet detail that we have been told over the years, this thereby adds to the layers of our central core.
And with that, is it easier to give than to receive? And moving on from this do we feel we can allow ourselves to receive? Are we open to receive? And what does receiving actually mean?
Is this the first step about letting go?
Ah the word “letting go”. Here we go. We get thrown these two words to us in our therapy sessions, may it be talking therapy or acupuncture therapy. We get thrown these words in our yoga practice, our Breathwork practice. But can we really let go if we can’t feel we deserve to receive?
Truthfully my personal relationship with the words to “Let Go” is and possibly will be a continuous work in progress. And I do think there is a link between letting go and receiving.
Living in a world with all the demands, where we are always giving to our partners, our work, our children, ageing family members, our community. Making everyone else around us comfortable and settled whilst restricting our lives and creating walls within ourselves. We become more and more contained and closed in, due to all the demands and rules of society, and also the volatility of where we are currently residing in this fractious World and confined & regulated by our phones.
To receive means, to give yourself love. Sure it may be the ‘send yourself to a spa or yoga studio kind of love’ but really it may be deeper than this.
To receive means, to give yourself space. The space to not have to do it all. The space not to respond to all that is thrown at you. The space not to always achieve. The space to not always have to please and feel you need to find and gain approval.
To receive means to pull away from the noise.
To receive means to say no and state the boundaries that you require.
To receive means you don’t have to overly accommodate the other person to make them feel comfortable. To not have to feel ‘on’ all the time.
To receive means to say I am not what I used to be.
To receive means to pull away from group dynamics that might not sit well with you.
To receive means you are open to a new experience, thought process, transformation.
To receive means you can lie back in your treatment and be comfortable in the stillness. You don’t need to accommodate your therapist to make them feel comfortable or to make them like you more.
To get there, it may takes time. It may be scary, it surely will feel uncomfortable, but I promise you, it will create clarity.
Really think about this today:
Are you able to receive?
What does receiving mean to you?
Do you need to receive? Do you need to receive because your flattened; exhausted; burnt out? Lacking the lustre that you deserve?
Are the people in your life draining you and continuously asking for your demands, your answers, solutions. This may be partners, children, friends, clients, patients. Have you made yourself the lighthouse, safe house preventing any form of emotional autonomy?
What is your baseline of needs?
How can receive? What fills your cup?
Do you want to receive? Or do you feel shutdown?
Who can help you with this?
How do you respond when you receive a compliment, a free morning or afternoon, a gift, an object, an opportunity?
How do you respond when someone offers to assist you in the things that you think you have too much control over?
What came through to me today is that I often struggle to receive, thinking that I am flexible, humble and that I don’t want to create any issues or confrontations. I always prefer giving to others; may it be in friendships, relationships, therapeutically, advice. Always there to give solutions and be the lighthouse for others. And part of my archetype is built on this, but I also realise that as a result of such embedded behaviours, I am not open to receiving and potentially could prevent further opportunities of growth within myself.
I am in a giving style of burn out. I have felt for a long time that I have become the pillar for those in need and though I am always willing and mostly available, the sum of all of this is that my cup is very empty. I need to pull away and really construct some new boundaries that are required for my energetic field to flow. I deserve this to myself but also to my work as an acupuncture practitioner and therapist.
As I mentioned, this is a work in progress, re-establishing my baseline which is always fluid and depends on what is going on in my life. Nothing should ever be static and so if we are open, we can move with the flow of nature’s cycles.
So in a sense, to receive, is a type of a mindful practice. A mindful practice that can help guide you. It can be a sense of filling your cup, finding perhaps time to walk on the grass barefoot, receiving the earth and feeling the ionic energy that it gives off. It might be sitting, having your cup of tea in the sunshine, listening to the bird song and have nature infuse into you. It might also be just lying flat on the floor, taking a breath. It may be saying no to social engagements. It may be not interfacing with some intense friendships that become one way traffic. It may be that you need to awaken your creative juices: playing with clay, throwing paint on a canvas. It may be letting go of controlling your household and determining all the scheduling of your children and their constant needs. It may be pulling away from the noise of friends and family. It may be asking your partners to make your cup of tea, providing for you, looking after your needs.
We're inundated with information, we're inundated with the demands of the world that we live in. The demands of having to do lists, the go, go, go nature of society and the work & family demands. So in a world where we're continuously in a delusion of the illusion that we must constantly put ourselves out there, perhaps giving a little more to ourselves, will provide the nourishment to be able to live more vibrantly and intentionally.
With Love, Claire X
Comments