Accepting

I have been talking a lot about how to do for others, but today I am going to talk about accepting from others. Accepting graciously.

Today my boyfriend was going to make himself a power drink, but I said I'd do it for him. He actually got a little upset at me for - he said - taking it out of his hands. But I knew I could do it quick and easy and I wanted to do it for him.

So that got me to thinking, why is it sometimes hard for us to accept others doing for us?

So many of us are taught independence, and that is good. But it also sometimes stops us from reaching out and accepting help when it is offered. We may be in the middle of a quicksand puddle and someone reaches a branch out to us and we say no, I'm fine, I can do it. Come on, it does not take away from your pride in the ability to take care of yourself, you can still do that, but like the Beatles say:

I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, get high with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, gonna to try with a little help from my friends

When someone offers to do something for you, your first instinct might be to say no thank you I can handle it myself. But if you stop for a minute and think, when someone offers to help you, two good things happen. You get help and you will find it makes some of your burden lighter, and the other is that the other person gets the satisfaction of helping.

So if you feel that accepting help makes you selfish, you'd be wrong. You would be doing the other person a disservice by saying no. You'd be denying them the opportunity to earn 'points' on that big scoreboard of life.

So remember that when someone is genuinely offering you the help you need, just smile and say 'why yes, thank you.'