The phrase, “You get what you give” is true but I used to understand it differently.
My old understanding goes like this: I give something to someone now, and then they or someone else will give me something equivalent later (even if “later” is the very next instant).
Here’s how I see it now:
“You get what you give” is LITERAL and there is zero time delay. The thing I give to someone else, radiates in ME right in the moment of the giving. When I’m paying attention, I receive the exact thing I’m giving, in equal measure to my giving, immediately as I give it.
What I give, I give to myself as much as I give it to anyone else.
When I give my patience, or love, or understanding, or money, or help, to someone…
…that patience or love, or understanding, or money, or help permeates my experience of life and rushes through me in the moment of giving.
My experience is directly and immediately impacted by it. I literally get the experience of it the moment I give it.
When I give with an agenda of getting something back from the other person, I am setting myself up for resentment. It’s innocent confusion, a remnant of having understood and practiced relationships as transactional.
When I’m looking for the receiver to reciprocate, I’m out of my business. I’m waiting for something that will never come. More importantly, I miss what is already happening: the gift of my own giving.
What comes to me from others is none of my business.
I only control what I give.
And whatever I give, I get.
Always.