Lately I’ve been thinking about some of what I do on a Give Freely Receive Freely (GFRF) basis and how I feel about it, and how I feel when I interact with others about it.
Sometimes communicating to someone about GFRF goes really well, it is easy and they get it. Many other times it is awkward and they are a bit uncomfortable about it and really want me to just tell them a price – which kind of defeats the purpose to some extent. I have wondered about why it feels so awkward sometimes and I think I have at least a bit of an idea why.
Giving And Receiving Are Both Important But…
I think part of it is to do with communicating that I am giving something to them, with no price attached, but I am also expecting something back from them. I think the message gets confused somewhere in there. They then seem to think that how much they give back will be judged and they have anxiety about how much to give etc.
In starting to experiment with GFRF at first I have put quite a bit of emphasis on explaining the exchange relationship, because for many people it is an unusual idea. But the more I do it, the more I want to focus on just giving and not so much on the other person giving back.
This is interesting because I need to receive. I am not independently wealthy and need to receive back financially in order for me to be able to continue my work and sustain myself, yet somehow setting the expectation of receiving back doesn’t feel quite right, or at least not as good as I would like it to be.
Giving More Freely
I wonder if I focus more on just giving freely myself, the receiving may take care of itself. I wonder if naturally as a result of myself giving more freely, others will reciprocate in giving more freely as well, without having to be told or have it explained to them.
This is certainly what I feel like doing, so I am going to give it a try.
What I’m Doing About It
With my clinic work… not much, I’m reasonably happy with how that is going at the moment with GFRF. Maybe I’ll make some changes in this area later.
The area that I will be changing things right away is with my online qigong courses. I will be de-emphasising the GFRF aspect of the courses and just giving them away free. I will still have donate buttons available for people to donate if they choose to, because I need to be open to receiving back and I need to have an avenue open for this to happen via. There will still be a link to this site for anyone who is interested in the thinking behind why I am doing what I am doing, but I won’t put as much effort into explaining the two way exchange on the pages of the courses, I will just leave it up to individuals to give back if they want to.
It’s Still An Experiment
Of course this whole thing is still an experiment for me. I expect there is still a lot to learn, and I expect I will tweak and change lots of things and I continue to try living GFRF. I look forward to seeing what happens with this latest tweak.