A Practice for Claiming Your Gifts

The first weeks of January are sobering. Lots of people literally get sober for January. The party’s over. We’re staring at the road ahead and we’re not so sure if we can stick with all those intentions we set. But at the same time, there’s a sense of renewal. A chance to begin again. To refine.

I believe we’re all born with unique gifts—certain qualities and skills we’re meant to offer to the world. Some people are gifted artists or writers. Others are gifted in business or politics. Some are gifted at creating a home or caring for others.

Now that the season of gift-giving is over, I want to talk about this other kind of gift. The gift you were born with, and that the world is dying for you to give. I want to encourage you to really connect with your own gifts, celebrate them, and ask yourself what you’re yearning to give more of.

This is not about over-giving or depleting yourself. It’s not about giving out of guilt or desperation or unworthiness. Inherent in true generosity is a sense of abundance. There’s a way to share your gift in such a way that it’s a win-win. You give what you have more than enough of, like a tree giving fruit. When we express our unique gifts, we uplift others and we get to enjoy a deep sense of satisfaction.

You probably have many gifts and a lot to give. What and how you give changes depending on your circumstances. Sometimes you have extra time and food, and you make somebody dinner. Sometimes you have extra lightheartedness, so you give out smiles all day. There are humble gifts, like the ones I just mentioned, and there are capital-G gifts that are deeper and more unique to you.

AI holds a mirror to our gifts and challenges us to express them more than ever. Having seen how poorly AI writes, I have new appreciation for my own writing ability. I’m not the only one who has seen what AI makes and thought, “humans do it better.” But AI’s existence also makes it all the more essential that we express our gifts, lest the world get covered in AI slop.

The only thing fending off the slop is you. If you have a gift for drawing, draw. Take up space with your art. Take space away from meaningless, unnerving images created by robots. Whatever your gifts are, share them. We need all hands on deck.

It’s easy to deny your gifts. To think that AI or some famous person can write better than you, draw better than you, think better than you. It’s not true. As the Christmas lights are coming down and the presents are getting stowed away, don’t lose faith. Instead, light a candle in your heart and remember the gifts you carry within.

Practice: Claim Your Gifts

Here’s a contemplation practice for claiming your gifts. Read the questions below, then take a few minutes to journal about them. Or you can simply close your eyes and contemplate the answers in your head. Allow yourself free reign to consider all kinds of gifts, and to come up with as many as you want. No gift is too big or too small.

• What have you always loved to do ever since you were a child?

• What’s something you do effortlessly that others seem to labor at?

• What’s something you’re naturally drawn to do that others really appreciate?

• What do others frequently compliment you on that you feel you didn’t earn?

• What has always been true about you, but seems to have come out of the blue, because it’s not connected to anyone or anything in your upbringing?

You might get emotional doing this practice because it gets at our sense of worthiness. If you have gifts—and we all do—it means you’re valuable. That’s a tender truth if you often live with a sense of unworthiness. It’s also painful not to share our gifts. By identifying what they are, we may also notice how much more we could be sharing. So go easy with this. If you’re having trouble coming up with your gifts, ask for help from people who know you, and/or your therapist.

Once you have a sense of your gifts, take a moment to take them in. Let your heart be warmed by the truth of your own goodness and how much you contribute to the world. Take a moment to wonder at the mystery of how you got to be who you are. Really take it in. Feel it in your heart, your belly, and down to your toes. Cry and dance and revel in it, if you’re moved to.

Now choose. One of those gifts, or maybe a constellation of them, is rising above the rest. There’s something so very important for you to give. Claim it. Install it in your heart. Carry it with you into this year, letting it be the engine that moves you forward.

Let’s Connect

One of the ways I’m offering my gifts this year is through my private practice, Wise Body Women’s Health. I became a Certified Nurse Midwife and Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner thinking I could change things from inside the system. But after years of watching myself become what I didn’t want to be—rushed, burned out, unable to provide the care I knew women deserved—I had to choose.

I could keep trying to fit myself into a system that treats women’s natural cycles as inconveniences to be suppressed. Or I could step into what I know to be true: that women’s bodies are wise. That our cycles are sacred. That the pain we experience often carries messages we need to hear. That healthcare can be both scientifically sound AND spiritually profound.

If you’re looking for a different kind of care, then I invite you to book a Foundation Session. Ninety minutes where you’re fully seen and heard. Where your medical history and your life story both matter. Where we start figuring out together what your body is trying to tell you and what you truly need.

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