The Courage to Receive

December is the month when women give until they disappear.
We host. We organize. We wrap and serve and perform joy for everyone else.

But here’s the truth no one says out loud:
it’s not your giving that’s hardest. It’s your receiving.

Because receiving requires vulnerability. It requires letting love, care, or generosity land without deflecting, without minimizing, without immediately rushing to prove you deserve it.

For high-achieving women, that’s terrifying. We’ve been taught that our worth comes from holding it all together, from being indispensable, from giving more than we take.

But what if the bravest thing you did this December was to receive?

To receive time for yourself with the same authority you give it to everyone else.
To receive help without apology.
To receive love without immediately rushing to prove you deserve it.

Getting better at receiving isn’t indulgence. It’s mastery. It’s leadership. It’s modeling a new kind of power; one that doesn’t come from depletion, but from allowing yourself to be nourished.

This month, I invite you to practice receiving as a discipline. To notice when you’re about to say “I’m fine” or “I don’t need anything” and instead pause. Let the gift land. Say “yes”.

Because the women who only give eventually run dry. The women who learn to receive create lives that are sustainable, luminous, and true.

As we enter this season of light, may you find warmth, connection, and moments of true rest, however you choose to mark the days. And as 2026 approaches, may you step into it not with more demands on your shoulders, but with more capacity to receive what is already yours.