Live in Your Gift by Dr. Aumatma Shah, founder of Karma Clinic

As a Naturopathic Doctor, Homeopath, and small business owner—practicing in the gift-economy model—I come across many questioning faces: How do you sustain? Don’t you worry about not having enough money? Why do you do this? What about your student loans? I can’t say that I have it all figured out yet. However, at Karma Clinic, we’ve been successfully operating on this model for over a year now and don’t have any plans of changing it.

The gift-economy model for me is re-popularizing the idea of a village doctor who shares his/her gifts freely with the community and trusts that the universe will take care of the basic survival needs. Practicing in this way asks for a complete letting go of the desire to control, faith that your rent will get paid, faith you’ll have enough food to eat, etc. It’s truly the practice of trust and surrender, i.e., knowing that you are and will be provided for. All you have to do is live in your gift.

Each of us has a unique gift, something valuable to others that flows through us naturally and effortlessly. Similar to the apple tree that gives apples in abundance ... the tree doesn’t charge for its fruit or say, “well, I can give you 100-150 apples but more than that, then you’ll owe me.” It just freely gives of itself (as does all of Nature) … and, the more you pick, the more the tree produces! For the apple tree, producing apples is its natural state of gratitude—it’s the expression of thanks for the sunlight, water, and soil.

Thus, I offer my health and wellness services at Karma Clinic in the gift-economy way because I can’t put a price tag on my gifts that were given to me nor the gift of health for the client. There is no ‘price’ that would be appropriate … instead, I choose to live like the apple tree that continues to abundantly produce apples. It is my natural state of gratitude.

But this is not just about one person living in their gift. My vision is for all of us to live in our gifts. And what a beautiful world it would be if each one of us stood strong in the gift we have to offer, rather than doing something just to earn money to survive.

May we all do what makes us come alive, may we all live in the world of the gift.

Dr. Shah received her Naturopathic Medicine Degree from the University of Bridgeport, her Masters degree in Nutrition from the University of Bridgeport Nutrition Institute, and her Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Rutgers University. She is the founder of Karma Clinic in Berkeley, California.