An Interview with Cami Walker, author of "29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life."
Cami Walker was suffering with multiple sclerosis when an African medicine woman gave her the 29 day gift prescription. Read how it changed her life.
Cami Walker was in deep physical and emotional pain, when an African medicine woman advised her to stop thinking about herself and instead give 29 gifts in 29 days as a remedy for breaking out of negative thought patterns and focus. Her book, "29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life" details the remarkable changes she experienced when she followed the prescription to give. In this interview with Commitment, Ms. Walker shares her thoughts on healing through giving to others.
Commitment: Tell us how you got the idea to do 29 days of giving.
Cami Walker: The idea of 29 days of giving was a prescription from Mbali Creazzo, an African medicine woman with whom I had been working as part of my alternative therapies in dealing with my illness. Mbali told me that I needed to stop thinking only of myself, and that giving 29 gifts in 29 days would help me break out of my negative thought patterns and focus outwardly rather than inwardly. I was resistant—in fact, offended—at first, and actually did not follow her suggestion right away.
Commitment: What was happening in your life when you learned of this concept?
Cami: I had recently moved from the San Francisco area to Los Angeles because of my husband’s career, and things were not going well. I was living in a new place, very sick, immobile, isolated, angry, and resentful—and in a downward spiral.
Around that time I was heading into the hospital for an 8-day medical detoxification to clean my system of all of the medications I had been taking.
When I got out of the hospital, I was suffering from insomnia and pain. I opened my journal in which I had been writing and taking notes, and it opened right to the one page on which I had written Mbali’s prescription of 29 gifts in 29 days. I made my first gift that morning—a supportive phone call to a friend also afflicted with multiple sclerosis.
For me, the results were immediate. My energy started to shift in positive ways, I received a call offering me a consulting engagement, an anonymous stranger paid for my breakfast at a local cafe, and rather than wait the two hours for my husband to come pick me up, I walked the six blocks home—farther than I had walked in a very long time.
Commitment: What type of gifts did you give during these 29 days? Can you share with us an example of a gift you gave?
Cami: Well, the first was the phone call I mentioned. The most important thing is that the gifts be simple, mindful acts, made with consciousness, an open heart, and with no expectation of something in return. Not grand gestures.
Examples of other gifts are 72 cents to a drunk, a Kleenex to a crying friend who had lost her mom, and a supportive visit to a friend. Mbali’s prescription says that the gifts must be of something scarce to you. At that time, money was scarce for me, and I made a gift of $100 to fund a mission trip to South Africa.
Commitment: How did giving to others change you emotionally?
Cami: Giving enabled me to connect more intimately with others, like my husband and my family. It also lifted me out of deep depression; I became happy, excited about the day, receptive to help and support, and conscious of the gifts I was receiving.
Commitment: Did you see your life change due to giving to others? If so, how?
Cami: The change in my life was dramatic—a psychic shift. I focused on the abundance in my life, not what was missing. The physical changes were equally dramatic. By day 14, I was walking without a cane, and by day 29, I was working for pay.
My relationship with my husband changed from nurse and care-provider to my intimate partner in life. I became closer to my old friends in the Midwest where I used to live, and in San Francisco.
And I began getting out, seeing people, and making friends in Los Angeles. Others may not experience such dramatic shifts, but everyone has reported some positive effect, including letting go of negative thinking. The important thing is to start with no expectations of what you’ll get out of it, and trust that there will be some positive change.
Commitment: As a woman dealing with multiple sclerosis, how did giving to others help you better cope with your illness?
Cami: Giving to others improved the quality of my thinking—empowering me to focus on my capabilities rather than my disability, and on what I had to offer, rather on than what I lacked.
Commitment: Tell us about your web site related to 29 days of giving, and how has sharing this concept with others impacted your life?
Cami: We currently have about 5000 members signed up from 38 countries. It is truly a global community with relationships forged around the world, and for me, it validates the mental, spiritual, and physical benefits of giving, and offers the gratification of seeing other people’s lives improved as a result.
Commitment: How many people have signed up to participate in this giving concept? What exciting stories and experiences have come out of your web site?
Cami: As I mentioned, about 5000 people have signed up. Through those relationships, other movements have been able to grow and perform their own good work.
For example, one of our 29 gifts members in South Africa used her blog to look for support for her efforts to make teddy bears for children in an AIDS clinic. The response was so overwhelming that it spawned Operation Teddy Bear Care (teddybearcare.org), which now provides teddy bears, handmade toys, shoes, pencils, food and other necessities and comforts to hundreds of needy children and their families in South Africa—things that we take for granted but are so scarce in so many parts of the world.
Commitment: Do you continue the 29 day cycle of giving? If so, why?
Cami: Yes, I do. I am halfway through my 19th cycle of giving. I give every day because it works—I see the positive effects on my life every day. And I make sure to acknowledge the simple formula to remember the abundance in my life: God-consciousness + giving + gratitude = abundance. So every day, I pray and meditate, give a gift, and say “thank you” as many times as I can.
Commitment: If someone came to you and said, “My life is really hard right now. I have nothing leftover to give” what would you say to them?
Cami: I would tell them that that’s exactly how I felt when I started. And I would tell them that healing does not happen in a vacuum—it happens through personal interactions. You make your situation worse by focusing only on yourself, so it is important that you step outside of yourself and recognize what you have and what you have to give.
Commitment: What is the greatest lesson this experience of giving has taught you?
Cami: How to be a more graceful recipient of love and support; how to embrace God, people, and a global community; to be open-hearted, open-handed, and capable of giving and receiving the gifts of life.
Commitment: Can you share with us a few examples of how giving to others impacted your health, work, and marriage.
Cami: Sure. As far as my physical health goes, I have had fewer severe relapses of MS symptoms. I still have symptoms every day, but have not gone downhill. The biggest shift has been in my mental health—I’m a happy person again. My relationships are healthier because I am more open, communicative, and emotionally available on an intimate level.
As far as my work goes, I am now an author—which I knew I wanted from an early age—and a motivational speaker. It’s fair to say that giving has greatly enriched every part of my life.
To Purchase "29 Gifts: How A Month of Giving Can Change Your Life" click here.
About the Author: Cami Walker was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2006 and created the online giving challenge in 2008. She has continued her own giving cycle every month since. Walker lives in Hollywood, CA with her husband, Mark. Visit her web site at www.29gifts.org
