Like a mechanical pump which must be primed, so are our lives. We have to "give something up," such as when one pours water into the top of a pump to prime it. What does this mean in our spiritual lives?
It means we choose to pick things up energetically from a Higher Source. It means we take time to learn and to look at things until they have no more power over us. It means we do the releasing work we must do in order to grow. It means in order to have financial abundance, we tithe.
The key, as it is with everything, is the attitude, or consciousness, we act from.