Tag Archives: manifestation

Inspiration

Dear Alchemists, Notice What You Make

ImagineConsider all that your consciousness has taken in this year. The facts and figures, news stories, challenges, experiences, human interactions.  You are an expert witness to this creation day in and day out.

What are you bringing forth into this world each day?  When I think back to the un-work related conversations I hear at work, most of them fall into the category of “the horrors of existence.”  We discuss the worst things imaginable, often with lamentations for a broken world.  This is not being well informed. Knowing what is going on with other people and languishing in their misery are two very different things.

The mind can toil forever over a problem it can’t solve, which is precisely why it tries to keep these conversations going.  If the voice in your head is telling you that these conversations will help find a solution, that is because it doesn’t know life-changing solutions arise from a still and quiet mind.

In the coming year let us shift our attention from what is coming at us to what we are sending out.  Let us resolve this year to imagine better.  If we put out encouragement, kindness, hope, and love in equal measure to the complaining and agonizing that are all too commonplace, we will start to see our small pockets of existence transform from base metal into gold.

What you put out into the world is not dependent on your happiness or optimism.  It is a conscious effort to make manifest the deepest desires of your heart.  You are an alchemist; your thoughts and feelings transform your world. Make a choice to use that power to beautify all that you see.

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Inspiration

4 Steps For Manifesting A New Reality While Staying Rooted In The Present

Swami SatchidanandaStep One: Allow yourself to fully feel that which arises in the present moment, whether comfortable or uncomfortable.

Step Two: When that which arose has completely passed through you, place your attention on thoughts that serve you. Think the thoughts you would think if your dreams had already come to pass.

Step Three: Allow those thoughts to awaken the feelings that would be present if your dreams were currently your outer reality.

Step Four: Bring your attention to the exact space of now that you are in and allow those beautiful dreams to permeate your present world.

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Inspiration

Pests or Purses?

PursesRecently I’ve spotted a couple scary looking millipede-esq bugs creeping around the corners of the ceiling in my new apartment.  These bugs aren’t new to me, they’re everywhere in Chicago.  I even had them in my old apartment, but they are relatively harmless and only show up one at a time.  As some of you might know, I have a history with bug infestation, and thankfully this is not one of those situations.  After living through a real infestation, the occasional bug isn’t too disturbing to me.  At least, that is what I have been telling myself.

The reality of the situation is that since I have seen a few of these bugs I now am looking for them.  I scan the walls to check if there are any creepy crawlers.  The law of attraction is a powerful tool, whether used consciously or not.  So how do I let go of this new, yet ever so familiar, neurosis?  Surrender can transform any situation, but the way I scan the room makes it clear that I haven’t surrendered.  Which is why I’ve decided to replace what I’m looking for.

Recently I’ve been attracted to metallic purses.  I made the decision, that every time my eyes drift towards the ceiling I’m going to replace the image of my many-legged nemesis with the image of a beautiful silver purse.  Yes, this sounds silly, but it is transforming an unpleasant situation containing the burden of past experience, to a pleasant experiment in manifestation.  Will my silver purse actually find its way into my life?  Whether it shows up physically or not, the living room of my mind is free of infestation and filled with beauty.

What negative situations are you unconsciously looking for?  Whether it is a worry situation, a negative self-image, or the oh so common “waiting for the other shoe to drop in times of joy” syndrome, see what you can replace with a positive image or thought.  Nothing will be lost by replacing these negative thoughts, which pretend to be all-important, besides the negative outcomes they create.  What can be gained?  The only way to find out is to give it a try.

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consciousness

1 New Thing A Day Challenge

MY FAVORITE COSTUME AT COMIC CON CHICAGO – FROM THE MOVIE “UP!”

Lately I have touched upon how to manifest your desired reality.  Today I went to Comic Con Chicago, and saw a veritable feast of realities I had never been privy to.  But cosplay aside; experiencing something new can be a step in the direction of your dreams.  When we see or do something we’ve never experienced before, it shifts the mind into accepting a reality it had not previously incorporated.  The new has the potential to expand the limits we place on our minds.  When those limits are expanded, and we can envision a reality greater than what we have previously experienced, it becomes easier to invite a new situation into our lives.

Not only do new experiences broaden your world, they create positive momentum.  In order to see shifts, breakthroughs, and miracles, it is our job to set the wheels in motion.  Once those wheels are in motion, they will carry us further than we could have imagined. The only thing we have to do is rev the engine, put out some energy that can expand.  When we do anything we are exerting energy and having an unknowable impact on the world.  To exert that energy doing something new, joyful, and positive, is to give motion to the new realities we desire to manifest in our lives.

With that said, this week I extend an invitation to participate in the “1 new thing a day challenge.”  To boost the positive momentum in your life, go out and do something you haven’t done before, each day of the week.  Starting tomorrow Sunday the 11th, to next Sunday the 18th, experience one new thing each day. 

I’m not sure what I’m going to start with tomorrow, but I’ll figure it out as I go!  It can be something as simple as walking a route you’ve never taken, or eating someplace new, to any crazy ol’ thing!  I’ll give a brief update on my adventures each day, and I’d love to hear your new experiences in the comments.  Let’s have a ridiculous amount of fun, while moving ourselves in the direction of our dreams.

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consciousness, spirituality

“Mastering the Art of Manifestation”

The other week I talked about the difference between feeling and knowing.  When it comes to creating your own reality, I think this difference is the key component.  For example, I can say in my head all day, “I am rich, I am rich, I know I am rich,” when inside I still feel like that is not true.  That feeling of lack on the inside aligns me with a world that demonstrates lack.  When I feel I don’t have enough, everything around me reminds me of that truth.  I’ll see people with fancy cars that I don’t think I can buy, or see high price tags and feel like I will never be able to afford expensive items.

Although the disparity between what you want to have, and what you feel you have, can prevent you from manifesting your desired reality, there is a real choice when it comes to how you feel.  In this video Dr. Wayne Dyer talks to Oprah on Super Soul Sunday about how to manifest your dreams by coming into alignment with them.  When you decide to feel abundant, grateful, and peaceful, you are in alignment with all that is created out of abundance.  When you feel peace inside, you attract more peace.  When you feel infinitely whole and abundant on the inside, you will attract wholeness and abundance into your life.  Wishing for a new car, when you feel like you’ll never afford it, will keep that wish unfulfilled.  So if you want a new car, or whatever it is you’re believing for, start by simply telling yourself that you are everything you will ever need.  Tell yourself you already have everything you could ever want, residing within you.  Suspend your disbelief long enough to feel like the world has more than enough for you and everyone in it.  Bask in that feeling of abundance and gratitude.  The consequence of such a feeling is seeing that reality manifest in your life.

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consciousness

The Flamingo Metaphor

James's Flamingo

When I turned on my TV today I was greeted by a woman at the zoo with her children, lamenting her newfound realization that flamingos cannot, in fact, fly.  (While I have seen videos of flamingos flying, these particular flamingos couldn’t.  So for the sake of the metaphor let’s just discuss these non-flying flamingos.)  As I appreciated her heartfelt woe, a poem came to me, as follows:

The Flamingo Situation

vain people become flamingos
they come back all pinked up
standing on that skinny leg
spreading their wings
and pointing their noses
as high as their necks will carry them
as they look up and see
their soaring brothers and sisters
they will bend bony knees
and with a great push
stay exactly where they are

In the poem I refer to “vain” people.  But truer than that, is the plight of those completely identified with their physical form and thoughts.  Before some degree of the realization of being, of the body as a vehicle for consciousness to enter the world of form, the physical world can be a terrible burden.  After all, bodies are vulnerable, and inevitably subject to decay.

While matter doesn’t disappear, it always changes form, manifests as something new.  For the one all wrapped up in the fears of the physical world, peace and joy are always just beyond reach.  Fear is always just a bit too weighty.

The flamingos on TV were beautiful.  But what is it like  to be a bird that doesn’t fly?  What is it like to be a human identified with forms and thoughts?  It is to leave the highest manifestation of your being unrealized.  Your highest potential inoperative.  When those flamingos change form, they will soar to previously unimaginable heights.  When humans change their attention from form, to presence, there are no more barriers, only an endless sea of dreams come true.

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consciousness, spirituality

Religion as Language and How It Connects Us All

For me, religions are like languages.  If I were to call a shoe “a shoe” and someone else called it “un zapato,” neither of us would be incorrect.  We were both describing the same thing using a different language.  The words sounded different, but they were pointing to the same meaning.  If I didn’t know Spanish I would have no idea what someone meant when they said “un zapato.”  That doesn’t make that person wrong, it just means the noises they were using to describe something sounded different from what I had known.

As we have many different languages, we have many different religions.  All over the world exist ways of pointing to God, the infinite, the divine, the universe, the oneness, being.  In English I just used many different sounds that are meant to point to a reality, to truth.  The many varied religions from this planet express God in God’s infinite aspects.

Right and wrong ultimately end up as thoughts in the head.  When looking at the religions of the world without the mental screen of “right and wrong” you can see God growing and manifesting for all people in unlimited ways.  Even further, without the mental screen of “right and wrong,” the present moment can be experienced as God’s current manifestation.  When judgment ceases, the miraculous increases.  Without judgment, you are accepting what is, allowing the highest potential of any moment to express itself freely in your life.

While I lived many years buying into the “right and wrong” voice in my head, I now can’t help but see God in everything.  When you are very present, watching the moment, looking and listening for God, God appears through everything.  For me, I could be watching a movie, overhearing a conversation on the bus, finding an encouraging sticker on the train window, and I receive it as something miraculous.  And no matter what mental screen or ego another person is operating from, if I concentrate really diligently on the present I can sense God in and all around them.  This is still challenging for me when people have really strong egos that feel very unpleasant, but the opportunity to recognize that person as their true self is always there.

The unity of the present is such that your awareness of God, (or being, or true self), in another human being, is also being experienced by that person in the present.  Even if that person is completely identified with, and operating from, the voice in their head, the awareness you are experiencing is one with them.  As was mentioned in yesterday’s post, once a small glimpse of awareness is sparked, it can only grow.  That connection can change both of your lives.  What a blessing it is to have the opportunity to understand another human being.

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