Paradigm shifts.
I'm all about paradigm shifts.
This is my favorite example, Healing Feelings…From Your Heart. I mean seriously, if you tried, could you come up with a more cliché cover (and by that I mean the title, the book jacket – the whole package) in which to wrap this nugget of self-improvement wisdom? Let me be clear: I actually really like and appreciate the book. In fact, like many others in the self-help/self-improvement/inspirational genre, I think it is a gift. Or rather, it would be – if only you could get past the wrapping to open it up and partake. As a friend of mine said: ‘It looks like [the packaging of] a douche.’ Exactly.
From whence this unwritten code of absurdly embarrassing packaging of seriously centered and grounded advice? If it’s not the title, e.g. Money is My Friend, it’s the book jacket:
The Biology of Belief
Destiny of Souls
Spiritual Growth: Being Your Higher Self
These are all books I esteem – and recommend all the time despite my aesthetic discomfort, and the discomfort I know will inevitably be evoked in the person I recommending the book to. (My resources page is littered with examples if you’re itching for more.)
Which raises the question: who do we think we are helping with these ‘cosmic’ visuals and affirmation-esque titles?
Let’s look at this for a second. It’s a self-improvement book. – If you’re buying the book, if you’re interested, you’re probably doing some work on yourself. I mean the books are written precisely to increase self-esteem, confidence and power, where it is lacking. But who is the person who can buy this book, who can own reading it on the subway – who can even own peeking into it in the bookstore? Who is the person who’s self-esteem is strong enough to remain unabashed by the unabashed cheesiness and stereotyping? Healing Feelings … From Your Heart? I’d say you’d need some serious alignment, esteem and sense of self to hold your head up alongside your hand which is holding the book.
So aren’t we, as writers of self-improvement/inspirational books, sabotaging our own purpose of helping others with this unwritten code? I had a client here the other day who, when asked if he bought the book I recommended, confessed: ‘I’m sorry, I just couldn’t bring myself to hit “add to shopping cart”. I wanted to, – but I just couldn’t do it.’ He wasn’t even in a bookstore. In the privacy of his own home he could not bring himself to hit ‘purchase’. And I understand him; I don’t blame him. (Though of course I still want him to get the book.)
For a long time, per the genius suggestion of a friend, I would plaster my book cover with stickers until it was entirely obscured. I didn’t actually care what the stickers were, so long as it took care of the title and the rippling energy rings. No matter that I then had to own reading my Hello Kitty inspired ‘not embarrassing book’ – somehow, that was easier.
Don’t get me wrong, as writers of ‘self-improvement’ or ‘inspirational’ works, we should, as all other people, be free to express and wrap ourselves in whatever packaging floats our boat. By all means, as NWA put to music: ‘Express Yourself.’ But I am left to wonder, is the way we express power – i.e. empowerment – really in trappings of a douche bag box? In being connected to the cosmos do you really feel like you see everything through a kaleidoscope? Is enlightenment airy-fairy-dairy or is it solid, centered and grounded? Or do we just feel so good that only clouds, dawns, and fuzzy pastels can compare?
Maybe the issue is that, as writers, our creativity comes in the form of thought and words, and not images. Maybe it is not the author’s vision at all, but the publishing houses behind him or her. Maybe there’s a whole independent slew of people who know nothing about the content of the book but only the format of the genre in which it will sell, (- though again I would ask that serious consideration be given as to whether audience and readership are not in fact being limited by the aesthetic). I don’t know, but I’ve just completed my first manuscript so I’m about to find out. Wish me luck.
As always, if you would like to see a particular issue addressed, please feel free to contact me with your suggestion.
Welcome to ‘my blog’.
It’s remarkable that despite being a writer, or maybe precisely because I am ‘a writer’, in the more traditional sense (of essays, articles and books), I was really averse to adding a ‘blog’ to my website. But I did want to give readers broader access to myself, so I did what any self-respecting individual would to avoid the truth. I got self-righteous about it, and tried to come up with every other name – any name, in fact, by which I could refer to the platform: ‘Thoughts’, ‘Musings’, ‘Practice in Action’. The names I came up with are pitiable themselves, clearly – but even more so because of how embarrassingly close to the original they are. Clearly I fought what I was doing real hard: creating a blog.
My good humor liberated me, as good humor usually does, when, after two months of repeating ‘the one thing I was clear on’ – ‘It’s not a blog.’ – the website came back from programming and design with ‘Blog’ as the title for the link in the navigation bar. I laughed. Yeah, okay, so its a blog.
So welcome to my blog. I will do my best not to use it as a city dump for my thoughts, or a venue for regurgitation and/or mental masturbation. In fact, I will do my best to make it your venue for thinking about things, and life; so please feel free to contact me if you have a question or topic you would like to see addressed.
My hope is that it is useful to you. All the better if it makes you laugh.
All the best to you, always,
Cathy
FIRST PROVOCATION: List 8 reasons why you want what you want.
Why do you want the new job? the relationship? the sweater?
Is it because you want to earn more? because you want to start a family? because it looks so good on you? Or, is it because you hate your boss? because being on your own isn’t cutting it anymore? because your sister bought one and you have to have one too? Maybe it’s both. And maybe also, so much more.
Thinking about and articulating why we want what we want serves two purposes. It gives us clarity and insight into what it is exactly that is missing in our life. And, at the same time, it delivers insight and awareness about the value of the object or experience we desire. Doing this exercise exposes the object’s (e.g. the job, relationship, sweater) real value to you – what it really means to, and for, you.
For Example. Let’s say my desire is to be in a committed relationship with the love of my life. Here are some examples of why I might want this: (Note, you don’t have to be really intense and thoughtful about this! 8 sounds like a lot, but if you let yourself go you can rattle off at least 5 in under a minute. This took me about two minutes, and it’s not even my desire.)
1. because I am lonely
2. because I am bored of doing everything on my own
3. because I am tired of taking care of myself
4. because I am tired of going to events alone
5. because I want to share my life with someone
6. because I want to know there will always be someone I can count on
7. because I want emotional intimacy
8. because I want sexual intimacy. regularly.
(You can write it down, or you can just say it out loud, either way is fine. Of course there is more or less you can get out of the exercise as you are kicking up a lot of (really good) food for thought; writing is always a good way to get more.)
This list shows me two things. First, it paints a picture of what, exactly, I find dissatisfying about, or missing in, my life. In doing so, it also gives me a clearer image of what I think getting what I want will give me or remedy. In this example: my disenchantment, loneliness, and lack of intimacy. These are the wounds that are calling for the ‘relationship of my dreams balm’.
We want to think about whether this (the desire I originally articulated) is the only balm that could be effectively applied to our wound (lack, or discontent). In my example, I’d want to think about whether there was some other way besides ‘the relationship of my dreams’ to increase my feeling of connection, intimacy and passion with my life and the people around me. You want to be really wary of answers that contend that the original desire is the only thing that could work on what’s missing. Really wary.
SECOND PROVOCATION: Describe how getting what you want will feel.
Here we go a level deeper into gaining insight about what we are actually craving. Continuing the example above, I might say:
‘It will feel wonderful. It will feel freeing and expansive. It will feel like home. I’ll feel loved. Someone will see me for who I truly am. Our love will make me feel invincible.’
Find the Gold. Starting Now. It is not the thing itself we want so much as the way (we think) it will make us feel. It is the feelings, not the object, that we really want. The object or goal is simply the vehicle we think will evoke these feelings. So we should take time to contemplate the feelings we are trying to induce in and for ourselves. This is the next part of your Manifesting Friendly’s answer: “List 8 other ways you could inspire or evoke these feelings in yourself.”
I might respond, for example: (I’ve put the feelings the action induces in parentheses)
1. I could show be my authentic self more in the relationships I already have. (seen and loved)
2. I could let someone I love know how much/why/that they are loved. (connection, intimacy)
3. I could take a dance class. (freeing, high on life)
4. I could go on a vacation/adventure. (freeing, high on life)
5. I could put my finances in order. (stability and security)
6. I could clean my home. (stability and security)
7. I could throw a party. (creating the fun, instead of waiting for it; creative control over one’s life)
8. I could fix my own shelves. (capable)
Your Manifesting Friendly then tells you to choose one of the actions from your list and do it now. The point is to start filling the wells now. We need not wait for the fulfillment of our desire (the relationship, the job, the thing) – we can start filling the wells that are empty now, in some way. Do it.
Choose another tomorrow.
Extra credit: keep going. There’s a watershed moment, and the flood gates will fly open. Just start now instead of waiting for the monsoon, and soon your empty buckets will be overflowing. That’s the way it works. Certainly more likely to work anyway. ;)
This post is related to The (Oragami) Manifesting Friendly. You may read more about it here, or download your own (free & instantly) by clicking the button below.
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FIRST PROVOCATION: If you knew you couldn’t fail, and you had an endless supply of money, what would you be, do, and/or have?’
You know the expression ‘to think outside the box’? Normally ‘the box’ refers to convention, and the expression means to think outside of convention, or to think unconventionally. Well here, the box contains our fears and preconceptions about what is possible; and we are being asked to think outside this box, unencumbered by these fears and ‘practicalities’. And, if we’re really good at it, unencumbered by ‘realism’ or ‘reality’ too.
Why? The point of thinking outside this box, even to the point of thinking about something unrealistic or impossible, is:
One: To practice a healthy humility. How do we actually know what is impossible or unrealistic? Air travel, space travel, open heart surgery, a black president of the United States – did more than .0000001% of the population on the planet think any one of these was possible or realistic before they became reality? How much before? The truth is that a great majority of the best stuff ever created and/or done was regarded as impossible, and certainly as unrealistic, before it was completed.
But also, two: Our brains need time to think in freedom. In freedom from judgment, from criticism, from conventional logic and reason; from social convention, habit and taboo; from pressures, obligations and responsibilities. Your brain, and yourself for that matter, need the freedom to think outside this box. With so many rules, guidelines and restrictions, our brain’s ability to be creative, imaginative and inspired becomes stifled. So letting it roam free and unstilted for 5 or 10 minutes a day, (and certainly a week, a month or a year), is far from a waste. It is healthy exercise for the brain, mind, and psyche, in the way that going for a walk might be for the body. Remember, if it wasn’t for sleep your brain would probably get none of this time. That can’t be right.
So, when you get this response, your Manifesting Friendly – have you named It yet by the way? – is asking you to step, slide or slither – however you need to do it – out of this box and into a daydream: If you knew you couldn’t fail, and money was not an issue for you at all, what would you be, or do, or have?
You are meant to fantasize = think in freedom from whatever you’re calling ‘reality’ and its realistic constraints. Liberate your brain for a minute or two, and list the things you’d want to be, do and/or have.
For example. I might say: Well first thing’s first, I would quit my job. Then I would go on vacation – to Iceland. Then … – to Turkey. I would come back and buy myself a light-filled, spacious apartment in Manhattan. And a vacation home in the Outerbanks. I’d buy my parents the home of their dreams. – And my sister.
Okay, you want to push yourself – keep going: And then… and then … and then I would travel some more.
Thinking in Freedom. Aligning with Self. Alright, list all the places you’d go, and all of the things you would buy – then what? This is where I might say, ‘I’d write a book.’ Or, ‘I’d start a foundation for at risk youth.’ This is where I start to unearth my dreams and, with them, what would truly fulfill me.
What happens here is that we go through our needs first – in my example, I clearly need a vacation. (My job doesn’t really seem to be doing it for me either if its the first thing to go – do I want to quit or do I want a hiatus?) Then we start listing our desires: the bags, the houses, boats, yachts and planes. Then, we come to our dreams.
The list gives me a snapshot of all the things I am meant to be doing right now. ‘Meant’ in the sense that I would be best off doing those particular things. They represent the most effective and efficient places to put my energy, and the things I’d be happiest doing. Even the vacation: evidently I am desperately in need of a break. In this case taking the break would be productive, continuing without one will lead to break-down. Do some of them and we are likely to find that the list changes. (For example, once I am back from vacation I might recover enjoyment and pleasure in my work.) But for the present, this list likely presents the things we most need (then want, then dream) to feel satisfied in our life. Our ‘true heart’s desires’.
Sounds creepy in addition to heavy? I’ll take care of the creepy part by not referring to your desires that way anymore, if you take care of the heavy part by not automatically binding yourself to do anything about what you discover. Deal?
There is another really important freedom I didn’t yet mention above: freedom from having to take action. If you do not give yourself this freedom – if there is an implicit contract between you and you that you have to act on your desire, then there is still a straight-jacket crippling your brain’s ability to think freely. This is how we end up “blind” to situations that seem obvious to everyone else, including ourselves in retrospect. (For example, Mary can’t see that her husband Bob is gay because she would then have to do something about it. That is far too overwhelming and paralysizing for Mary, so her brain protects her by keeping the truth out of her consciousness. The ole repression/denial.)
Your Manifesting Friendly wants you to be able to see the truth about your desires – It’s aim, after all, is to aid and guide you in manifesting what you really want. Give yourself the space to play along by giving yourself the freedom to not have to act on anything you discover or realize.
Of course part of you is going to feel compelled to do something about what you do realize. That’s a healthy reaction to being faced with a genuine desire! And certainly in relation to a profound desire. You really want it, so you are compelled to move toward it. That’s cool, and makes good sense, and is really helpful. But for the purposes of of this exercise, we want to pay respect to another part of ourselves, the part that is terrified to do something about ‘it’ – and especially terrified to ‘go for it’ or to make a change. The point of this exercise is to think outside the box; and we cannot really get outside the box without giving ourselves permission to dream without risk, without pressure, without our life being at stake. So at least within the context of the exercise, we must allow ourselves to fantasize/contemplate/dream without having to do anything about it – including, figuring out what it means.
SECOND PROVOCATION: Start with #4 (on your list). List the first 3 steps one would take to achieve it.
Just to be fully transparent: the number 4 is half random; and half in the awareness that it’s likely to fall somewhere closer to need/want part of the continuum than the dream side (which is likely to require greater courage). Choose what you want. Choose what you can go for. Or let randomness, i.e. fate, decide.
And finally, a call to physical action: do the first one now (if it’s possible and you’re feeling confident) or take 3 actions now in preparation for that task (if it’s impossible or you’re already too much on the anxious side). See if you can take the first step. Again, there is no obligation to continue, and you don’t have to give everything up to make this dream or desire come true. You are taking a step not to ‘get it done’, but to see what getting closer to it feels like.
This post is related to The (Oragami) Manifesting Friendly. You may read more about it here, or download your own (free & instantly) by clicking the button below.
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FIRST PROVOCATION: What is the WORST thing that could happen if you made the wrong choice (or failed, or didn’t get what you wanted)? (Choose the most appropriate phrasing for your desire, and the way you articulated it.)
If you’ve ever had a session with me, you know that I ask this question a lot: What is the worst thing that could happen?
When we operate out of fear, usually in an effort to avoid facing that fear, we invariably end up right where we don’t want to be: in the dreaded situation. I am being conservative when I tell you that, in my experience, 99.99999% of the time when we make decisions and choices in life out of fear (in an effort to avoid a situation or circumstance) that is precisely where we end up. So the point of this question is three-fold:
1. To get you to simply be aware of what’s motivating you. Are you making choices and decisions based on what you think is most likely to avoid your worst case scenario? or, most likely to procure your best case scenario? They’re not the same thing. It’s the difference between going for what you want, and going for whatever you think will help you avoid what you don’t want. It’s often a world of difference.
2. To shed awareness on what the worst worst worst case scenario is for you: to help you be aware of the root fear. This is why after you answer the first time and open the flap, your Manifesting Friendly asks you the same question again – and again and again. At least 5 times It says. Go for 8. I would keep asking the question until you pass the point where you think the question is totally moronic. Ask two more times after you reach this point. For example, ‘… worst case scenario is that I would die.’ ‘Okay, and what is the worst thing that would happen if I died?’ ‘I’d be dead, my life would be over – duh.’, sounds like a stupid question, but I assure you it isn’t. Push past this point, that is were you are likely to find something really interesting.
3. To get you to realize the ultra, ultra important truth that: in the end, – we would deal. Even with this, the worst possible scenario: either we will die or we will deal. There are no other options. Of course we may not want to deal, and that is totally understandable. But not wanting to, and fearing we won’t be able to, are, for our intents and purposes, universes apart. The object here is not to make us want to face our fear, or to cozy up next to our dreaded scenario. The object is to come to grips with the blunt truth: We would deal. We have to. And, insofar as we still exist, we always do. Now we may not deal well – but that, is up to us. The how we have some say over; the whether – eh, not so much.
This means that should it, our dreaded situation (destitution, poverty, embarrassment, failure, being alone, being a huge disappointment – pick one, pick five!), happen, in some significant sense we would be alright. Either we would be dead, or we would be alright, still chugging along, somehow still making it. We don’t have to run from possible situations with the fear of life in us. If we can get to, ‘it would suck, but I don’t need to orient my entire life and every decision that I make around this possibility.’ it buys us huge relief, and the freedom to make choices and decisions that are more in line with what we actually want to create in our lives.
And remember: because you are virtually (maybe cosmically) guaranteed to end up where you don’t want to be by compulsively trying to avoid it, the real risk is not in choosing to go for it, but in choosing not to. Remember the odds are stacked firmly against you when you try, at any expense, to end up ‘anywhere but there’. Success is not guaranteed when you go for it, but at least failure is not guaranteed either. Your best chance of not ending up exactly where you don’t want to be (your dreaded situation) is to make an effort – your best effort – to create what you want. Use your energy wisely.
This post is related to The (Oragami) Manifesting Friendly. You may read more about it here, or download your own (free & instantly) by clicking the button below.
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FIRST PROVOCATION: What does getting what you want actually look like? List 8 things you would be, do, and/or have as a result.
Often when we know what we want we fixate on the getting of it rather than the having of it. The problem with this is that we want to capitalize on the power of our subconscious mind, and ‘wanting’ and ‘getting’ do not get the same point across as ‘having’ or ‘enjoying’.
Without the subconscious, making what you want happen in your life is all willpower and conscious determination = exhausting. This is because your conscious mind and will, as powerful as they are (or at least, as they can be), still make up only about 3% of your organism’s entire processing power. The other 97% is sub-conscious or autonomic. (For example, you don’t think about digesting your food, or, normally, about breathing, all your habits become automatic and unconscious, etc.) So when you are trying to accomplish something with your conscious determination and will alone, it’s relatively hard-going. When you are trying to accomplish something with your willpower against the programming of your subconscious, it becomes a task of Sisyphean proportions (trying to use the 3% not only to get it done, but to get it done over and against the other 97%).
This is why we so often fail in our resolutions: it’s not because we are weak-willed, it’s because we’re setting our will up against an opponent that is at least 30 times its size. Get the subconscious on-board and the mountain turns into a mole-hill. In fact the irony is that once the subconscious is on-board, willpower and conscious determination are no longer necessary: the behavior is now relatively automatic, and feels just as natural and instinctive as all the other habits and processes that occur without thought. Employing the power of the subconscious is the difference between having to try to be something, and just instinctively being it: a world of difference.
So in manifesting – in creating or trying to achieve anything – we definitely want to work with the subconscious. But, the subconscious works literally. Extremely literally. So if I say ‘I want a red hat.’, my subconscious says, ‘Okay, she wants a red hat.’ And it uses its resources to make sure that I want it – not that I get or have it, but want it. After awhile, this feels pretty crappy because my desire is not to want it (and to continue wanting it all the days of my life), but to have it. If I really want to get the subconscious on-board with my desire, and to capitalize on its power, I must not impress upon it, “I want a red hat.”, but rather, “I have a brand new red hat that I absolutely love.” Now obviously I don’t yet have the red hat, so I get resistance from my rational brain which says, “B.S. You’re lying.” And it’s true, I am.
But now here is my choice: I can either stay in the good graces of my rational, reasoning mind and focus on the fact that I don’t actually have what I want (in this case the red hat), and not capitalize on the 97% processing power that would make achieving my desire relatively effortless; or I could be more opportunistic about it, ignore the ‘voice of truth and reason’ playing away in my head, and repeat this lie just long enough for my subconscious to believe it – and, thereby, begin to make it happen without the use of my will or ego (“ego” isn’t pejorative here). Choose to do the second. It will be infinitely easier to get what you want. It might look like an act of disloyalty to your logical, rational mind – but then, isn’t it perfectly logical and rational to use the most efficient and effective means to achieve, succeed and create what you want? The choice here isn’t unethical – and it’s not illogical either.
A few rules to know when working with the subconscious mind:
1) Because your subconscious works literally you must make your statement in the present tense, and make it the fulfillment of your desire. Articulate your desire in the future tense (e.g. ‘I will be/do/have such-and-such.’), and from the perspective of your subconscious mind it is to always remain in the future. In short: not ‘I want …’ but ‘I am …’. (Keep articulating the desire until you get to this form of the statement.)
2) Stop fixating on the getting and start fixating on the having – or, even better, on the enjoying. This is what your Manifesting Friendly is prompting you to do here in this response (i.e. ‘What does getting what you want actually look like? List 10 things you would be/do/have as a result.’) When you land on this ‘answer’, let your mind go there, and list all the things that would happen, or that you would be doing or having after you get what you want. Thinking about this puts you in a state of mind where you already have what you want – that’s the golden impression we want to make upon our subconscious mind. The longer you can stay in that state of mind the deeper your impression on the subconscious.
For Example. So in the example, “I want a brand new red hat that I absolutely love.”, my first answer to this response might look something like:
1. I would walk down the street when wearing it with a huge smile on my face.
2. I would no longer be looking for a red hat.
3. It would hang on the wall next to my other hats.
4. I would wear it to the wedding I am going to next month.
5. People would compliment me on the hat and ask where I bought it.
6. A girlfriend would ask to borrow it and I would be anxious about having to lend it to her.
7. I would need to find the perfect red shoes to go with it.
8. I would look forward to occasions and days that I might not have otherwise simply because they were opportunities to wear the hat.
Now for the 3 minutes or 5 minutes or 10 minutes it took me to come up with this list, my mind as been focused on and immersed in the feeling of having the hat – instead of wanting or yearning for it. This is good. Transforming these items into the present tense (e.g. “The red hat search is over!.” instead of “I would no longer be looking for a red hat.”) is better still.
Note how I am not thinking about where or how I will find the hat as this would imply I didn’t already have it.
Note also that you might discover not so pleasant consequences of getting, having or enjoying what is you are saying that you want; for example, guilt, jealousy, competition. These are important to note. They reflect an ambivalence toward your stated desire: part(s) of you do NOT want this thing. How many and which parts? Whose values do you agree with more?
SECOND PROVOCATION: What is the very first thing you will do when you get what you want?
Continuing with my awesome example, as soon as I got my hat I might wear it everywhere, even in my home, for the first 24 hours. I might Skype a friend in Greece and show it to her. I might pick out the perfect outfit to wear with my new hat and make some sort of excuse for a get-together this weekend just so that I’d have somewhere to show it off.
Believe With Certainty. Prepare for Your Good. The Manifesting Friendly then asks me to come up with 3 ways I could prepare myself to take this/these action(s). This is a crucial step in manifesting called preparing for your Good (i.e. preparing for the fulfillment of your desire). It is another way of really impressing upon the subconscious mind the certainty of your statement: your desire fulfilled, in present tense. (e.g. “I be/do/am/have this.”) In preparing for your good you act as if it already happened or at least is as good as done. This is another golden impression to make upon our subconscious mind; it says: ‘This is so about to happen that I have to get ready to receive it right now.’ In my example, I might put a new hook for the hat on my wall, get Skype up and running on my computer – start planning the get-together. I get a good gauge of how ballsy I am with regard to my desire here: how far will I go in planning – will I imagine it all in my head or will I start inviting people and making arrangements?
The aim here is to move you from waiting until you actually get what you want (or at least can see it coming), to preparing for it to be in your life. To prompt and invite you to start planning for and around it, now. Of course I might be disappointed when Sunday afternoon rolls around and I still don’t have my red hat – but, I am going to be disappointed anyway! We think that we can manage our disappointment by managing our expectations. That we will be less disappointed if we don’t actually plan on, or expect what we want to happen. But the reason that we are disappointed is not because we planned on it, but because we wanted it. The truth is that if it doesn’t happen, we are going to be disappointed regardless of whether we went all in or not. Going all in does not increase the risk of disappointment: the risk is in the desire itself. The vulnerability is present as soon as you want it, and really want it. But too bad, you already do.
The only real option to save yourself, or at least to effectively try to save yourself, from disappointment, is to go for it. It could only help. And of course it does. Not least of all by impressing on the subconscious mind not ‘I really want or hope this happens.’ but: ‘This is going to happen. It has to happen. And if it hasn’t already happened, it’s happening right now. I am so certain of it that I am moving forward now.‘ When you convince your subconscious mind of this, that’s when synchronicities (those meaningful, fortuitous, ‘weird’ coincidences) start to happen. And few things are as efficient, effective, and delightful, as these are, in getting us where we want to go.
Extra credit: Go back over the 8 things you listed and take any actions you can to prepare for these to be in your life as well.
This post is related to The (Oragami) Manifesting Friendly. You may read more about it here, or download your own (free & instantly) by clicking the button below.
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Introducing: The Magic Eight Ball Inspired Origami Fortune Teller Manifesting Friendly.
Watch out Hammacher Schlemmer, if I add ‘the world’s best’ or ‘first’ to the title – (both of which are true) – I might just have out ridiculous-titled you. (Which of course is really, really hard to do. Respect.)
‘The Magic Eight Ball Inspired Wah?’
Remember those origami fortune tellers we used to play with in school? Well, suddenly it occurred to me that I ‘really ought’ to make a manifesting-inspired version. It would be a cross between a magic eight ball – an origami fortune teller – and an oracle! And with a mind-over-matter bent. It would be a source of personal guidance and transformation. It would be majestic, and inspired, and eerily on point. A million-gagillion times better than the Ouija board, obviously.
Or, it would be what it is: mostly ridiculous, entirely playful, and totally constructive. Presenting the world’s first and best (oh snap! I did it) magic-eight-ball-inspired-origami-fortune-teller-manifesting-friendly – (Side note: awhile back I adopted ‘friendly’ as a noun, synonymous with ‘thing’, which I use to describe animate and inanimate objects alike. It just feels nicer.) – or the Manifesting Friendly for short (trademark pending).
Speak to It (totally a proper noun) your desire, and your Manifesting Friendly will tell you what you need to do in order to manifest or make your desire reality.
Sound too good to be true? It totally is!
What I meant to say was: tell it your desire and it will give you a quick exercise that will bring you closer to the state of mind that facilitates you getting what you want. It’s a manifesting friendly, which means that it takes your mental state to be a critical factor in whether your desire becomes reality or remains unfulfilled. So the oracle (cue dramatic choir) answers or responds to the statement of your desire with a provocation (a question or exercise). The provocation is meant to create space in your mind for success.
To get your own Manifesting Friendly (free & instantly), just click this download button:
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On a slightly more serious note: Why the Manifesting Friendly?
Normally, when we want to make something happen in our lives we take action. And normally, by this we mean physical action. For example, we make a phone call, run out to get the brushes and paint, start saving – whatever is appropriate to the situation.
The art of manifesting involves taking action in the mental, emotional and, if you will – and I hope that you will – spiritual, realms in addition to the physical one. The art of deliberate creation involves taking actions in the former realms consciously, and first.
We want to try to balance the scales a little: physical action is good, and very good. But so is cleaning up your thought process so that your actions are increasingly effective and efficient.
This is the point of your Manifesting Friendly: to aid and guide you in taking care and cleaning up your mental and emotional space as part of the action you take to procure your goal. It’s a playful tool you can use when you need a little guidance or want to do a little ‘manifesting’ work in a spare moment. It travels easily on subways, to park benches, cafes – even bathrooms, (if that’s how you roll).
Click the button below to download yours, free and instantly:
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SEE ALSO: THE ORACLE ANSWERS
Click the the color (or design) for an explanation of each of the Manifesting Friendly’s answers and what you’re meant to do with them!
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