Lining up Imagination with your Desire – Step One

Paradise
Watercolour by Beverly Blanchard

What is it you want? Do you want more money? Do you want a better feeling body? Do you want a new job?  Do you want a relationship?  Do you want more customers for your business?  Whatever it is you want, you can have it.  There are no limits.  There are no judgments.  You do not have to plead a needy case.  You can be or do or have anything you want.  All you have to do is ask and then step into the state of being aligned with your request.

All states of being exist and are part of creation.  It is like a spider web or matrix.  Throughout your lifetime you either consciously or inadvertently fall into these states.  When we enter into these states we are compelled to act in accordance with these states.  Our thoughts and beliefs become congruent with the state of being.  To move yourself out of the state of being you are in (what is) and into a desired state (what you want) you must use your imagination.  

Now here is where most people give up because your mind will give you thousands of reasons as to why you can’t have what you want.  If you stay within the confines of the rational mind’s reasoning, your desire will remain only an idea.  You have to tune your vibrational frequency to the vibrational frequency of your desire. 

In the subsequent posts, I will give you information and techniques which can assist you in appropriating the desired state of being to match your desire.  The first step in aligning your imagination to your desire is defining what it is you want in your life.   

Step One – Define What You Want

What do you want? It is a very simple question but there are a lot of people who just can’t seem to answer it.  There are those who are intent on complaining about reality and have never given it thought as to what they want in place of what they are complaining about.  There are others who are very good at framing their answer in terms of what they don’t want... ‘I don’t want to be sick anymore.’  ‘I don’t want to be unemployed.’ ‘I don’t want to worry about money anymore.’  The more you focus on what you don’t want, the more you get of it.  It is the way Universe works.  To get what you want you have to be forward thinking and your request must be in the affirmative because the words you use matter.

It is also necessary to stop focusing on the reality of what currently is happening in your life.  You cannot focus on what is and expect to change your life.  You have to turn in the direction of what it is your want.  All change starts with your desire.  So what is that you want in your life?

Here is Jay Arthur Ray talking about wishes...

 

 

Your Power is in the Now Moment

The Splendor of Mother Earth
Mixed Media by Beverly Blanchard

What is the thought you thinking right now?  Is it an empowering thought? Is it a thought about the argument you had yesterday?  Is it a thought about what you have to do tomorrow?  Is it a thought about what you saw in the news?  Whatever that thought is; you are using it to create your reality.

All time is a suggestion of the mind.  In our world, we project it as a horizontal line in which there is a past, a present and a future.  For many of us, we lock ourselves into internal and external conversations that either rehash the past or speak about a future filtered through our past memories.  Through our dialogues, we tend attract to ourselves analogous circumstances and relationships over and over again.  We change jobs only to be confronted with the same problem employees or bosses.  We get out of one relationship and find ourselves engaged with the same type of person.  At points we ask ourselves: Why am I experiencing this again?  Why do I keep attracting the same thing over and over again?

You are experiencing it because you haven’t shifted your vibration.  If you spend time listening to your internal and external dialogues, you will discover that you are unconsciously creating.  You are using your imaginal abilities to create negatively.  For the thoughts you are thinking in this moment do not recede into the past.  They actually advance into the future to confront you.

If you are continually talking about the problem you had yesterday, you are projecting that onto the screen of your tomorrows. If you are talking negatively about what might happen, you are projecting that onto the screen of your life.  It is through the thoughts you are saying or thinking at this particular moment that puts the whole thing in motion. 

In the middle of your past and future, is the present moment. Most of us neglect this moment because we do not understand that it is our point of power.  It is the bouncing off point.  How you use it determines your next moment and the next moment and the next moment.

To move your awareness to the present moment, you have to release yourself from ‘what is’.  You cannot continue to focus on what it is you don’t like and expect to change your life.  It is your focusing that keeps you locked into a pattern.  I can hear you now...but this is reality!  If you don’t like your reality, then it is time to become a conscious creator.  It’s time to realize that you are the operative power and that power rests with how you use your imaginal abilities in this present moment.

So where do you begin?  You start playing with time and become aware of how you are using you present moment.  Here are few exercises for you to experiment with to get you into the habit of becoming conscious of your moments.

1.  Do a mental roll call.  Throughout the day, stop whatever you are doing and take attendance.  Mentally call out your name and answer:  Present.

2.  Throughout the day, stop whatever you are doing and ask yourself: ‘what time is it?’  Answer:  ‘The time is now and I am here.’

3.  Break out of your routine.  Have dinner for breakfast.  Drive to work a different way.  Go for a walk at lunch time.  Meditate on your coffee break.  Go into the office earlier and leave earlier than you normally do.  Wake up an hour earlier.  

Here is a clip from the movie Groundhog Day.  Watch how he starts to change his thinking.

 

 

 

Connecting the Mind and Heart

Flowing

Everyone talks to themselves.  Ever followed your own inner dialogue?  It is an experiment you may want to try.  For what you will discover is that that inner banter of the mind is like having a conversation with someone who doesn’t shut up.

Most people are not cognizant of the dialogues that go on in their minds.  It rambles on incessantly creating imaginary scenarios.  I read somewhere that although we listen to 125 to 250 words a minute, we think at 1000 to 3000 words per minute.  While someone is talking we are only hearing 20% of what they are saying because we are consumed with thinking. 

In order to become acquainted with the voice of heart, you need to become aware of what goes on in the mind.  The only way to do that is to become mindful of your thinking.  Start listening to yourself. Become your own watcher.  You will discover your thoughts fall into two categories:  past happenings and future imaginings.  In the world of the mind, we spend very little time in the present moment, and most of our future imaginings are bent toward the negative.

If you really want to find out what is going on in your mind, get yourself a digital recorder.  Go into a room, close the door and for one hour let yourself talk.  You may be surprised to find out just how much garbage is produced by the mind.   Don’t want to do this exercise, just listen to yourself for five minutes.  You may be very surprised by what you are telling yourself.  Perhaps it is time to control the nature of the inner conversations of your mind.

One of the ways to do this is to consciously connect to the voice of heart.  To do this you need to silence the mind and become acquainted with how the voice of heart speaks to you.  Your heart brain doesn’t scream at you. It acts in subtle ways.  It’s a gut feeling to do something.  It comes as a flash.  It’s like you are speeding down the highway and all of a sudden something inside you says, ‘better slow down’ and as you head around the bend in the road, there are the police.  Get to know that voice because it is this voice that works for your highest good.

One of the easiest ways is to strengthen this connection is to take up meditation.  Now I can hear you saying, ‘I don’t have time to meditate.  I got things to do.’  Yes you do have the time.  All you have to do is let go of the assumption that meditation can only be done in the lotus position at yoga.  Meditation is nothing more than conscious awareness.

You have so many opportunities throughout the day to practice conscious awareness.  How many times during the day do you stand in line somewhere?  Learn to utilize that time, and let the voice of the heart speak to you.  You don’t have to close your eyes; you just focus on your breathing.  You can use a mantra if you want.  You can use the words ‘ease’ on the inhale and ‘flow’ on the exhale.  Start with two minutes and before you know it your inner promptings of the heart will change the direction of the mind’s thinking.  A change in the mind’s talking will change the direction of your life.  Try it.  You may be pleasantly surprised as to how your life changes.

Take a break now...here’s something to help you...

Imagination Techniques

Ride the Wave
Watercolour by Beverly Blanchard

We live in a society where we have been taught that if you have a problem you must take some form of action to overcome it.  The problem is the more action you take, the more the problem sticks to you like glue and the more energy you waste.  This is where your imagination can help because sometimes you need a different mind to solve a problem or overcome a limitation.  Since everything is created through imagination why not tap into this infinite power.

One of the first things you need to do to access your imagination is get yourself into a relaxed state.  You can do this through focusing on your breathing.  Take a few long slow deep breaths and relax your body.  You can close

The Law of One

Connections
Watercolour by: Beverly Blanchard

A person experiences life as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. Our task must be to free ourselves from this self-imposed prison, and through compassion, to find the reality of Oneness. – Albert Einstein

The Law of One simply states that we are all related and connected.  There is one source and everything is contained within the whole.  I am you and you are me.  We may be unique beings but we are not separated beings.  Everyone and everything is a spark of the original source and that source is love. 

Many indigenous populations have demonstrated this type of understanding in their philosophy on life.  They believed everything and everyone was related, and everything was contained within the circle of Existence was their family.  When they prayed they gave thanks to the Great Spirit, Grandfather Sun, Grandmother Moon, Father Sky, Mother Earth, the winged, the four-legged, the four elements, the tree spirits, the water spirits and the two-legged.  Everyone and everything was seen as a part of the whole family of the Great Spirit, and everything and everyone was contained within the whole. 

To understand this law on a personal level, one need only look at their own body.  To the eye the body’s boundary is the skin which keeps everything together.  Within the skin there are various organs such as the heart, lungs, liver, stomach, intestines, brain, and spleen.  There are various glands.  There are also muscles, connective tissues, energy centers, and a blood supply comprised of billions of cells.  Although each part of you has a specific function and looks to be separate, they are actually all connected and working within the whole of what is called you.

To further the analogy of one, look at the connection between humans and trees.  In order to survive, human beings breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.  Trees on the other hand, breathe in carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen to survive.  Without the trees, where would man be?  Without man, where would the trees be?  Everything within and around you is connected.  Everything is energy spinning in form.

 Here are some exercises for you to play with:

1.  See everything and everyone as Source Energy in action.  As you go about your day mentally visualize everyone and everything as the Source Energy spark.  Mentally say, ‘There is God/Source Energy doing….’ For instance, you see someone picking trash out of a container mentally say, ‘There is the spark of Source Energy picking trash out of a container.’  Someone is running for the bus, ‘There is the spark of Source Energy running for the bus.’  You see a bird flying in the air, ‘There is the spark of Source Energy flying in the air.’  

2.  See everything and everyone as you in action.  As you go about your day mentally visualize everyone as you.  Mentally say, ‘There I go...’  You see someone picking trash out of a container mentally say, ‘There I go picking trash out of a container.’  Someone is running for the bus, ‘There I go running for the bus.’  You see a bird flying in the air, ‘There I go flying in the air.’  

3.  Release yourself from the concept of ‘I’, ‘mine’ and ‘my’.  Once you use the words ‘I’, ‘mine’ and ‘my’, you make yourself separate from everyone and everything.  Try removing the words ‘I’, ‘mine’ and ‘my’ from your vocabulary for a week.  Instead of saying, ‘I am going to work.’ say, ‘We are going to work.’  Instead of saying, ‘I am going to my house.’ say, ‘We are going to our house.’

 

Here is a beautiful animation by Dreamworks Animation entitled First Flight.  Watch how a busy businessman finds a connection with a small bird.

 

 

 

Energy in Motion

Lake Superior and Good Feeling Emotions

The third major component in the creation of your reality deals with your emotions.  Our e-motions are actually energy in motion and they are vibrations.  The emotions we are feeling send out signals  that attract to us the situations we encounter in our daily lives. 

There are really only two emotions:  love and fear.  Each is at the opposite end of the vibrational spectrum and between them is a variety of related emotions.  In the range of love, we have the feelings of joy, bliss, happiness, worthiness, security, etc.  At the spectrum closer to fear we have emotions such as: anger, greed, disappointment, hatred, jealousy, anxiety, frustration, etc.

There are no are no wrong emotions.  All emotions are valid and provide you information about where you are focusing your energy.  Like a gas gage on your car, your emotions are indicators telling you where you are on the vibrational spectrum. 

Many of us never make the connection of how our emotions are actually fueling our thoughts and words.  Instead we allow our feelings to run amuck and we end up stuck in both emotions and thinking that are not working in our highest interest. 

With regards to our emotional growth, here is an interesting point to ponder.  At an emotional level, the majority of adults have not grown up beyond the age of thirteen.  Meaning most people are still using the emotional behaviours they learned as a child to cope with adult situations. So next time you are faced with an individual exhibiting bullying tactics in your life, you might want to see them as a frighten child in adult body. 

When we do not acknowledge the emotions we are feeling, they don’t go away.  Instead these repressed feelings surface in other ways in our life.  We end up sick.  We put on weight to protect ourselves from our outside world.  We move through the day with aches and pains or we become lethargic.  In some instances, we continually bump into furniture and hurt ourselves. 

In order to work with and understand your emotions you need to become aware of them.  What does the word love feel like to you?  What about the words:  easy, secure, fun, happy, confident?  What happens to your body when you allow yourself to step into these emotions? 

The more you become aware of how you are feeling throughout the day, the easier it is to shift your emotions.  Shift your emotions, you change your thoughts and you change your point of attraction.  When your point of attraction shifts, you may find that the people and circumstances that brought you grief no longer show up in your life or you handle them differently. 

One further point I want to make regarding the shifting of emotions is this:  confronting the person you are angry with when you are in an angry mood will not always improve the situation.  Sometimes it is better to do the inner work and wait until you are in a better frame of mind.  Anger begets anger and we end up saying things we later regret.  Sometimes it is better to move the emotion first.  So how do you move those emotions that are not serving you?  Here are a few tips:

Ø  Do some physical exercises...go to the gym...do some yoga...go for a walk...

Ø  Chop vegetables.

Ø  Stop ranting to everyone about the situation or person.  The more you talk about it the more it gains momentum.

Ø  Cry.  Sometimes crying offers us a release.

Ø  Look for a better feeling thought.  For example, if you are feeling frustration you could tell yourself: I am doing alright.  This too shall pass.  Everything always works out for me. 

Ø  Breathe.  All your emotions are connected to your breathing patterns. Practice taking long slow deep breaths and remember to exhale. 

Next post I will discuss more about our emotions.   For now here is a video of Daniel Goleman explaining his theories of emotional intelligence.

 

 

 

 

Whose Blueprint Are You Following?




Winged Ones of Paradise
Watercolor by Beverly Blanchard

 

If your thoughts are the building materials in creating your reality, your beliefs are the blueprint.  When most people hear the word belief, they automatically associate it with religion, culture or politics. Yet, your beliefs are more than that.  They are thoughts that you keep thinking about yourself, your community and your world.  They are the foundational basis of your life.

It is said that we come into this world as a blank slate, and as we grow up our parents, teachers, friends, and society all tell us who we are; what we should think; and how we should behave. Although these people may have had good intentions, many of the beliefs we have picked up along our life journey are not working for us.  Instead they keep us stuck in behaviours in which we live our lives trying to live up to the expectations of others while we move further away from our authentic self. 

Few of us ever take the time to think about whether what we have been told is true or bogus.  We have accepted these beliefs and allowed them to unconsciously shape our reality.  How many of us have been told the following:  You are worthless.  You can’t do anything right.  You will never be able to do it.   You are too old/too fat/too useless/too stupid.  You don’t have what it takes.  You will never be successful.  You aren’t qualified.  You aren’t good enough.

So how do you start identifying what beliefs are no longer serving you?  You begin by looking at areas of your life that don’t seem to be working for you. Look for areas in your life where you feel fear or where your buttons are easily pushed.  Start listening to the habitual words and phrases you are using to describe your life.   When you come across something that is not positive, stop and ask yourself: what would I have to believe for this to be true?  Is this really who I am?

Examining your beliefs it is somewhat like peeling an onion.  The more layers you peel, the more variations of the belief you uncover. As we move through this blog, I will show you other ways to identify and change limiting beliefs.   Next post I will show you how your emotions fit into the picture.

In the meantime, here is a short video about Janine Shepherd.  Janine was training for the Olympics when a tragic accident shattered her dream.  Faced with a doctor’s prognosis of never walking again, she chose to create a new reality for herself based on her belief in her abilities.  Her story shows how important it is to never let someone else’s beliefs direct your life.

 

Why do I keep thinking about this?

Lake Superior

Many of my clients have experienced what I commonly refer to as the monkey mind.  It’s when your mind continually rehashes a problem over and over again.  Usually the subject of these dialogues deals with something in our life that we are not happy with.  It could be a disagreement with someone.  It could be a work, financial or health situation.  Whatever it is that incessant dialogue in your head won’t stop and the more you tell yourself not to think about it, the more you think about it.  It is called the law of resistance and that which you resist will persist.

Here is the reason why we find it difficult to shift our thinking process.  Our minds like to be kept busy and are continually nattering on about something from the past or projecting something into the future.  Our minds do not operate in the present.

Here is a simple experiment for you to try. Next time you wake up in the morning lay there in bed for a few moments. Become aware of your thoughts.  What you will discover is your mind will search for the last thought you had before you fell asleep.  The mind always returns to the vibration you last left it at.  So if you fell asleep thinking about an argument you had with a friend, the mind will return to that set point to begin your day.  This principle also applies to everyday situations and people.  Ever went home to a family reunion and found yourself acting in ways which were contrary to who you are today?  What happened is you went back to the old vibration.

In order for you modify a thought process you have to understand it takes 17 seconds for a thought to create a point of attraction.  When you hold that thought for 17 seconds another thought of a similar vibration will join it. If the thinking process is allowed to continue for 68 seconds then that train of thought becomes your dominant vibration and attracts to you persons or situations of similar thought.  So if the thoughts you are thinking are positive, change nothing.  If they are negative, you have to shift to another train of thoughts and hold that thought stream for at least 68 seconds.

So how do you shift to another train of thoughts? First you have to recognize that you have to work at it.  You can’t just do it once and expect your life to change.  The mind is extremely stubborn and once it gets hold of something it is like a dog chasing its tail. 

Here are a few exercises you can try.

1.   Give the mind a diversion and go do something else.  Go for a walk.  Pet your dog.  Go to the movies. Take a nap.  Search through YouTube and find something that makes you laugh.   

 

 

2.  Practice mediation. If you find that your mind will not shut up while you are trying to meditate focus on a noise in your environment or use a chant.

3.  Think a better feeling thought.  Think about someone you love and all the things you appreciate about them. Think about a beautiful sunset.

4.  Write out the letters of the alphabet and beside each letter think of a good feeling word. For example, a=appreciation, b=best, c=charming, d=delicious...

5.  Another diversion you can do is sing musical scale or use a non-descript phrase or sound. 

Next post I show you how your beliefs affect your life.