Monday, February 13, 2012

Manifestation

According to many books out there we should be able to will ourselves
a house, a car, the job we want, partner and money.

And if this is true, how come no one seems to have it all? Why have I
personally never seen someone with more money than they can spend, the
perfect partner along with the perfect job ~ perfect meaning all in
balance, the job not trumping family nor personal care.

The examples religion gives have never been married, nor are they
raising children.

So if I can manifest everything I want, why is it that even those who
teach this haven't accomplished this?

This is my theory.

Manifestation is the formation of thoughts in your mind. No matter
what theory you look at how you think is where it starts. Whether its
a dream board, journalling or meditation ~ This in itself DOES work.
But rather working to bring it into reality these tools aid you to see
the reality you want but not necessarily creating the reality you want,

The word perception is where the confusion lies.

Perception is how we perceive the things we own, our partner, our
life, home, job etc. Thus our perception of our lives create how we
feel about it, thus deciding if we love our lives or don't like them
so much.

Manifestation of our perception works because our minds cannot tell
the difference between memories and those things we visualize. So if
we visualize what we want, especially how it feels, in a realistic
manner, not a fantasy like state, we can create a state where our
brain thinks we have already done it. This takes away the fear and
apprehension the ego uses from keeping us to move forward.

This sets us in a mental state of we can do anything (because we feel
we have already done it). So we easily ask for help, find the answers
we need to aid us along our paths and life seems to feel more
effortless.

Most people stop before they even start due to feeling they will fail.
No help is sought, research done rather the idea lies dead in the
water and never pursued. Visualizing you have already completed the
task, how it feels, the reality of it (not the 'best case scenario'
but the reality) takes away the fear of moving through the experience.

For example
I want to be an author
Imagine you already have a book published in your mind, see if it is a
hard cover or a soft cover. How thick is it? Do you have a
publisher? or did you self publish? Can you see yourself signing
books? Talking about them? Sit with this thought. Sometimes we will
sit with thoughts for months, even years, but let them become clearer
and clearer in your mind.

As you keep visualizing your book, the idea will become clearer, the
title will come, the subject, the length, what it looks like, how long
it is and what it is about. Once it feels so real you will naturally
begin to find out what it takes to publish (and you may already have
started writing it). You will begin to research publishing and the
reality of becoming a published author, why? because it will just feel
like it's time. You will naturally have removed the fear by just
deciding the book is yours.

You may also find after you have done all your research publishing is
not for you. This is another thing frustrating people. Why do all
that manifestation if it doesn't work out the way I thought it should?

Remember we often dream rather than imagine in reality terms. Fantasy
is not and cannot be translated into reality. Most people who appear
to become famous overnight have already been at it for years if not
decades. Even Justin Bieber has been singing for over a decade.
Never forget things like this. We do not make things appear like magic.

Rather we begin to perceive what is possible, what we want while we
learn to see (in a better light) what we already have.

Keep your manifestations realistic. When we imagine, keep your
reality grounded, or yes you set yourself up for failure and you have
done this on purpose to subconsciously prove nothing works out for
you. Our egos are brilliant and they are usually driving our thoughts.

This seems like work right?

It's more like another way to chose to spend your thoughts rather than
full of worry and pain only, adding in the possibilities and other
plausible realities.

Most people seek manifestation when nothing seems to be going right,
their lives seems stagnant or not enough. They feel lost.

The way manifestation has been presented is as a quick fix to bring
money, financial stability and those things we feel we need to own the
things to make us look rich. One of the theories being if you act
rich you will become rich. Although this mindset is true if you put
yourself in debt creating this, you will not become rich. That is
common sense.

The thought behind this theory is the way you present. If you value
what you have (regardless of what it cost you) and honestly feel you
are wealthy, then those around you will also perceive you as wealthy.
This is projected by your thoughts and you have to truly believe it
(yes sometimes its a fake it til you make it thought while you listen
to your ego fight you all the way on it) And it is the way you
project yourself.

Confidence is key here. For all of this. If you don't have the
confidence these things are even possible, you won't imagine this
reality, let alone how it feels, how good it feel. No, you will
decide it is not possible then wonder why it is not happening for you
but happens for everyone else.

Find one person who has a life you admire. How did they do it? How
did they get there? How long did it take? Do they have everything
you would like? Did they achieve a happy relationship? (remember if
you want this and they didn't achieve it then don't decide what they
did will work for you or decide they have it all, for in your opinion
they don't have what you want) Do they have kids? again, if this is
what you want then don't compare their achievements to your failures.

You may need to find many examples of what you would like.

So lets look at what one actually needs to do to work manifestation,
creative visualization, the law of attraction as this theory has been
around long before 'the secret' and Oprah stumbled upon it.

You are not going to like this though because again it all begins with
you accepting where you are now and who you are now, I did say you can
make it a fake it till you make it kind of thing so this means, leave
you alone, don't fix you (or your life) accept you and where you are,
this is the first step and it is only your thoughts. You can do this
using affirmations.

Affirmations are thoughts you think, listen to via cds or journal to
balance the thoughts of your ego. Yes, it takes practice to get both
going and yes, it becomes a daily thing. I use sticky notes for the
main ones I like to use. I post most of them in my kitchen. Some of
them have been there for over seven years. I still read them daily.
Our ego does not take a minutes rest. We have honed the ego's voice
and this voice has become habit for us. Eventually the affirmations
will also become habit. The purpose is not to wipe out the thoughts
of the ego but to balance it.

Some of my favorites are
I am perfect, whole and complete.
I am enough, I have enough.
I am a financial success.
My home is clean and in order.
I love you.
I think you are beautiful.
I am here for you.
I am proud of you.
I like you.
I hear you.
You are okay.
I am worthy.
I am lovable.

My list goes on and on. I treat myself in my thoughts like I am a
friend I would love to have (while my ego finds all my faults to point
out, but I refuse to argue with my ego as I will never win so why
fight, let my ego be right for itself, in its little hell and I will
aid myself to see the beauty of my actual reality:)

Journalling works really well here too. The idea of a journal is to
work through your thoughts, to hear yourself and to find your own
answers. You should only write three pages a day in your journal.
Front, back front in a smaller book, not a notebook sized journal. To
write more allows your ego to get involved and spin you back into
problems rather than solutions.

While you are working towards things you may also want to keep a
notebook for research on your projects. Yes, if you want something
you need to be solution oriented on how you are going to get there.

Next is your thoughts. While you are away from your journal you need
to find ways to keep up your motivation of adding in other ways to
think. For example the sticky notes, I also use my cd 'Journey to the
self' as well as physical reminders of who I am and how much I love
life. All the things I have up in my home tell a story, a story
allowing me to remember how grateful I am for what I have and where I
have been. This lends to a balanced mindset.

You can also meditate. One of my friends listens to my 'Deep
Mediation' cd regularly. She finds it brings her the answers she
needs, relaxes her and allows her to visit with her guides and those
she has lost while allowing her to feel stronger. I personally am
working on waking meditation, teaching my mind to be in a quiet non
thinking state while living my daily life. Remember this state comes
with practice and I used to meditate regularly to aid myself to learn
how to transfer this state to the chaos of daily living.

This is also where the ideas of dream boards can come in. This is
taking pictures of what you want and putting them on paper. This idea
is also presented in The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/reviews/fr/artistsway.htm
Once you do these exercises put the paper away. Why? You must
release the ideas rather than focusing on not having them you must
work towards them. Once you can visualize them, then do what it takes
to get there. Things don't just come, they are realized as already
being present as we are working towards accepting they are possible.

This whole process is broken down in the first chapter of my book
'From Above with Love ~ Basic Knowledge One' (available through
McNally Robinson Booksellers in Saskatoon) This chapter takes you
step by step through creating the perception of reality you want by
showing you first how you see your reality now then showing you how to
find your way through the next steps. Those who have completed this
chapter feel it changed their lives and gave them tools to use for the
rest of their lives. Why? because they taught themselves what they
needed along with the reality they wanted to perceive.

The bottom line is that manifestation is not creating what you want
but learning to first accept the self you have, the life you have then
asking yourself what you want and finally allowing yourself to move in
that direction not being attached to the outcome.

Being attached to the outcome is us placing demands on how we think
things should go. This does not allow us to take the turns in the
road nor allow us to listen to other things being presented to us
during our journey. You may start out thinking and working towards
one thing finding something else occurs ending you up in a better
place yet. The idea is to keep going, not with your head stuck but
with an open mind to the possibilities.

If you push you, you will create a feeling of failure. If you really
want something it won't seem like work, it will seem natural and
obvious to do the work required. If you just think you want something
then you may find you always have to push you, then you have to ask
yourself why you think you are needing this for your actions are
showing you something different.

When we are ready for something we are ready. We want to create a
fertile mental ground, we want to stand beside ourselves as our own
cheering sections. We want to boldly go where we have not gone before
and fear of failure becomes a non issue (refer back to first simply
thinking about and imagining the life you want).

You don't remember learning how to walk. You do not remember how hard
it was, but here you are moving around. You don't remember falling
down and getting back up. Why don't you remember? Because you knew
you were going to do this so you figured out how and you did it. No
child learns to walk in the same manner, yet they all learn. Even
those who do not have the use of their legs learn to move their bodies
in a way that works. It is our nature to move forward. It is our
nature to do this and allow the universe to show us our way (even when
others tell us their way is better) our way always works best for us.

So stand up and walk. Trust you will get there. Learn to enjoy where
you are while 'dreaming' of where you are going and creating a life
that lends to that reality. Then be ready to be grateful when it
presents itself, accept it and enjoy it while moving onto the next step.

Those who say "I manifested this" need to be wary of the ego as one
should never forget to be grateful to what gives us the life we have.
Sure we are the masters of our perception but humility keeps the ego
from deciding we control it all too.

Once you are on top of the world, humility and gratitude also allow us
to see we are worthy of even more without feeling guilt or shame for
what we already have. Humility also allows us to realize success is
relative and personal meaning just because we feel we are successful
others don't need to have the life we are living to define success.

Everyone defines success differently. For some it is making ends
meet, others, getting out of a marriage, while for some it is getting
a stronger body, raising kids, keeping what they own in working,
beautiful condition (even if it is 20 years old). Acceptance of self
reflects in the ability to accept others and this state of mind
creates a reality you will never wish to leave.

This world is a beautiful place. This world and you are already
beautiful and enough. You are not broken, you do not need fixing ~
you are simply learning to put the touches on an already perfect cake,
icing, sprinkles and so forth. Just as you would wear make up, not to
change but to enhance. You are perfect now add to your perfect life
anyway you feel will enhance the life you already have.

AuKeeRa Rayne
aukeera@sasktel.net