From the back of the classroom came “Yeah. Right.”

Are you negating your positive attitude with skeptical language and lack of belief? If you don’t have an attitude of expectation that your wishes will come true, and you are not acting as if they will come true, they won’t.

Just writing affirmations and chanting and staring at a wall for hours will not do anything to change your life unless you are keeping your mind in a positive, expectant, and allowing vibration. In fact, just appreciating whatever you are seeing that pleases you helps you more than forcing yourself to write more, to chant more, to stare more at the wall.

Because of the nature of time/space, wishes don’t poof immediately into our experience. It takes time for the Universe/Source/God(dess) and Everything to get to us what we are wanting. But we have to align with it, say yes while we are waiting, and take whatever actions we are inspired to do.

Fretting over the wait, being skeptical of the process, focusing on the lack of what we want changes the attraction wave, and what we get is more of what we don’t want. It takes practice to turn the mind continuously toward that which we like and not to pay attention to the other stuff.

Contrast is necessary. Some things you perceive will not be to your liking. These things are necessary to show you what you do want, what you can say “yes” to instead of “yeah right.”  Train your mind to look for what you want, and to savor the time needed for it to manifest in your space.

Majestic Sky

These verbs describe the wheel of action–the Air of Knowledge, the Will of Fire, the Daring of water and the Earth of Silence.

Whenever you take a new path, a new course, it works best if you get the knowledge of what you intend, and while you can’t know everything, or even plan out how the project will unfold, you have to have a clear idea of the results you want, and that gives you some information about what breakthroughs must occur, what else you will eventually need to know. then you can ask Source/God(dess)/the Universe for that knowledge. It is often given within seconds if you listen for it.

Once you get the knowledge, you move into the Will, the Fire of action, and do something with it. Even if the action you take is small, a baby step, it requires will do to decide to do it, and then to follow through. Something as simple as doing the A to Z challenge requires a bit of will, a bit of fire to do. As you begin to move in the direction you have intended, the Powers that BE set up the coincidences, happy accidents and other surprises along the way that you could never have planned for.

Once water starts moving, it continues to move until somethign stops it, or until it reaches the ocean. Continuing to move in the direction that you want to go, especially if it is away from your normal path, requires daring. It requires more than will and knowledge, but an impetus of inevitablility, like water running, always downhill. You know what you want, and you use your will to act, with the belief that what you want wants you, and that you are in alignment with your desire.

The last step seems counter-intuitive: keep silent. Don’t blab about your new project, at least not to the slings and arrows of mass consciousness. Don’t let other people take a pot shot at your dream. There comes a time when promotion is the next step. There comes a time to shout from the rooftop (My novel is live on Amazon!!!), but at the beginning is not the time. Let the seeds of your endeavor sprout in the darkness and silence of the earth until they are firmly rooted and begin to grow into the light of day, the air, the fire of sunshine and the water of life.

To know, to will, to dare and to keep silent–and it harm none, do what you will.

Intensify your thoughts. Get an inkling of  the present moment. Illuminate your mind with the image of your surroundings, the buzzing of the fluorescent lights, the texture of your cube walls, the smell of your cube mates lunch, the chill breeze of the air conditioning and the warmth of your task chair where you have been sitting so long.

Tell yourself a fantasy of the future and feel the flame of the idea ignite.  Invite a concept to take shape in your mental workshop. Investigate the details, making each one specific and clear.  Then allow the idea to have some privacy to grow, to expand, and to find out its own identity.

Itemize your strengths. Interrogate your mental mentors. Interview inventors, innovators and illusionists.  Envision the invisible.

Imagine the impossible, fill it with your intellect, and then do it.

Rainbow during a hailstorm--Be open to what is happening now, and you may be surprised that it is better than you expected.

Expectations can bite back, especially if you are tied to a specific result or feeling from an experience.

Part of being your own fairy godmother is expecting your wishes to come true and living your life as if your wish has been granted. But you can also make a mess of things if you spend too much time fretting about how things appear to be in the “real world” that are in contrast with your wishful thinking.

Manifesting takes time. If you only look at what is, you can only make more of what already it. If you build up a large dream and then make yourself disappointed that something did not turn out exactly the way you wanted it, you miss the opportunity of your wish being granted in a better way than you were able to imagine it.

If your wish is that this one circumstance  must happen so that you can be happy, you can expect to be disappointed. Being happy where you are is the boarding pass to get where you want to go. Your thinking and dreaming and unconscious wandering around has brought you to the contrast that you are now experiencing, and that has shown you the desire that you have.

Making yourself upset because something did not turn out as you expected, like thinking that a second piece of chocolate cake will taste better than the first, is a waste of energy. Any time you make yourself upset, and you always choose to be upset by choosing to think of a given circumstance as something wrong, you are using energy that you might put to more positive use.

Use your energy to see what you can learn from the experience. Look at how well everything else went, even if a detail or two was awry. Check your own expectations to see if they were not in alignment with your vibration. You can’t experience anything that is more than two or three steps away from your current vibration. Circumstances do not change your emotional tone: you do.

So check your expectations of results at the door. Experience what is happening now and expect it to be just fine.

An image came back to me from over thirty years ago. I was in Atlanta in 1972 as part of an Outward Bound course, which was part of my student teaching experience. After spending three weeks in Linville Gorge near Morganton, NC, learning wilderness camping, rock climbing and rappelling, we were paired off and taken to Peachtree & 10th in Atlanta for a few days of survival in the urban wilderness, from Thursday to Saturday. I had no money, no id, only a phone number in case of arrest.

This was full-tilt hippiedom; people were openly selling drugs on the sidewalks. By Friday night, after several minor adventures, I caught up with several others in our group, and we headed for the Underground where there were a few shops and restaurants, but mostly undeveloped, dark, wet tunnels around the MARTA station—sounds like a soul journey, yes?

Lady's Slipper Orchid

In one of the shops, I saw a blown-glass sculpture of a lady’s slipper orchid, about a foot tall, more than twice the size of the real plant. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen—and only $800. The petals radiated out from the rounded slipper, and the stem and leaves were like rays of energy rising from the base. It may have been lighted from the base; it glowed in its corner against a gray wall. It used only shape and line, no texture, no colors, no attempt to make it look “real” but only to abstract the line, the essence of the form in a material state.

I fell in love. I felt immeasurably poor, because I could hardly imagine $800, and could not ever imagine having enough money to buy such a beautiful and useless thing.

A few years later, I took a sculpture class, and as my project, I tried to make my own flower from cast acrylic resin—I wanted to do an iris, but I wanted to make the same kind of beautiful image that I had seen in Atlanta.

I failed miserably—I did not have the skill and knowledge of the media to make the model, much less the mold and the casting. My teacher gave me a B because of the difficulty of the project, even though my efforts did not work. That was a new concept for me that one could fail in a successful way.

Only a few years ago, I went with a hiking group to see a place where there were many lady’s slippers in manicured woods behind a large tract house. They were delicate and beautiful, but not so much so as the image I have of that sculpture. They did not glow in their shady park.

Yesterday I told my friend that I did have such a memory, and she asked it if I owned it. Yes, I own that sculpture, that sensuous lady’s slipper. It glows in my mind as if it were in a specially lighted nook in my living room. And that is how I learn to manifest abundance. Now I can feel rich to know that image without having to worry about ever breaking it or getting tired of it.

The image is not of the orchid that I saw, which was all clear glass, but it’s pretty close. Now you can see and own it too.

That depends on me  and what I do with the sensitivity. If I allow myself to focus on the things that irritate me, causing me to focus my awareness on them, the sensitivity becomes harmful, attracting more irritation. But I can shift my awareness–that’s the good thing. How many times  I have blocked out extraneous noises, a headache or toothache, or distracting or disturbing sights by focusing my awareness on my work, on doing something else.  By controlling my focus, my awareness, I have the capability of controlling my experience of whatever is going on around me.  In that sense, I am the center of my universe–at least from my perspective!

If the thing that irritates me–say a grain of sand in my shoe–is something I can fix, then the sensitivity brings it to my awareness so I can fix it. Then I can focus on something else. If I choose not to fix it, then it can become a larger problem–a blister or hole in my foot that is more difficult to ignore, and may even become health-threatening.

But if I notice that the irritation is something I can’t fix, I can learn to turn my focus to something soothing–music or natural sounds, the feel of  warm socks on myfeet, something pretty on my desk–I can work at becoming more sensitive to positive stimuli. Many of us take the pleasant for granted instead of seeking it out–it’s the whole smell the roses thing. Most people are very good at focusing to avoid awareness, but not shifting awareness to some better thought.

Some prisoners of war talk about surviving solitary confinement and even torture by distracting their awareness to some intellectual thought process or memory.  This is illustrated in the TV series Firefly with a story that depicts an ongoing discussion of the relationship of Captain Mel to Pilot Wash’s wife Zoe while they are being tortured. Both men suffer intensely, but the stronger mental focus of Captain Mel allows Wash to survive and to understand what is behind the “war stories” shared between Zoe and Mel. (spoiler alert!) They do not lose their minds even though Mel is actually killed and then revived. While this is TV, it is based on things that happen in the real world.

We instinctively scan for possibly unpleasant experiences in order to avoid them. It takes a lot of effort at first to allow someone else to do what we find irritating, while we look for something that feels better to think about, to pay attention to. I’m certainly working on that myself. Think of it this way: What right do I have to interfere in someone else’s life, especially if that person does not ask me to help?

Even if I let others else irritate me, I can back away (turn down the sensitivity–or at least work on turning it down) to find the awareness of what it is about what they are doing that irritates me.  Usually it’s something that I don’t like to admit that I do–a shadow projection. Allowing the awareness of how I am participating in being irritated is very informative. I can then take action to change myself.

Awareness is focused. I am insensitive to others when I am only thinking about my insecurities. When I am aware of the other person, I can listen and be present with less anxiety. The key is awareness and focus. The sensitivity helps to develop awareness, especially if I make the effort to find out to what kind of stimulus I am sensitive. But then it is up to me to do something about the sensitive spot.

If I find that a TV show (friend, book, activity)  moves me away from my desired vibration, then I decide whether to keep participating. If I can’t leave (turn it off, close it, stop it)  for whatever reason, I can shift my awareness to analysis of the situation, to observation, to something else. It is up to me to decide and to take action.

I can make  increased sensitivity a Good Thing, or I can suffer.

You may find yourself afraid that mass consciousness will intrude on your thoughts and bring you what you don’t want. But here’s a key to the mystery of manifestation. It’s non-intuitive. It’s even a bit irrational.

Let go of what you can’t control.  Let other people work on their own desires. When it comes right down to the choices you have to make, you can only choose for yourself. You can’t make other people do what you want.  That’s not your job anyway. Work on your own peace rather than trying to enforce world peace.

If you find that you are upset because of the way someone else speaks or acts,  it is hard to allow that person to have a different vibration than the one you want. But if you try to change that person’s behavior, especially if that person does not ask you to help, then you are putting your energy into a vibration that does not harmonize with what you want.

The more you push against something, the more of it you attract, because you are putting your focus and energy into pushing against.

There are times when you must resist the actions of others. You are responsible for your children and must teach them. You are responsible for yourself, so that you must keep yourself safe  as best as you can. You take actions that reinforce the wishes you have.

A Holocaust survivor, Corrie Ten Boom tells the story of how her faith helped her survive the concentration camp where she and her sister were taken. She prayed daily, hourly, that they would be safe, and several miracles happened. One was that she was able to smuggle a copy of the New Testament into the camp. and so had that source of comfort and hope. She had it hung on a string around her neck inside the shift she wore. While the soldiers patted everyone down, they did not find it.  Someone had a bottle of vitamins which did not run out over a span of months–very much a miracle.  But the part of the story that so fascinated me was that when they were forced into the camp, where they slept on straw, the straw had lice from the previous prisoners.

Corrie said that the lice turned out to be a good thing, because they kept the soldiers away from them. The soldiers did not want lice. It takes a lot of allowing to see the benefit of living in those kinds of conditions. It takes a tremendous amount of faith to keep any kind of hope in that kind of circumstance. But she did, and her faith helped her and others to survive.

Yet even that kind of faith did not keep everyone alive. Her sister died in the camp only days before she was released. Allowing always requires letting go of those things and situations that you can’t control. It’s certainly not that Corrie did not love her sister, or that she was not sad, or that she was so focused on saving her own life that it didn’t matter. She tells about a dream her sister had of their release, and that she saw her sister’s death as a release, even though she never left the camp.

Allow your awakening sensitivity to show you how to change your own vibration and to minimize the influence of those around you. Remember that trying to change other people takes you away from your own vibrational alignment, but if you change, they will too, in one way or another, because your energy will feel different to them.  If you are very different, becoming positive and uplifting, then their nay-saying and negativity will be uncomfortable around you–and they may just move on to other, more comfortable people and out of your range of vibration.

Walk the walk, and your vibration will speak for you.

Magic is another name for faith without all the grape juice and crackers. Magic is believing in yourself and acting as though you could do whatever you wish to do, by preparing, by working hard now to prepare for the day when you do get your wish.

It’s about doing whatever part of your wish you can do today…training your mind, your body, your spirit, your hands, your feet to do what they need to do. It’s about changing your self-limiting perspective on life to begin to see the opportunities that do exist for you.

If you have not seen the video of Susan Boyle on Youtube, go there now see magic in action. Susan is 47, frumpy with a grandmother hair do and eyebrows that have never been plucked. She went to the British version of American Idol in what looked like a church dress. The judges were openly contemptuous of her. and the audience smirked at their collective “Aunt Susan” who probably sings in the choir at church with one of those really warbly bird voices.

But when she opened her heart and began to sing, they were amazed. The blonde, barbie-doll-type judge actually had tears in her eyes. Susan has a wonderful voice, and has obviously learned to use it–you can’t sing like that without practice and training. She also knew how to sing the song and what song to sing: “I dreamed a dream.” She may have even planned the surprise by not dressing in an eveing gown or stage dress. As she walked off the stage, excited by the “Biggest Yes in the History of the Show”, she blew a kiss to the audience who were standing and cheering for her.

That is magic. That is believing in yourself. That is knowing who you are. And that is making your your wish come true.

Socialization takes us from the “I am the world” view that a baby has, to a differentiated view that may range from a Zen “I am one with the world” to a cartoon villain’s “I Rule The World.” People who risk or even give their own lives to save the lives of others are seen to be of the highest moral character, and rightly so.

But I suggest that ego is what makes that sacrifice possible. Unless we have enough sense of ourselves, our own power, our own place in the world, we have little to offer anyone else. This is why the desire of all cartoon villains–be they animated or in the flesh–is to rule the world. They need to demonstrate the sense of power that they lack–their ego is not strong enough to manage their own lives unless they can physically force others to do things that are against sense and goodness.

A healthy ego understands how it mediates between the inner world and the outer world. A centered person has a healthy sense of self, a centered ego that is not afraid of the thoughts of others.

A self-absorbed person–the so-called egomaniac–does not see the rest of the world at all, much less his or her part in it. A self-absorbed person is isolated and alone, unable to be part of the universal network.

A self-centered person knows he or she is a synapse in the universe, a pathway for the law of attraction to work.

This is why it is moral and admirable to manifest the things that we want for ourselves, our family, our neighborhood. Even if the amounts we desire seem greedy to another, who does not want to have abundance and prosperity, security and comfort? No Inner Being wishes its physical host to starve, chill or suffer pain. A centered ego can listen to the Inner Being and respond.

As a rule, once people find that their immediate wants are satisfied, they desire something with more depth, something more spiritual, and they receive that by giving back. Is it any less moral to give back because it makes us feel good? What is it in us that feels the goodness? Our egos.

Feeling good–and especially feeling the goodness of life–is the path to finding both our hearts’ desires and our Inner Being. It’s the difference between being a greedy “ego” and a truly “Self”-centered person.

In this crazy season of consumerism and fear about the economy, take a moment to find a better-feeling thought. Use your ego, your sense of self, to realize the goodness within you, the goodness that you can offer to your family, coworkers and neighbors.

If you can find no good within you, how can you be any good for anyone else? Center yourself, and reach out to the next synapse in the network.

What would prosperity mean to you if your house were paid off, your new car paid off and you had no credit card bills or student loans or other non-utility expenses?

Would you quit working? Find a job you loved? Write the great American Novel? Garden? Build custom Harleys? Walk across the country? Visit parents? Grandchildren? the Zoo? New York City?

What’s stopping you from doing that now? What do you need to do what you want to do?

What if there were away to get what you want regardless of your pocket, wallet, or bank account? I have swapped out for chiropractic care, counseling, use of equipment, and other services.

What are you doing to learn the skills and habits you will need once you have the money? If you won the lottery today, could you start your dream life tomorrow? Are you ready?