Manifesting: Feel Gratitude and Love

Manifesting: Feel Gratitude and Love Enjoy this brief 6 minute meditation for bringing the feeling of love into your heart.

Blame vs. Responsibility

We need to take responsibility for all in our life. It is not blame. Blame involves shame and negativity and responsibility indicates spiritual maturity. With responsibility, you can look at your situation and say, “Hmmm…I created this situation. What am I suppose to learn from it? What is the belief behind it? What is the fear? How can I feel love here?” With blame all we feel is judgment and shame. With judgment we further block the flow of energy.

Manifesting Story: Growing Tomatoes

I have a student who gave me 7 of the most beautiful tomato plants you have ever seen. They came from heirloom seeds that she had planted and she had cultivated them with love and attention. After receiving them, I planted three and the other four…well, they languished in my garage! I kept forgetting to get them in the ground. When we finally did, my husband said, “forget it, they are too far gone.” But I was so sad about neglecting them that I couldn’t just give up so iton the ground they went. Almost all of them did fairly well. It took some time, but they seemed to be growing and taking to their new situation. One, though, was so sick. I mentioned to my daughter that I didn’t think it would make it. She said, “Give it another chance.” I looked at her and realized she was right! I began to feel good around it, to enjoy looking at it and feel grateful it was there in my life. Most of all, I began to see it as healthy and vibrant. Yep, that plant was huge! In fact, it was easily three times larger than any of the other plants. It was a cherry tomato plant and at one point during the season, it had at least two hundred tomatoes on it. (Yes, we counted. I homeschool, remember?) Hmmm….manifesting a beautiful harvest. It can be used everywhere!

Manifesting Stories: A Good Book

Okay, this one is a good one because it involves a few miracles. One of my very favorite authors is Dr. Wayne Dyer. His books always inspire me on a very deep level. He recently came out with a new book Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life that was released this summer. I ordered it back in March when it first came out for preorders. I desperately wanted it to read on my vacation which I was taking the last weekend in July but its scheduled release was August. Now I am not sure how publishing works, but I find in most areas, late is usually the norm. I still made the request to the Universe and then promptly forgot about it.

The Sunday before we were to leave, I received the notice from Amazon that my book was on its way. I was amazed! Not only was it published on time, it was released early. But we were leaving on Thursday morning and I find my Amazon deliveries always take a minimum of 5 days and with the notice coming on Sunday, it probably wouldn’t go out until Monday. Again, I was disappointed, but my husband reminded me to manifest it. (Thank goodness for family members!) I checked my Amazon account on Monday and it had yet to be picked up. Ahhh!!!! I was feeling a bit frantic. When I felt that feeling, I knew I needed to relax so I had a couple of fun days and forgot about it. You know how the story ends, don’t you? It came Wednesday morning! I truly saw this one as a miracle.

"Reality"

I hear a lot about “reality” from my clients who are learning about manifesting. They can see some areas in their life that they can change, and then there are those areas that feel out of the realm of “choice”. The statements I hear all begin with a “but” and then I hear: “I have to pay taxes…I have to pay bills…I have to make dinner for my family…I have to exercise…” It feels like there is no “choice” here, doesn’t it? Like you can’t manifest something different. Remember, manifesting is about learning you are not a victim in your life, you do have choices in everything. Anytime you use the phrase “have to”, it is your signal that you are using victim language and there is a shift that needs to happen.

First of all, the “reality” is you don’t have to pay taxes. You don’t have to pay bills. You don’t have to make dinner. You don’t have to exercise. You choose all of those things. Now, perhaps you choose to do them because the alternative is so disagreeable it doesn’t feel like you have a choice. “I choose to pay taxes because I don’t want to go to jail.” “I choose to pay bills because I don’t want to lose my home.” “I choose to cook dinner because I don’t want my family to be hungry.” “I choose to exercise because I don’t want to be fat.” There is still a choice and even if you use these words, which still feel negative, you are at least making these “disagreeable acts” choices. Just changing the language takes it out of the victim place. I think there is another step that brings it into the unbelievable joy realm; the place we are all craving to attain. Let’s change your perspective and your paradigm.

“Are you kidding me? I pay only a small portion of my salary and I get to support a government that gives me a safe place for my children to live, great schools, paved roads, clean sewers, emergency services, and even more that I am unaware of! That is fabulous!” “I love my utilities! I can actually flip a switch and have lights in my home. I can turn a knob and my oven warms. I have such an abundance of water I can actually pour gallons of it, warmed for me, over my head to get clean every day or just fill a container to sit in for my pure pleasure. I can even warm or cool my home at my whim for my own personal comfort.” “I so easily feed my family. I can’t believe the choices I have when I walk into a grocery store and it is all there for me to use if I so desire! I can even easily find pre-prepared foods so I don’t need to cook or go to a restaurant and experience food from any place in the world!” “I am so grateful to have an amazing body that can move and exercise. I love to help my body feel great and healthy! I also have easy access to any kind of equipment I desire or just enjoy the outside because it is safe for me to exercise there. I just love living in my body!”

So, how does that feel? You always have a choice and one of those choices you can make is to not only be grateful for what you have but also to choose your attitude.

Oh, God, What Have I Done?

An essential step in the manifesting process is realizing your life is completely within your control. The initial feeling tends to be exhilaration; a feeling of, “You mean I can actually have all that I want – all that I have felt bad about not having?” There is such a thrill to realize you aren’t a victim of your circumstances, you can change all that has caused you angst.

Once the initial euphoria has passed, there often comes a time of realization that if all is within your control and it is your responsibility, that means what you have faced in the past, the good and the bad, were attracted by you as well. This stage is what I call, “Oh, God, what have I done?” It can be ugly to look at those things and accept responsibility. It is so much easier to be victim to your negative circumstances, not responsible!

Here’s where perspective comes in handy. I am sure you have been in a tricky situation with another individual in which you could understand what she was thinking even though you didn’t necessarily agree with her. You could see her perspective even though she perhaps couldn’t see yours. You had a higher perspective. In a sense, you could see the situation from above, understanding both parties’ perspectives.

To explain perspective, I like to use the analogy of looking out of a building at a street. When you are in the basement, looking out narrow casement windows, all you see are feet walking around. Your only perspective of the world is feet because that is all you see. You think the entire world consists of merely feet. Now move up to the first floor and look out. First of all, you have larger windows you can see out of; you have a bigger view. You also can see more because you are up higher. Now you see that the feet are connected to people and your view of the world broadens. But you still think the world ends at the end of the block because that is all you can see. Now head to the roof where your vision isn’t obscured by windows at all and you have a full 360 degree view. You can now understand that people are only a small part of this world. You get to see that the road continues way beyond the block. In fact, you can see that the road continues to the horizon.

Now, let’s apply this analogy to your victim/responsibility situation. From the basement window you see your problems as everyone else’s fault. He did this to me. She took advantage of me. You know what it feels like and I am sure you have someone in your life who has this perspective (or even remember you having it as well!). It is extremely negative. From the basement we are victims of circumstances and very little is within our control. It feels horrible down there because your world is very small and very scary because you are at its whim.

Now let’s move to the first floor. At this stage you are able to take responsibility for the ugly in your life as well. This step is excellent and essential to really living fully a life of manifesting. Where we go wrong from this limited first floor perspective is in thinking, “Oh, that means it is my fault.” We were blaming someone else in the basement, now we just shifted the blame to ourselves in a misguided first step to taking responsibility for the ugly things in our life. Shame and self-judgment often accompany this step as well as denial. Often people stop here and just assume manifesting doesn’t apply to these situations (or perhaps hope that it doesn’t apply since the self-judgment is too painful). Taking responsibility for even the “tough stuff” is an essential step to really living the life of your dreams, especially since the “tough stuff” usually represents where you want to change what you are attracting into your life and until you take responsibility, you will never be able to attract better things. You will just continue to be a victim.

Take yourself to the rooftop. It is from the roof that you then can see with a huge perspective. Get yourself above recriminations; the blame of yourself or others. This perspective is way beyond blame. It is about responsibility. From the roof you can say, “Yes, I see this situation is my responsibility. It is not my fault.” I hope you can see the subtle difference. Fault is blame, responsibility is spiritual maturity.

The responsibility is saying that nothing happens in our life without our creating it so I must have created this one. So why would we ever create icky situations? First of all, know that you are not doing it consciously. These messages are being sent out unconsciously, just as your message others are responding to is also unconscious. Let me give you an example. I had a client who wanted a new job. She received an offer quickly from a job she thought was her dream. The offer they came back to her with was so low she felt like it was a kick in her stomach. She thought they weren’t appreciating her and didn’t understand what she needed. I then proceeded to add more to her angst when I said, “So, you attracted this offer. How much do you feel you are worth?” She was initially quite taken aback by the question until she realized that she didn’t feel she was worth much. In fact, she took her special skill set quite for granted. She was a quick learner and changed her attitude in that moment. She received another job offer within two weeks for twice the salary she had been offered in the previous position.

Now, the people involved in setting her offer in the original proposal weren’t sitting around thinking, “What can we do to irritate her? What can we do to squash her self-esteem? How can we take advantage of this situation?” Of course not! They were, though, responding unconsciously to the vibration she was sending out unconsciously.

Okay, so the first step in understanding your responsibility in creating “icky” situations is to realize that you did it unconsciously. Step two is to find the lesson for ourselves. Realize that these situations are here to help us refine the message we are sending out into the world. You are striving to be a better human being with a better life – to be more loving, peaceful, calm, kind, whatever you want for yourself, or to have a partner, great job, better health – that is why you are interested in manifesting in the first place. Negative situations are here to help us learn where we are not sending out an ideal message. My client has refined her self-worth. She actually commented later that shifted her “value” monetarily helped her find other areas in her life she had limited herself.

There is one final benefit to taking responsibility – you can stop the “lessons”. What challenging situation have you had to relive over and over again? My client realized there had been many situations in her life in which she felt others undervalued her. She was being given the opportunity, again and again, to learn that it wasn’t their issue, it was hers. The lessons just became louder and louder until it was the proverbial kick in the stomach she needed to see what she was doing to herself. I often hear people say they attract the same “bad” mate or the same “bad” job. It is the message they send out that brings them the same situations over and over and they will continue to suffer until they change their message.

Remember, it is all good! The things you would define as “bad” or “challenging” are just there to help you make things better. They are gifts of learning and as such are an incredible blessing. Each “icky” situation is a call to refine your message and to make things better and better in your life. Go ahead, take responsibility. See it from the rooftop, be grateful for the opportunity to refine the message you are sending out.

Manifesting Stories: My Garden

This next story is one of my favorites. It is such an example of how we are taken care of when we just relax and go with the flow of life. I just began gardening this summer. I dreamed of it last year and what I wanted to do. I would often drive by a house with a beautiful garden. This house also had a beautiful garden planted along its walk to the front door. There were coleus plants (plants with beautiful and colorful foliage) with a flowering annual in between them. I have a similar walk at my home and decided that is what I would do this year. I dreamed of this walk all winter.
I plant most of my plants from seed as a wonderful winter project with my children. We planted coleus but they just didn’t grow very fast. By the time planting time came around they weren’t large enough to take outdoors yet. I was a bit disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to use them, but only briefly. About a week after I realized I would not be able to use them, my mother called and mentioned that she had about a dozen hosta plants from her garden that needed a home and would I like them? I thought they would be a good plant up my walk for this year and I could do the coleus next year so I planted hostas.
Have you figured out the end to the story yet? I drove by the house that I designed my walk after and what do you think was planted in the garden? Hostas! Yep, and hostas are perennials which means that last year what I thought was coleus was actually hostas. So I manifested exactly what I had requested despite myself!

Manifesting Stories: Traffic

I want to share some stories from my own life of what I have manifested. Of course, I have a few “biggies” such as my perfect mate (and this wasn’t easy. My request was for a true partner – someone who did half the housework, half the child-rearing, half the bringing in a paycheck. I wanted a man who “got it” around women and I got it! But that is another story…) I also manifested my perfect house (which, three years later, I keep finding things that are perfect that I hadn’t even considered when I bought it.) I also manifested my perfect work – something most of you already know! But I also find fun is seeing the little things that we can manifest in our life which is what these stories will describe.

My daughter and I were headed to downtown Minneapolis during rush hour one Friday evening for a “knitting date” with some friends. I was tired and not sure I was up to driving through traffic to get there. My daughter (quite pointedly, I might add) said, “Just ask for no traffic, Mom.” (I think she might have added “duh” but if she didn’t, her attitude said it all!) Anyway, as we drove, there was no traffic! I couldn’t believe it. We were on the worst traffic highway in the Twin Cities. We came up to a hill at one point and there was a slow down of cars. I said, “Well, this is it, we have traffic now.” My daughter said, “Nope, just get over the hill.” Wouldn’t you know it? She was right! Although I have seen the benefits of manifesting in the big areas of my life, I hadn’t considered using it for traffic and here was my 6-year old teaching me!

Manifesting is Not Spiritual

“Manifesting – the business of doing nothing more than bringing into form a new aspect of yourself.” --Wayne Dyer

This entry is for those of you who are a bit hung up on asking for what you want. Do you feel guilty or selfish? Or do you feel like your life is “good enough”? Do you feel it is not spiritual to “ask” for anything? Let me tell you my take on manifesting…According to the world of manifesting (and what I have seen in my own life), we prevent more from coming into our life by thinking we can’t have it. We think we can’t have it from fear we are holding on to. That fear keeps us from feeling truly wonderful, joyful, and blissful. The fear keeps us from fully evolving to fulfill our deepest potential. It keeps us from being the best we can be; from being the source of joy to the world we are all capable of being.

When we release the fear, our whole world opens up and love and joy floods into our life. We become more loving and compassionate. Of course, now that you released the fear, you then receive all you were trying to receive. Ironically, you then don’t even feel you need whatever it was you wanted in the first place because your joy and contentment is now internal.

Manifesting isn’t about using the universe as your “personal concierge” (although, you could!) Manifesting is about uncovering another layer of yourself. Releasing your fears and unleashing your joy. Imagine what that would do for those around you. Are you a parent? Spouse? Friend? Relative? Coworker? Imagine showing up in the world from pure joy and love. I can always tell just by seeing another if they are joyful and it is so wonderful to be around those people. It is time for you to be one of those people, too!

Here is another of my favorite manifesting quotes.
“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” (by Mark Twain)

What if…

Okay, so let’s start with the first step in manifesting. Play the “what if…” game. “What if I had my dream job?” “What if I had my dream spouse?” “What if I won the lottery?” “What if I had pure contentment in my everyday life?” Begin to just dream about what you want in your life. Don’t limit yourself with “It is too late” or “I’ll do it when I am retired.” Or “I will do a bit less than I really want and it will be ‘good enough’.

Really, what would your life be like if you had all you dream of having? How would let feel? Let it go. I found it took me about 6 months to really let myself dream fully – to not limit myself at all and imagine what I really want in life. Hhmmm…delicious is my best word for it.

What is Manifesting?

If you aren’t familiar with the hubbub around manifesting, let me give you a brief summary. Manifesting is using the creative energy of the universe to be, do, or have whatever you want. Sounds a bit mystical, doesn’t it? Actually, it is quite simple and is, believe it or not, scientifically proven – it is the basis of quantum physics. (Makes you wonder why everyone isn’t doing it, doesn’t it?)

Okay, stick with me here. I am going to take you through a quick introduction of the Universal Law around attraction. We are all energy. Remember learning that when you were in school? We seem to be solid, as does your computer, your walls, your desk, but actually we are swirling molecules that are comprised of atoms. What quantum physicists have discovered is that at the foundation of our atoms, we are merely energy. Energy is what holds us together. That energy and our atoms are moving all the time. The rate of their movement is what we often refer to as our vibration. The faster they are vibrating, the better we feel. Yoga raises your vibratory rate – which is why you feel so good after a yoga class. Eating foods that are good for our bodies raises our vibration. Our thoughts also strongly affect our vibration. If you are feeling negative, your vibration will be low. If you are feeling joyful and loving you are vibrating at a very high rate and it is delicious!

So, what does this have to do with manifesting? There is a Universal Law (meaning it is true whether you are aware of it or not – like the Law of Gravity) called the Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction states that like attracts like. It is referring to your vibration. Your vibration attracts like a magnet other objects, people, and situations that will continue you vibrating as you are. If you are feeling great, you bring wonderful things to your life. If you feel bad, more bad things happen. Hhmmm….sounding more intriguing, isn’t it?

Our brain has around 60,000 thoughts each and every day. Every one of those thoughts is sending out a vibrational message that is attracting something back with it. But, of those thoughts, we have only 8-10 different subjects. We tend to have the same thoughts each and every day and the more we have on a subject, the stronger the message being sent out. What are you sending out? I can tell you exactly what you are sending out. Look at your life. Where things are going well, you are sending out a wonderful message. Where things are not going well, you are sending out negative messages.

I know you might be thinking, “I didn’t create this! It is because of my reality that I think this way!” Believe me, your thoughts and beliefs around that area of your life came first that then created what you consider to be your reality. That ideas is one thing we will study extensively in the program.

Manifesting is about helping you make your unconscious thoughts conscious so you can begin to attract better things into your life – wonderful things! The only reason you don’t have what you want is because somewhere inside of you you really don’t believe it is possible for you to have it. Again, something we will work on in the program.

Getting Past Limited Beliefs: Part III

Okay, so when I last left off I left you wondering about what else you could do about getting beyond your limited beliefs about your dream. (Remember those? I call them the “yeah buts”. “I could travel the world, but...” “I could find my perfect mate, but..” “I could have the perfect job, but..” “I could be happy, but..”)

The very best way to overcome the negative thinking is to get yourself so excited about your dream that you are exhilarated by it. You will find that often that excitement will slowly replace the negativity. Your dream is based in love and your limited beliefs are based in fear. Love is hundreds times stronger than fear. Let love fill your being and the fear will often merely disappear.

Here are two exercises to help you strengthen your dream. The first is to spend 10 minutes each morning thinking about your dream. Imagine it is already here. Feel exactly how you will feel when it is here. Fill your body with the excitement and good feeling. Let yourself send that wonderful energy out into the world.

Another way to let excitement overtake the negativity is to create a Vision Map. Find images or words that represent what you want in your life. You can find pictures from magazines, from the internet, or from your own photo library. You can create the words on the computer or cut them out of magazines. Put the most inspiring objects on a piece of cardstock. (My favorite size is the 12” x 12” scrapbooking paper. I am also playing with the idea of using a photo board so I can refresh it often.) Hang your Vision Map someplace very visible. Whenever you see it during the day, pause and recollect your dream. Imagine yourself having all that is there.

The best part about this work is each step you take will bring you one step closer to feeling more joyful. You are erasing the fear in that area of your life. Fear is only holding you back and keeping you from living your life with love and joy. Enjoy the process!

Finding a Better Thought

Another email question for all of you!

“If a thought doesn't necessarily make manifestation unless it's consistent and with the feeling (or intent), then how can you change your thinking to positive when you know you are negative in the moment. (kind of an "I'm in the process of...")

For example: I just got a call from a customer, not very pleasant or understanding. I smiled and was as pleasant as possible (to keep myself uplifted and to hopefully rub off on her) and I think we ended ok. When I got off the phone my first thought was "people can be irritating." Instead I said to myself "I love people" I didn't really feel it, but thought I could start with the words and it would at least keep me from getting down. Is that on the right track?”
It is the right track, but step back a few steps to a thought you do believe. We can’t just “lie” to ourselves and say things that we don’t believe. Our goal is to move ourselves up the vibrational ladder and feel better, even a little, and if we don’t believe what we are saying, we won’t budge. Try it. You just stay feeling exactly the same way. Find a thought that is just a bit better that you do believe. You will move up the ladder a bit and then you can reach for an even better thought and keep going. Perhaps it would go like this:

“Wow, that was tough.” (acknowledging the difficulty)
“I find people who are disagreeable challenging.” (same)
“I didn’t fall into the anger I used to.” (feeling better)
“Hmm...I am doing this better.”
“I bet I can do even better next time.”

See where this is going? Each step needs to be something you agree to, though.

Being of Service to Others

I received some great questions from people! Thank you for your thoughts. I decided to add a couple here for everyone.4

"I realize life is more about being of service to others and making good choices (which I still struggle with)."

Yes, life is more about service to others. Doing this manifesting work has helped me get to the service piece, too. In fact, quite unexpectedly. We waste so much energy with fear, regret, and general negativity around what we are doing that doesn’t fit who we really are. I realized just how much energy I was wasting feeling negative about what I wasn’t or was doing. I didn’t have any energy left over to give. Now I can see how much better I am at parenting, being a friend, wife, daughter, merely because I have the energy to give them. It is wonderful!

What is your perfect life?

When you think of your perfect life, what holds you back? You know there are those niggling doubts there. That part of you that says, "that would be great, but it won't happen for me." Try to get specific. Why can't it happen? What is it you believe that is holding you back? They are just beliefs, that's it. They are there from something someone said to you, the beliefs of your parents, the beliefs of our society. They only serve to limit you. Begin to ask yourself, "why not?" when you hear the doubt rising up. Let the prospect be so exciting it propels you into new and wonderful ways of being.

Spiritual Materialism Question

I had this wonderful question from a reader after I first marketed my Manifesting Course:

"I am interested but am confused with this idea... how does this balance against ideas of spiritual materialism and grasping and going against accepting what is? Can you speak to this?"

Here is my response:

Absolutely, especially since I struggled with the same concept.

Here was my answer. We limit ourselves in innumerable ways by our limiting thoughts and beliefs. Not only do we limit ourselves in what we have, we can also limit ourselves in how much spiritual evolution we allow, in how far we go to fulfill our life’s purpose, in how much we love (limiting ourselves with intimate partners as well as with friends and family) thereby limiting how much joy we experience in this life as well as how much Divine love we accept in. We define ourselves, and therefore, our life by our fears and limitations, not by what we are capable of and how expansive and abundant we are.

Now, I also want to point out that none of us does this in every area of our life. In fact, most people do many parts of their life very well and don’t even know they are doing well. I see five major areas in our lives: relationships, career, money, health, safety. Most of us do three or even four really well and one or two languish. And they languish due to our limiting beliefs and fears that have created the reality that is in front of us. For example, I had a client who is very open in relationships and was almost there with money and career when we first began working together. In love, in her words, she had been married to her “best friend” for 15 years. She liked her job, but it wasn’t fabulous because she worked very hard to make the money she made. With minimal tweaking, we perfected her job. She was working 50 percent less and making more money than ever. Moreover, she is a consultant, and once she let go of her fear around the money, she had no problem “manifesting” more clients whenever she is ready for more. (She turns down at least half of the offers that come to her.) Everything seems wonderful, and it is, until you look at her health. She has numerous health issues and many fears about her health. Her fears around her health keep her from living her life fully and being all that she can be in this life.

The more I do around this, the more I release my limiting beliefs and fears and experience more joy and love. I see the whole process as being about learning how to let the energy of life, love, flow into and through us out to others. Fears and limiting beliefs allow the fears to either run into us and not out or we let it flow out without letting it in (or sometimes it can’t flow in our out). The work of manifesting opens us up to allowing it all to flow right through us. It also helps us live from our Higher Self, not our ego. Our ego works to limit us. Our Higher Self wants only the very best.

Plus, “desire” is perfectly normal in the physical. We not only desire things, we also desire better jobs, better relationships, better environments, even better weather! :-) Even the Dalai Lama desires peace with the Chinese. But two things come to mind when we think of desire. First, when we desire, there is an assumption of not being content with what is nor grateful. But to truly be in a manifesting state, you need to feel grateful for what you currently have. “That is the optimal creative vantage point: To stand on the brink of what is coming, feeling eager, optimistic anticipation — with no feeling of impatience, doubt or unworthiness hindering the receiving of it...”

The second is, we normally “desire” from a place of scarcity, assuming we can’t have whatever it is. We envy others what they have and that sets off suffering. But what if you could have whatever it is? What if, instead of envy, we felt, “hmmm...if they have it, it is just proof that I can have it too.” What if desire was delicious and exciting and spurred you on in an inspired and love-filled way? “We would describe the sensation of desire as the delicious awareness of new possibilities. Desire is a fresh, free feeling of anticipating wonderful expansion. The feeling of desire is truly the feeling of life flowing through you.”

Ironically, doing this work has freed me to be more content with my present because it now feels truly transient (as all physical reality is). I feel more in control of my world with my control coming from the right place. I am now controlling myself with love rather than trying to control my outer world.

Limiting Beliefs

Last month I began to discuss the mental blocks or resistance you may have to creating what you want. Our primary block for creating is limiting beliefs; believing you can’t do it. Limiting beliefs show up as “yeah buts”. I could do it, but… I could have it, but… I could see it, but… You know them. All of us have them in some area of our life. Those who don’t have many (or perhaps any limiting beliefs) are those whose life seems to be charmed. Everything works out with ease for them. Instead of seeing that and feeling envious, now you can think, “hey, they did it. It’s possible which means I can do that too!”

So, how do you move beyond a limiting belief? One way I discussed last month is by decluttering and shared with you an amazing success story with a professional organizer. You may still be stumped on the connection there – limiting beliefs and clutter? It is true. I had many limiting beliefs around the extent of how far my career could take me. The “noise” and limitations showed up as clutter in my office. Let’s just say the clutter kept me from having to look more deeply, it kept me disconnected. When I realized it, though, I was still frozen into inaction and could not seem to clear the clutter. In comes the organizer. In a matter of 2 hours, my entire outlook had changed. Really, it is that powerful.

Look at your house. Is there clutter in certain areas? What are your beliefs in the areas that house represents? Is your kitchen a mess? How do you feel about your talent as a cook? I recently had a client (who is working on manifesting her perfect mate) resolutely claim that she has no resistance to finding a mate. Then she realized her bedroom is a complete, cluttered mess. Her bedroom represents a relationship to her. She “got” how she was limiting herself and it was represented in clutter. Can you tell I have a firm belief around clutter? I hadn’t meant to discuss it for so long here. What I like most about clutter is it is relatively tangible so it tends to be a good place to start.

How else do you move beyond a limiting belief? Ooops, I am all out of time! Guess you’ll have to wait until next time. Until then, notice your clutter. What is it telling you?

Moving Past Your Blocks: Professional Organizer

Last month I encouraged you to begin to open blocks you have to your dream. Were you surprised by how much resistance you have? I was simply shocked at how many ways I “stopped” my dream with my own doubts and worries. We all have blocks, many, many blocks in many areas of our lives. Our work is to open these blocks, release them so we can open the flow to new things in our lives. There are many ways to open blocks. Coaching is an obvious one for me – coaches help you see a new perspective, to release what you aren’t seeing. There are other ways as well and I am going to use the next few issues to share some with you. I had an amazing experience with a Professional Organizer that I want to share with you.

My office had me stuck. Theoretically I should have enjoyed the space. It is a wonderful, cozy space with beautiful furniture and a closet in which we put shelves to make it better for office storage. But it wasn’t a dream space. The room felt cluttered and crowded and as soon as I walked in I could feel myself tighten up and become stressed. Since my office also is the seat of my work, I was also stuck in my work. It was anything but the wonderful creative space I needed to expand my work. I envisioned this larger dream for my work, but couldn’t get past...something. I couldn’t even put words to what “it” was and I was going crazy. I was blocking myself to such an extent that organization was impossible. The rest of my house is the image of organization (yes, even my “junk drawer” is organized!) but the office was stuck, especially that wonderful closet.

In comes a Professional Organizer. She asked a few simple questions that helped free me up and I felt flooded with ideas. She also noticed things I had never noticed or considered. In about sixty minutes, I had a list of changes to make. I suppose it is something I could have done myself, eventually, but I had tried countless times only to give up. I wasn’t doing it myself. I was blocked for some reason and she helped free me up.

The epilogue of the story is a happy one. A mere four days since our meeting and my creativity has blossomed. I wrote a Module for YLC in a mere twenty minutes (compared to several hours it normally takes), a letter I have been putting off for weeks, created a tag line for my coaching (something I have tried to do for ten years), plus I have three new coaching clients. Does this work? What do you think?

Want her number? Email me and I will pass it on to you.