It's 1970-something. As happened every so often in the early days of color analog TV, the station I'd been watching lost its broadcast capabilities for the moment and went off the air. Technicolor bars appeared in place of the cartoons I'd been watching, followed by a high-pitched "oooooo" signaling the disruption. The words flashed on the screen,
EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. PLEASE STAND BY.
I immediately stood up and took up my position next to the TV.
My Mother, in the next room ironing Dad's shirts, looked up from her work and asked me what I was doing.
"I'm standing by, like it said."
She uttered a single snort of laughter, her face registering resignation and acceptance as it would many times throughout my childhood, and said, "Oh honey. Don't be silly. That's not what it meant."
I was confused. "Well that's what it SAYS. It says 'stand by', so I'm standing by. What else could it mean?"
She set the iron on its edge, both hands on the ironing surface, smoothing out the shirt. "What do you think it means? It doesn't mean 'go stand by the television', it means 'they're having problems, please wait while they fix it'. The obvious thing."
It certainly wasn't obvious to me. What was obvious to me was that when someone said "please stand by", they meant "go and stand by whatever it is that needs to be stood by until otherwise notified".
To think it meant otherwise was to infer my own meaning and interpretation into it. In my youth, still only a few years into this life experience disconnected from the cosmic energy from which I came, interpretation had not yet been learned. I took things literally. I understood the words to mean exactly what the words themselves meant, in the most basic, obvious, literal way.
It wasn't until much later in life that I learned that words can have multiple meanings, in some cases far different from their original intent. It was even later that I learned the effect this can have on one's life.
The human brain is a primitive construct. Its basic function is to regulate the body's systems so that we stay alive. It reacts and responds to positive and negative stimuli in order to protect its human and sustain life. It's known as the amygdala, also known as the "lizard brain". It operates in isolation from our thinking brain (our intelligence or intellect) and runs on auto-pilot.
The human brain, and the Universe, are incapable of making inferences. The human brain and the energies of the Universe function in the same way as my childhood mind did. They do not infer, they do not read meaning into words. They interpret them verbatim. As written. As spoken. Never mind your intention.
To the Universe, to the unlearned lizard brain, it would make perfect sense to go stand by the TV when the TV asked you to. Because that is what the words SAID.
It is not until we develop intellect and intelligence, which are separate from the base functioning of the human brain, that we learn to infer and assign alternate meanings and begin to read into and decide for ourselves what we think the person's words really meant.
Hence our planet is full of rampant miscommunication. Hence we always get what we ask for, but rarely do we get what we really want, really meant to get, or get it in the way we wanted it.
Because the brain that uses our thoughts to direct our actions does not infer. It hears the words we think and say, and it "goes and stands by until further notice". Because the Universe, which gathers the energies of our words and thoughts and manifests it into physical matter, does not infer. It hears the words we think and say, and it "goes and stands by until further notice", too.
So when life is going haywire, you set a perfectly reasonable intention for a better outcome. You craft it very carefully, using all you've learned from NLP and knowing what words are more beneficial. You avoid shooting yourself in the foot by sending out the negative opposite of what you really want ("I am a nonsmoker" is the intention; the negative opposite is "I don't want to smoke anymore"). You stay focused on it, you hold it in your mind, you meditate, and so on.
And nothing seems to happen. Life is stagnant, as usual. And then you begin to feel that little niggling doubt poking at the corner of your mind. You grow a bit uncertain. You wonder if it's ever going to really happen.
"NO!" you cry out. "I set my intention and that's what I'm sticking to". You reaffirm. You feel stronger. And life goes on.
And once again, the worry and doubt gradually increase, turning into panic and hesitation and then fear.
Out of desperation to get yourself back on the affirmation track, you cry out to the Universe in a plea for mercy. "Please! God! Universe! Buddha! Whomever You are!!! I can't stand it anymore. Please help me." And then you utter the words that deal the final blow to your intention. Words, so innocuous, so innocent, they couldn't possibly have a negative effect on your desires.
You call out and demand that the situation turns around right now.
And then, much to your horror, within a few days, things do turn around.
For the worse. Instead of getting better, they're falling apart. Which of course sends you into paroxysms of panic, because you feel like the person who is carrying a precariously balanced overload of stuff who just felt one little bauble slip, and you know it's only moments before you lose control of the whole thing and everything goes flying everywhere.
And you cannot for the life of you figure out what you did to so drastically derail your carefully crafted intention.
I can tell you. You told it to "please stand by". You didn't mean for it to actually stand by; you meant for it to hang out and wait while we fix this. But you didn't SAY "please hang out and wait while we fix this". You said, in effect, "please stand by".
I see you're confused.
You said, "Turn it [this situation] around."
Well, what's wrong with that? you ask.
Everything, if your initial intention was well-set, and you were doing a fine job of staying on track with it and keeping it focused. Because despite appearances to the contrary, your outcome—the manifestation of the actual result you desire—was already on its way to you. Things were already reorganizing themselves to align with your intention, like the players gathering and taking places before the curtain rises. The orchestra was tuning up, the singers warming up, the last-minute stand-ins were going over their lines one last time in preparation for the curtain call. And the curtain master had his hands wrapped around the heavy cables, watching for the signal to pull and reveal the tableau.
But you blew it.
You said,
TURN.
IT.
AROUND.
So, to use another metaphor, your ship, which was about to dock at port, applied the brakes, shut off the engines, and began the long slow process of turning around. So it could head in the opposite direction. "Sorry sailors. I know we just spotted land after months at sea, but I guess we won't be discovering the New World. We've been called back to Spain."
I'm sure you get it now. Your intention was happily on its way to manifestation, but you panicked and you told it to turn around. You didn't MEAN to tell it to go away. You just couldn't see that it WAS on its way, that it was almost here.
In fact, that worry and doubt you felt? Perhaps it could have been the excitement of knowing It was mere moments from arrival. Like the anticipation in the days before Christmas. But you misinterpreted it, assigned it a new meaning (fear), and sent out a counter intention to turn it around.
It's fine to infer and interpret with other intelligent beings in human form. But to our knowledge, nobody else has what we consider to be true "reasoning" capabilities. Horses, cats, dogs, crickets—they only understand what we tell them, to some extent. No. Sit. Lay down. Quiet. They don't understand that "stop barking" means "be quiet". They don't understand that "no, don't climb the curtains" means "stay down". They interpret short verbatim sentences, if they understand the words at all and aren't just responding to the tone of voice and our body language. So does our lizard brain and the Universe.
When you SAY, "turn it around", it turns around. Regardless of the direction, good or bad, in which it was headed before you issued your edict.
So watch what you say, think, complain about and ask for. Because you will get it. Verbatim. Word are vital. Use them wisely.
And now I must finish my NaNoWriMo submission (9,889 words to go before tomorrow night's deadline), so please stand by while I go do that.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Joe Vitale Discusses the Need Zone
I like to read the blogs of other LOA masters. One in particular is Joe Vitale ("The Attractor Factor", "Zero Limits", appeared in "The Secret"), aka Mr. Fire. Today, he discussed the concept of The Need Zone, something I hadn't yet heard about.
It threw me for a loop. It had my mind grappling to understand the concept, just as Joe said had happened to him when he first heard about it. The idea that one would attract what they need by upping your need for it? Please. I agree with Joe—that's not what one wants to hear when they are already in dire financial straits. As the song says, "I'm already there!"
Besides, isn't needing something counter-intuitive to getting it? Need equals desperation. Need equals lack, and focusing on need/lack only attracts more need/lack. Right?
According to Joe's post, which I encourage you to pop over and read lest I become redundant here, it's possible to attract the resources needed when you stretch yourself into the need.
I thought about it. Then I remembered a time when I first had my horse, and despite a beautiful beginning, within a few months we'd had a major parting of ways on a trail ride and it became very apparent that I hadn't a clue how to read or communicate with my horse. I had no idea how to predict what he may or may not do, never mind what to do about it, and that created fear.
I needed someone to teach me how to understand horses, fully and completely, and I needed it NOW. It seemed impossible. Nobody at my barn seemed all that savvy; I didn't know any horsemen other than Dad and he was beyond the age where he could show me. I was on my own and lost.
Then I found a training program that said it would teach me exactly what I needed to know. I bought it... and it worked. Far better than skeptical me had anticipated.
There were more memories of similar incidents where needs were met once I determined I needed them. But I still didn't quite get it.
Then I smacked myself. I just had one this week. While I have some money in the bank, my pocket money was running low. Pocket money, in my book, is the extra cash I make for small jobs that I don't put in the checking account—I get paid in cash, and use that for little things like going out to dinner, buying milk and lotto tickets, entertainment. That way I avoid draining the checking account paying for incidentals. I had a stray thought that I needed to get more pocket money.
The temp agency called last week to let me know that one of the part-time positions I've occasionally taken was starting back up again. The job is doing phone surveys. Not terrible, but not great pay.
But I've put off calling to commit because I have serious reservations about going back. It is VERY hard on the voice. Nine weeks of calling people and wrestling them into doing 200-question surveys left me hoarse. As a vocalist, I knew I was on the road to nodes and permanent vocal damage despite using my voice properly and caring for it. In addition, it's loud in the room, hard to hear, and I'd turned up the volume to the max. I've noticed the hearing loss in that ear has become a tad more pronounced in certain note ranges. Not good. After my last stint with them, I'd decided I was done with phone surveys, and had already made up my mind that I wasn't going back ever.
I was very surprised by the call. I'd been intending for a completely different type of work. Why was THIS making a re-appearance?
Oh.
DUH.
Because I'd asked for it.
I'd declared a need for more pocket money. And that job is the easiest way to snag some. I inadvertently put myself directly into the Need Zone for pocket money. I didn't have to stretch very far to have the resources walk up and meet me (if I wanted to take them).
So... perhaps I need to restate my need. Think bigger, so I attract bigger. Instead of needing pocket money, my need should be more expansive.
If I'm understanding this correctly, then theoretically, were I to say, "OK, I AM going to graduate school, and the money for tuition and living expenses is coming from somewhere (stipend or not)" and really put my foot down... then it would happen?
Meaning, I might not win the lottery just because I declare I need money. Where is the REASON? Just to have the money?
If I declared I was winning the lottery and had a very good reason for it then stretched into the reason while awaiting the outcome, would that put me into the Need Zone and finally attract that win?
If I declared that the vacant home I still have IS sold, and I have a very good reason for attracting a buyer out of thin air (no matter what, despite the economy/housing market), then stretch into the reason for the sale while awaiting his or her arrival, does that put me into the Need Zone?
Maybe the trick is to have a very good REASON for needing the money or resource—then declare it, then stretch into it by performing the steps toward the goal (registering to take the GRE, preparing essays and portfolios—conscious, concrete efforts), and expect the money/resource to arrive.
Or declare your intent to start a business, and have a REASON for the partner to show up. And so on.
I think this is what Joe is talking about. Who knows? Maybe he'll come by and read this and tell me if I'm on the right track. I could sure use the added insights!
It threw me for a loop. It had my mind grappling to understand the concept, just as Joe said had happened to him when he first heard about it. The idea that one would attract what they need by upping your need for it? Please. I agree with Joe—that's not what one wants to hear when they are already in dire financial straits. As the song says, "I'm already there!"
Besides, isn't needing something counter-intuitive to getting it? Need equals desperation. Need equals lack, and focusing on need/lack only attracts more need/lack. Right?
According to Joe's post, which I encourage you to pop over and read lest I become redundant here, it's possible to attract the resources needed when you stretch yourself into the need.
I thought about it. Then I remembered a time when I first had my horse, and despite a beautiful beginning, within a few months we'd had a major parting of ways on a trail ride and it became very apparent that I hadn't a clue how to read or communicate with my horse. I had no idea how to predict what he may or may not do, never mind what to do about it, and that created fear.
I needed someone to teach me how to understand horses, fully and completely, and I needed it NOW. It seemed impossible. Nobody at my barn seemed all that savvy; I didn't know any horsemen other than Dad and he was beyond the age where he could show me. I was on my own and lost.
Then I found a training program that said it would teach me exactly what I needed to know. I bought it... and it worked. Far better than skeptical me had anticipated.
There were more memories of similar incidents where needs were met once I determined I needed them. But I still didn't quite get it.
Then I smacked myself. I just had one this week. While I have some money in the bank, my pocket money was running low. Pocket money, in my book, is the extra cash I make for small jobs that I don't put in the checking account—I get paid in cash, and use that for little things like going out to dinner, buying milk and lotto tickets, entertainment. That way I avoid draining the checking account paying for incidentals. I had a stray thought that I needed to get more pocket money.
The temp agency called last week to let me know that one of the part-time positions I've occasionally taken was starting back up again. The job is doing phone surveys. Not terrible, but not great pay.
But I've put off calling to commit because I have serious reservations about going back. It is VERY hard on the voice. Nine weeks of calling people and wrestling them into doing 200-question surveys left me hoarse. As a vocalist, I knew I was on the road to nodes and permanent vocal damage despite using my voice properly and caring for it. In addition, it's loud in the room, hard to hear, and I'd turned up the volume to the max. I've noticed the hearing loss in that ear has become a tad more pronounced in certain note ranges. Not good. After my last stint with them, I'd decided I was done with phone surveys, and had already made up my mind that I wasn't going back ever.
I was very surprised by the call. I'd been intending for a completely different type of work. Why was THIS making a re-appearance?
Oh.
DUH.
Because I'd asked for it.
I'd declared a need for more pocket money. And that job is the easiest way to snag some. I inadvertently put myself directly into the Need Zone for pocket money. I didn't have to stretch very far to have the resources walk up and meet me (if I wanted to take them).
So... perhaps I need to restate my need. Think bigger, so I attract bigger. Instead of needing pocket money, my need should be more expansive.
If I'm understanding this correctly, then theoretically, were I to say, "OK, I AM going to graduate school, and the money for tuition and living expenses is coming from somewhere (stipend or not)" and really put my foot down... then it would happen?
Meaning, I might not win the lottery just because I declare I need money. Where is the REASON? Just to have the money?
If I declared I was winning the lottery and had a very good reason for it then stretched into the reason while awaiting the outcome, would that put me into the Need Zone and finally attract that win?
If I declared that the vacant home I still have IS sold, and I have a very good reason for attracting a buyer out of thin air (no matter what, despite the economy/housing market), then stretch into the reason for the sale while awaiting his or her arrival, does that put me into the Need Zone?
Maybe the trick is to have a very good REASON for needing the money or resource—then declare it, then stretch into it by performing the steps toward the goal (registering to take the GRE, preparing essays and portfolios—conscious, concrete efforts), and expect the money/resource to arrive.
Or declare your intent to start a business, and have a REASON for the partner to show up. And so on.
I think this is what Joe is talking about. Who knows? Maybe he'll come by and read this and tell me if I'm on the right track. I could sure use the added insights!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
If What We Resist, Persists... Is Resistance the Key?
It seems that the more I dislike something, the more it persists and continues to show up in my life.
I've also realized I have a habit, when I like something, of becoming fully involved in it, almost obsessively for a time, then one day, the enthusiasm wanes. Once this occurs, I'm able to easily let it go—just drop it. Remove my hand, so to speak, and allow it to fall without emotion of any kind. OK, I'm done with that.
This doesn't mean I don't like it—just that I've gotten to a point where I have lost the intense emotional involvement with it that the novelty of newness brings with it. I've reached the saturation point of the event or interest. Obsession is similar to the desperation one feels when negative circumstances persist; only obsession can feel more likeable.
It seems the moment I'm able to reach this point, the more "normal" it becomes for my life, and the easier it is to keep it around. It shows up in my life without bidding, and I'm always quietly pleased, almost a bit blasé, to have it arrive again. Which it does. Consistently, without effort on my part.
The thought occurred to me today that to change my life, perhaps I either have to figure out a way to fully despise the desired life changes (so the conditions arrive and persist) OR fall fully and completely in love with the desired life changes to the obsession point. Then when they arrive, embrace them, obsess over them, throw myself into them headlong until I reach the saturation point and am able to let go.
Perhaps then they will settle in and BE.
Or...
Maybe it's about loving the Now. Loving what IS. Even if it isn't very lovable.
Maybe, if I were to have two full-time jobs (a concept that causes extreme cringing and a big NO to rise up), and if they were the kinds of jobs I would never love...
Maybe I should embrace them fully, and LOVE them. Maybe loving them to the saturation point will make it easier to drop them one day. Just, done. No longer need this in my life; now something better comes along.
Hmm.
I'm not sure I've quite figured out this one, but I feel like I'm on the verge of a breakthrough.
I've also realized I have a habit, when I like something, of becoming fully involved in it, almost obsessively for a time, then one day, the enthusiasm wanes. Once this occurs, I'm able to easily let it go—just drop it. Remove my hand, so to speak, and allow it to fall without emotion of any kind. OK, I'm done with that.
This doesn't mean I don't like it—just that I've gotten to a point where I have lost the intense emotional involvement with it that the novelty of newness brings with it. I've reached the saturation point of the event or interest. Obsession is similar to the desperation one feels when negative circumstances persist; only obsession can feel more likeable.
It seems the moment I'm able to reach this point, the more "normal" it becomes for my life, and the easier it is to keep it around. It shows up in my life without bidding, and I'm always quietly pleased, almost a bit blasé, to have it arrive again. Which it does. Consistently, without effort on my part.
The thought occurred to me today that to change my life, perhaps I either have to figure out a way to fully despise the desired life changes (so the conditions arrive and persist) OR fall fully and completely in love with the desired life changes to the obsession point. Then when they arrive, embrace them, obsess over them, throw myself into them headlong until I reach the saturation point and am able to let go.
Perhaps then they will settle in and BE.
Or...
Maybe it's about loving the Now. Loving what IS. Even if it isn't very lovable.
Maybe, if I were to have two full-time jobs (a concept that causes extreme cringing and a big NO to rise up), and if they were the kinds of jobs I would never love...
Maybe I should embrace them fully, and LOVE them. Maybe loving them to the saturation point will make it easier to drop them one day. Just, done. No longer need this in my life; now something better comes along.
Hmm.
I'm not sure I've quite figured out this one, but I feel like I'm on the verge of a breakthrough.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Minding the Gap
As everyone who has studied the Law of Attraction knows, there are certain steps required in the manifestation process:
I'm calling it Minding the Gap—the time between setting the intention/taking action steps and seeing the resulting manifestation.
This is a dangerous time in anyone's journey. Intentions are like missiles—we fire them off without knowing it, and they are already in progress. Then we set a conscious intention without being aware of the previously-set unconscious intentions we'd made before we knew better.
What happens is this. Let's say I am in the midst of awaiting the arrival of my consciously manifested result, and a completely different event occurs. My initial reaction?
Whoops! I tend to feel thrown off-course, and this is when I run the biggest risk of messing up. I think "Oh no, I made a mistake" or "Uh-oh, it doesn't look like it's going to work out after all!". This causes me to focus on the wrong outcome! I focus on the Oh No part.
What we focus on, expands, so the manifestation result shifts. Instead of focusing on the outcome I prefer, I allow my focus to shift to the outcome I didn't want and wasn't aware I'd called for. Then I get that outcome, and think the LOA doesn't work.
Ah, but it DID. :-) I just wasn't expecting that outcome because I wasn't aware I was setting the intention to manifest it.
The trick is, when an unexpected event occurs or something happens that seems to be the opposite of the preferred outcome, take it as a sign that your preferred outcome is on its way.
Why? Because manifestations, like intention-setting, happen in sequence. I'd unconsciously set an intention, and it manifested; since I'd set a conscious intention in between, this means my conscious manifestation is next in line!
No matter what happens, stay focused ONLY on your preferred outcome, knowing that anything random or unexpected that occurs between intention-setting and manifestation is just fallout from previous subconscious intentions, and the LOA WILL WORK for you. Every time.
- figuring out what you want
- figuring out what you don't want
- clearing limiting beliefs
- paying attention to the language we use when setting the intentions because the Universe does not interpret meaning and cannot process negatives (as in "I don't want to do this anymore"
- acting on the nudges the Universe provides us once we've set our intentions
- learning to let go of the "how"
I'm calling it Minding the Gap—the time between setting the intention/taking action steps and seeing the resulting manifestation.
This is a dangerous time in anyone's journey. Intentions are like missiles—we fire them off without knowing it, and they are already in progress. Then we set a conscious intention without being aware of the previously-set unconscious intentions we'd made before we knew better.
What happens is this. Let's say I am in the midst of awaiting the arrival of my consciously manifested result, and a completely different event occurs. My initial reaction?
Whoops! I tend to feel thrown off-course, and this is when I run the biggest risk of messing up. I think "Oh no, I made a mistake" or "Uh-oh, it doesn't look like it's going to work out after all!". This causes me to focus on the wrong outcome! I focus on the Oh No part.
What we focus on, expands, so the manifestation result shifts. Instead of focusing on the outcome I prefer, I allow my focus to shift to the outcome I didn't want and wasn't aware I'd called for. Then I get that outcome, and think the LOA doesn't work.
Ah, but it DID. :-) I just wasn't expecting that outcome because I wasn't aware I was setting the intention to manifest it.
The trick is, when an unexpected event occurs or something happens that seems to be the opposite of the preferred outcome, take it as a sign that your preferred outcome is on its way.
Why? Because manifestations, like intention-setting, happen in sequence. I'd unconsciously set an intention, and it manifested; since I'd set a conscious intention in between, this means my conscious manifestation is next in line!
No matter what happens, stay focused ONLY on your preferred outcome, knowing that anything random or unexpected that occurs between intention-setting and manifestation is just fallout from previous subconscious intentions, and the LOA WILL WORK for you. Every time.
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