Whenever I find a miraculous thirty-day cure in a book I've purchased, I instantly toss it out. I am not an advocate of thirty-day plans. In fact, I detest them, which is obviously why I designed one for myself within days of being introduced to the laws of deliberate creation.
Having said that, I have to tell you somewhat red-faced that while those incredible thirty days turned my life around by giving me proof that change was possible, the first ten days were a nightmare. In fact, working through those days was the hardest thing I had ever done from giving up drinking, to stopping smoking, to breaking up (which I was actually fairly good at).
But the results, of course, were startling or else I would not have continued. Never had it entered my head that it was possible to live life without some degree of concern, not to mention full-blown stress or outright panic. And yet that is precisely what was happening. I was learning to live without worry. It was astonishing. I seemed to have found a means to live in a state completely counter to what I believed to be normal.
While I live the four steps of deliberate creating almost every day now, if it hadn't been for that thirty-day introductory program I designed for myself, I doubt I would have continued. My addiction to negative emotion was too ingrained, too much a way of life to give up in the blink of an eye. I would not have known where to start or how to proceed, no matter how great I thought these teachings to be.
Those first thirty days gave me such an enormous head start into learning how to take charge of and control my energy flow, that I've just about blasted every major fear I ever had— known and unknown—out of my life. Oh sure, I'm still a little skitzy about driving on icy roads, so I only do it when I'm sure I'm feeling okay. I still have some trouble speaking up for myself in intimate situations, so I only do it when I know my valve is open. Then it's a breeze. I sometimes lock my doors if that's going to make me feel better on down days, but genuine fear of break-ins is simply nonexistent.
And money? It's cascading in now with ease, and has been for quite some time, but I found out early on in my program that money would come in or stay away in direct proportion to my energy flow. If there had been no money coming in, I knew my valve had been closed with worry and fear. When money was more abundant, I knew my valve had opened some. When no money was coming in, I had to do a lot more of what I call “flip-switching,” the rapid altering of one's energy from negative to positive. I had to find ways to get me out of whatever worry-habit I'd been in, and open up that valve. Then, as long as I kept my valve even a little more open than closed, money would come, but only in proportion to how much Feel Good energy I could muster.
Sure, I still focus negatively, but only for a brief time—a few moments, a couple of hours, sometimes even a day or two if I really want to feel like old times. But then I've had enough and turn myself back around. I am simply no longer willing to sacrifice all my Wants and dreams and well-being for self-indulgent negative feelings over some stupid negative event. And I no longer charge in like the Lone Ranger against unwanted conditions to fix them, fix them, fix them. Indeed, old dogs most assuredly can learn new tricks.
But old dog, young dog, or somewhere in between, there is not one reason under the sun, not one excuse in this whole universe why you can't do this too, if you want to. A freedom of life is waiting for you that is beyond any capacity I have to describe, a freedom so unnaturally extraordinary that one can only know it through the joy of living it.
I'm talking about total personal freedom: freedom from boredom or monotony, from needing to prove or justify, from needing to need, from anxiety, and from all the imprisoning Shoulds of life we have so staunchly placed upon ourselves.
I'm talking about the freedom to exist as we desire, the freedom to acquire, to be outrageous, to prosper, and even to excel if that is a desire.
I'm talking about creating your own utopia, not next year, not in the next decade, but now.
That's where those first thirty days launched me. No, not all at once; this thing is ongoing and will be for as long as I'm in this body. Some days are better than others, but all days hold more enduring joy than I ever thought possible, because I have the keys. Whether or not I use them is my choice, but one thing is for certain, I have no more excuses on which to fall back.
A mild warning, however. If you do decide to embark full tilt on this thirty-day turnaround, you could be facing a major battle with your fears. Old habits die hard, and your fears are not going to like it that you're thinking about cutting them loose. Frankly, neither are you. Yet all we're dealing with here is habits. That's all, just comfy old habits.
This relentless habit we have of negative thinking is so much a part of how we define “normal,” most of us wouldn't know who we are without it. We'd lose our footing, for living in that vibration is the same as being hooked on drugs; once hooked, life can't go on without a fix.
I was speaking recently about the Law of Attraction and deliberate creating at a rather large twelve-step gathering with folks in recovery, and found a fascinating dichotomy. On one hand there was eager acceptance of the principles, even a twinge of excitement. Yet on the other hand there was an obvious fear of letting go of the need to need.
One gal said, “I think what you're saying is exciting, but you've overlooked one thing: I need to keep coming to these meetings for my own growth. I need these people, or I'll go under again. I didn't have my valve open when I came six years ago, and it was these people who helped me get it open. If I leave now … well, I'd be afraid to do that. I'd be afraid to be out on my own like that.”
Her valve was not open. This gal's addiction to fear had long ago turned into a need; her fear had become her fix. She felt her props would be knocked out from under her if anyone dared suggest she could wipe away her fears forever just by finding ways to feel better. To even broach the subject was sincerely terrifying to her. Fear was her identity, her security blanket, and she wasn't alone; that same reaction came from many. “Give me the keys to happiness, but don't you dare take away my insecurities or I'll feel stripped and vulnerable.” Our ever-present need to need.
Then there's the unfortunate concept held by so many of us that before reliable recovery from any addiction or emotional disorder can take place, we must unearth all the painful junk we believe was dumped on us in early years. Another fellow said at that same meeting, “I don't see how you can feel better without regurgitating (his exact words!) all that horror we had to go through growing up.” A habit of negative thinking turned into a need.
Our need for emotional pain to feel alive, or even for mild discomfort, is the greatest addiction ever known to mankind. Granted, we'll probably never stop having negative reactions, because contrast is what being physical is all about. But we most certainly can learn to allow the contrast, our likes and don't likes, without having to feel and flow so much negativity.
But I hadn't learned any of this yet, so when interest rates went up and my prolific mortgage business all but vanished, I went totally ballistic. Loans dried up overnight, and overnight I went from positive to negative, blaming the condition—the rotten market—for my mood and state of mind. From “Man, this is hot!,” I went to “Dear God in heaven, what do I do now?!”
With my focus glued to the declining market and my rapidly declining bank account, I anxiously cast a gaze to my upcoming infomercial that was almost ready to air. Surely this would pull me out of my financial mess. Surely this would save me. Surely there would be enough orders for this remarkable program to ensure that the venture—and I—would thrive.
As had been true for most of my life, my addiction to problems once again became my security blanket. The only place I felt safe was wrapped in the familiar vibrations of negativity. I tried to turn on the buzz I had learned to play with, but was too fretful and quickly gave up. Never once did I write a new script; I didn't know I could. All I did was lose sleep, drink too much coffee, yell at the dogs, and become more and more terrified over the vast sums of money I had spent, alongside of the sizable sums that were not coming in.
Then came the “what ifs?” What if the infomercial didn't work? What if I had spent the equivalent of five years' income and didn't receive enough orders to continue? How would I make a living again? How would I … what could I … what if … what if … what if … ?
Once again I was creating a powerfully charged, very magnetic, and very negative vortex that was getting bigger by the second with each fearful thought I'd project. I kept trying to believe that things wouldn't have gone so smoothly for me the year before when I was making all that money while producing the program and show, if the success of the show weren't “meant to be.” Ha!
The half-hour commercial aired over an extended weekend in twenty different markets from Hawaii to New York and every place in between. I don't have to tell you what happened. There's not a Want in the universe that could have made it through the thick vibrations of my Don't Wants that were pleading, “I don't want this thing to fail; oh please, I don't want this thing to fail!” My valve was sealed, the door to my toy store was bolted tight, and my resistance to anything even remotely resembling well-being was larger than the Milky Way.
The size of the disaster sent me deeper than ever into fear. For three frantic months I ran around like a chicken with its head cut off in the Hi Ho Silver mode, my valve slammed shut, trying desperately to generate some income while maintaining a constant focus on a train of things unwanted. Never once did I let go of my unceasing blame of—and anxiety over—conditions. All of them! The market, the lack of savings, the lack of income, the TV disaster, the production bills still due. I did not like what I was looking at. Needless to say, the harder I looked, the more of it I got!
Finally, in answer to my anguished cries for help, I guess the universe took pity and slipped in some assistance on a sort of “take it or leave it” basis. Not big dollars (not any dollars), not new ideas, not even people to help—just some teachings. The principles of the Law of Attraction had been unceremoniously dumped in my lap.
As excited as I was about these new teachings, to blithely jump into the four steps of the Law of Attraction would have been utterly impossible for me in the beginning. I was mired too deep in fear. With eighteen hours a day of ever-increasing anxiety, I was so awash in negative focus, negative feelings, and negative vibrations that, without some kind of starter program, I knew I'd give up before I'd begun.
So I said to myself, “Okay, this shouldn't be too tough; I just have to find a way to stop thinking about things that get me uptight. No big deal. I'll just stop thinking about them for thirty days, then I can get on with the rest of the four steps.”
Dreamer! It was a very big deal. But with a determination born of being on the bottom again and nowhere else to turn, I dove in and refused to give up.
If, indeed, you do desire to embark on the magnificent journey of becoming the deliberate creator you came here to be, I strongly urge that you dive into these thirty days too, before playing around with anything else. If you'll stay with it, the thirty days will identify the depth of your negative habit, giving you an invaluable benchmark from which to fly. At least it did for me. I had to establish where I was before I could chart a course. Man, oh, man, did I ever find out where I was.
So this was my start, my own eager—though thoroughly naive—beginning to shake loose the vibrational shackles in which I had been so unknowingly bound for decades. This is the thirty-day program I designed not a day after receiving the Law of Attraction material. I'll tell you straight from my journal how it worked for me and what you might expect along the way.
There are only two steps to my introductory program:
1) Remove your focus from any major thing that is currently causing serious fear (worry, concern, anxiety, stress, etc.), AND KEEP IT OFF!
Notice I didn't say to remove your focus from all things negative, just the current, pressing items, because these are easiest to spot and feel! They are always major, in-your-face Don't Wants of some kind that are causing you to be uptight.
If thinking about your empty bank account makes you tense, stop thinking about it right now and flip-switch to Number Two (see below) right away. If thinking about your pending divorce generates that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, then stop thinking about it right now and flip-switch (see below) as fast as you can. If thinking about your upcoming licensing exam is making you queasy, then stop thinking about it right now and flip-switch as fast as you can.
In my first thirty days, I personally didn't get into talking to myself or writing new scripts; that was far too complicated early on. However, if you do want to reassure yourself out loud or write a new script, go for it. Just remember that in these first thirty days it's vitally important to have a subject immediately available for you to flip into and quickly switch vibrations. That's the only way I found to begin breaking my insidious habit of “negative.”
2) Establish a flip-switch topic for each day by finding one new item about yourself to appreciate.
A flip-switch topic is one you've established for the day. It's ready for you ahead of time to flip into the moment you realize you're feeling anxious, or a little down, or even moderately out of sorts. It's a topic you've chosen to have handy so you don't have to frantically search for some valve-opening thing to think about.
Don't think that finding something about yourself to appreciate is namby-pamby. Believe me, it's tough. No matter what our position in life may be, most of us hold such great distaste of acknowledging our own attributes or talents that the thought of having to dig up a new one each day for thirty days can be really irksome. Happily, it's that very distaste which makes this exercise so valuable, for the process of digging up a new subject each day, along with the considerable effort it takes to stay focused on the thing, gets us so involved while we're stewing about it, we ultimately forget about the exterior worries.
So, what's to appreciate? Well, how about your hair, or your clean nails, or your singing voice, or your expertise with figures, or love of birds, or a great body, or leadership capabilities, or acting talent, or strong hands, or finesse in parenting, or proficiency in skiing, or position in the company, or sales abilities?
If you think you can't find thirty things to appreciate about yourself, find them anyway. Then, when some habitual worry comes sneaking into your day, and you catch yourself in that hypnotic state of seemingly unbreakable focus on whatever it is you're worried about, you now have something waiting in the wings to immediately override it. You flip-switch INSTANTLY to your daily topic.
Now this is important: Stay with whatever topic of appreciation you've chosen for that day, no matter how absurd it might seem. In other words, don't bounce around with your daily subject of self-appreciation just because it makes you feel silly or you think you might like something better. With the ever-present help of your Guidance, you chose it for some reason, so that subject is yours for twenty-four hours. Keep it!
Then, think about your daily appreciation item when you're not in fear. Think about it every minute you remember to do it. That kind of concentrated, high-vibrational focus will do more to break up your habitual worry vibration—faster—than you can imagine.
That's all there was to my program:
1) Keep my attention off anything that caused me to worry (which mostly pertained to finances), and
2) In its place, instantly install—flip-switch to—what ever was up for me that day to appreciate.
For the first three days, though, I hadn't developed the flip-switch process, and those days were incredibly rough. I was bowled over by the depth and duration of my negative attention spans. I found I slipped into worry at the blink of an eye. I was constantly uptight. No money was coming in and a lot was going out. My ads weren't working and neither was the new salesperson I had grabbed in panic who was more into lack than I was. I tried to figure out what I wanted, but it all kept coming out in Don't Wants, so I gave up on that routine until I knew more about what I was doing.
It seemed as if this ever-present undertone of worry never left, even when I was smiling at people or talking cheerily on the phone. I'd hang up the phone and promptly wonder where the next loan was coming from, then realize what I was doing and try desperately to find something else—anything else—to think about. Since that didn't work, I was really floundering.
The hours went by slowly in those first three days. I was appalled at how many times in each hour I was focusing on my lack, a habit that was hard for me to fathom since just a few months before the money had been pouring in like Niagara Falls. But I had the key now, and so help me, I was going to figure out how to use the fool thing.
By day three I was finding that probably 97 percent of my days were given over to worry, concern, anxiety, and fear. That awareness depressed me thoroughly, then made me furious, which surely didn't help. I had no idea I had been worrying so routinely, so unknowingly. Talking to myself was useless, and writing a new script was impossible in my frame of mind. That's when I knew I had to find something ready-made to flip into, something with a nice easy focus, yet with a good high vibration. Thanks to my Guidance, I chose self-appreciation, thinking that would be fairly easy. Oh sure! Not only was it harder than I had anticipated, but I found the toughest part was staying there once I got there, which just made me more determined to continue.
At any rate, self-appreciation is what I chose, and I instantly found that switching from negative to positive was much easier to do. Now I had something concrete to flip into, although I was finding it difficult to feeeeel the appreciation, as opposed to simply thinking it … to feeeeel it with an intensity that might start a buzz, even if the item for the day was nothing more than my shaved legs.
Sometimes I had to walk outside, take myself away from the office environment, and just stand under a tree until I could jump-start with an outer smile and get to that Gentle Inner Smile where I could finally overlay, with feeling, whatever item of appreciation was up for the day.
By day five I knew things were starting to turn around. Something was working—slowly, yes, but working. Although I could still only get into a really up-feeling place for a quarter of the day, the rest of the day would go fairly evenly without that incessant somber focus on lack.
During those first ten days, I didn't think I was going to make it. The more I had to flip-switch, the more depressed I became that this vibrant person (me) whom people had always viewed as being so positive, up, and happy, was nothing but a common, run-of-the-mill worrywart, the very kind of person I used to tell people to stop being!
As the days wore on, I began to doubt I could ever reach that coveted time of actually getting through sixteen to eighteen hours without some degree of anxiety. Sometimes I would get so discouraged I'd scream at the universe, break into tears, and shove my hands in my pockets to go sulking outside for a walk in profuse self-pity.
Indeed, many times during those first ten days the possibility of learning to live without that familiar and even comforting vibration of concern that had been such an ally for the better part of my life seemed beyond all hope. What was causing me even more anguish was the distressing realization that I had this much fear to begin with.
Well, I had broken out of other addictions, and by damn, I'd break out of this one no matter what it took.
On day six (no, I'm not going through all thirty days), for no apparent reason, I went into a wildly deep depression and tears. I was feeling frustrated and angry but had no idea why. (I found out much later it was from a chemical change in my body.) Finally I went out and sat under one of my favorite trees for a while to help me calm down so I could flip-switch over to my daily appreciation. It took about forty-five minutes before I could plug in, but I did, and to my delight there were no more tacky feelings for the rest of the day.
Today if I get emotionally sideswiped like that, I instantly ask myself what Don't Want I'm focusing on or what's been bothering me, and usually find the answer quickly so I can talk it out, talk it down, and let it go. But back then, so early in the first inning, unless it was something obvious, I just tried to change the feeling.
As the first ten days began to wind down, I was aware of dramatic changes beginning to take place. Those out-ofnowhere sensations of foreboding that would wash over me for no apparent reason throughout the day were down to about two, from dozens. The overwhelming preponderance of negative vibrations had ceased, and with that realization I felt as if I had just conquered Mount Everest nude. I was euphoric!
Also during those first ten days I became aware of how difficult it was for me to allow myself to fantasize, to want, to desire. Oh sure, I'd give vent to the usual things like more money, enjoying more time to do my work, and so on, but rarely did I ever allow myself to indulge in my deepest dreams. If a fantasy did cross my mind, such as my lifelong desire for a secluded second home on a beautiful mountain lake, I'd simply sigh and shove it deeper inside to remain a forbidden longing.
I decided to nip that stupidity in the bud and on day eight went out to split some wood, a particular passion of mine. I began scolding myself out loud (tough love) that darn it all, it was high time to bring that old hidden longing—and any others if I found them—out of the closet, turn it into an open-faced Want, and allow myself to feel the excitement of it, no matter what.
And I did. For one splendid hour, after turning on my buzz and stepping into some Feel Good, I chopped wood and talked to the dogs and me about my cabin in the woods by the lake. I described the smells, the trees, the dock, the cabin decor, the sparkles on the water at sunset. The hour flew by in seconds. I had broken through a barrier totally impregnable until now, the barrier of giving to self. I had allowed myself the joy of bathing in a fantasy and turning it into a Want. I had just turned another corner, and I knew it.
Sure enough, that week the synchronicity started. I saw “my lake” on TV the very next day. I found it on a calendar. I saw it in a magazine ad as if the universe were saying, “We heard you, kid, keep it coming and it's yours!” (As of this writing, it almost is!) Once again, I was euphoric.
By day nine, it was time to pay bills again, and I was uneasy. How would I feel? Could I stay out of fear of lack? Could I flip-switch my focus?
With a vise-like determination to pay attention to my feelings, I went to my desk. Thank heavens the monthly process was easier than usual, though I found it difficult to flip into—and maintain—a focus of appreciation. So I broke into song. Why not? Anything to crack that ancient habit of dreading the tenth of the month. It worked fairly well, but I ended up going out into my field to enjoy the late afternoon quiet and get my buzz going. There were no more negative feelings for the rest of the afternoon or evening. In my journal, that last sentence is underlined!
I knew I was on a roll. Ideas were starting to pop all over the place. I would deliberately try to push myself into a negative feeling and found I could not do it! But when one snuck in, I'd smile like a Cheshire cat, pat myself on the back for recognizing the feeling, and flip-switch vibrational gears.
Finally the day came, that long-awaited day, where I knew I had completely relaxed about income (though I still had none) to the point of being honestly unconcerned. God, what a fantastic feeling that was!
Out of years of habit, I found I'd still cut loose with all sorts of negative statements like, “No, sorry I can't go with you, I'm too low on funds and don't have enough coming in.” Of course I'd feel glum the minute anything like that popped out of my mouth, but from there it didn't take much to find what had caused the feeling (always a Don't Want), and I'd flip-switch myself right out of it.
Day by tough day, I was watching a lifetime of unconscious negative thinking and negative emotion dissolve. I was breaking out of an addiction so deep, so profound, I never even knew I had it. There was no debate; changing my focus and my feelings was not only possible, it was happening. I waited impatiently to see the lucrative results, a really dimwitted thing to do!
The next twenty days were roller coasters. On the up and easy-buzzing days, I was showered with fantastic ideas to substantially increase my income. But the down days weren't just a little down, they were under the Grand Canyon with a strange new exaggerated moodiness. No one had told me—or any of us attempting to control our energies—about this rather unpleasant but apparently common occurrence that seems to happen when we start pulling more high-frequency energy into the body.
(We know now these swings come from the body acclimating itself to the prolonged periods of higher vibrations, which in turn cause a dramatic change in the body's chemical makeup. Since emotion—which is negative and physical, unlike feeling, which is positive and etherical—is chemically induced, the mood swings are simply chemical adjustments taking place. Some folks have experienced these mood swings rather profoundly, some only moderately, but everybody seems to have something to say about them. Fortunately, this passes. In fact, you can feel it letting up by about six weeks and usually gone altogether within three months.)
These rock-and-rollers would appear out of nowhere, smacking me in the gut when least expected. Frankly, there were days when it was so bad I simply said, “To hell with it,” and didn't even try to jump-start my way out. By the next day or two, though, the black cloud would have passed, and I was back into my program full blast.
But no matter what mood was left over from the day before, there was one morning ritual I created, loved, and never missed. That was beginning each morning with a loving conversation with my Inner Being/Expanded Self. Down on my knees out of reverence to the Life I am (and to keep me bolted in one place while I did my thing), I'd outline my Wants for the day, week, and decade, pausing just long enough at each Want to allow its feeling tone to wash through me. They were reverent moments, humorous and poignant, and I treasured them as part of my designed program. (I notice an emptiness and lack of direction whenever I let that ritual slide, which I sometimes do all too frequently.)
On up days, I could turn on a high in a heartbeat, slipping with ease into the feeling place of whatever appreciation I had chosen for the day. On days that didn't start out up, it took a little longer. But the most thrilling thing to me was that up or down, fear of any kind was clearly taking more and more of a back seat. The down days had no specific focus of Don't Wants or stress, just basic doldrums. There was a new spring to my step, a song in my heart and on my lips, an almost constant smile on my face, and a thrill of life and wonder of creation I hadn't experienced since … since I don't know when.
Although I had taught myself the year before to buzz without really knowing what I was doing, with the downward turn of the market I had retained so much negative focus on outside conditions that I had long since forgotten about buzzing. But I was revving it up again like an excited rookie at spring training.
I understood now that “turning it on” meant first getting my attention off Don't Wants. Whether I was flowing to actual Wants, or to my appreciation item for the day, or just for the fun of it, I knew I was at long last beginning to stop the flow of attraction by default. So I'd buzz, be in love (still one of my favorite up-feelings), be enchanted with life, and feel the energy of high joy tingling throughout my body.
By now I could flip-switch either into a particular Want or into my item of the day. If I found myself thinking about where the next loan was coming from, I'd instantly feel that soppy wet cloud around me, realize I was focusing on lack, and waltz myself right out of it. It was glorious.
And my kicky new game of watching for those wild synchronicities that start to happen once a Want gets launched was so entertaining, it was almost becoming an obsession. I would decide, in an up buzz, to find a new restaurant with special views, superb food, and charming waiters, and in a day or two a friend would call out of the proverbial blue with the suggestion of just such a place for us to visit!
I put a special kind of heavy white work shirt on my Want list that stores had apparently discontinued, and three weeks later I got a hit to go to an out-of-the-way discount store for some copy paper. Bingo! My shirt was hanging all by itself on display, the only one in the store!
Although I don't eat much meat, I had a craving one day for a juicy hamburger, got another hit to go to a new hardware store, and found a brand new market had just opened next door with the most deliciously fresh ground meat I had ever had! Over and over, there were obvious confirmations that living off higher frequencies was really working.
My monthly ratio that used to be 30/30 (thirty days out of thirty days with worry or anxiety) was now more like 17/0/13 (seventeen up, zero with actual fear or anxiety, and thirteen in that weird downer), a colossal improvement any way you looked at it.
But my eagerness to reap the rewards was dry-docking me. As I look back, I can see I was looking for results in the form of dollars as early as two weeks, a really stupid thing to do, since all that did was keep my focus on what wasn't there.
Finally, it was Day Thirty. Where was my overflowing bank account? Why wasn't my phone ringing off the hook for loans? Why was it taking so long to implement my new ideas? There I was once again, being disappointed over what hadn't happened. My continual “Where is it? Where is it?” was the same old negative focus just dressed up in a different costume.
Actually, money was indeed starting to come, albeit in dribs and drabs. I watched, fascinated. This strange, constant stream of a little here, a little there, obviously in direct proportion to my vibrational focus. At least with my valve somewhat more open than closed, I wasn't going backwards! My checking account was either staying the same (beats me how) or growing ever so slightly. Never again has it gone backwards!
It took a few months before I could allow the flood gates to open once again, but open they did. Not all at once, to be sure, but gradually. One Want after the other was finding its way to my door, some big ones, and lots of fun little ones.
And, without any help from me except deep appreciation for that terrific product I had somehow produced, Life Course 101— the audiovisual program I had created in accidental joy before ever knowing about the Law of Attraction—began to take off like gangbusters in different parts of the world.
I'd love to tell you that all my old habits were gone in thirty days, but of course that's not the case. Even today, with the money flowing in great abundance, it takes all my concentration to remember that what I accomplish is not about how hard I work, or how smart I am, but how I'm flowing my energy. So I keep writing new scripts, talking to myself constantly, and flip-switching.
Now, instead of an Appreciation-of-the-Day item, I have a Want-of-the-Month to fall back on, which serves two purposes: it creates more vibrational time—therefore more passion—for the energy to flow to a specific desire, and it gives me that safety net of always having something ready and waiting in the wings to flow to when I need it the most.
Does it get easier? Good grief, yes. But if you're going to make a decision to take control of your life, have the things you want, do the things you want, be the person you want to be, and live the way you want with the people you want, there's something you might as well accept: you're in training for good!
You'll have up days, down days, fantastic days, cruddy days, deeply emotional days, and days when you'll be ready to throw in the towel. Yet I'd be willing to bet you won't, not now, not knowing what you know. Like it or not, it's doubtful you'll ever again be able to feel even a twinge of negative emotion without knowing you've just closed the door to all the things you ever wanted in life, be they material, physical, emotional, spiritual, or all of the above.
So yes, this is a lifelong endeavor, and you're not going to learn it all in those first thirty days. You can break out of fear and worry in that first month, definitely. But then it's roll up your sleeves and plunge wholeheartedly into all the nuances of the Four Steps to Deliberate Creating, that is, if you want it all: prosperity, security, health, freedom, joy, aliveness, ingenuity, independence, fulfillment, your natural states of being, the way you were meant to be, the way you can be from here on in if you're willing to give it the effort it takes.
This is nobody's show but yours, always has been, always will be. Nobody has ever held you by the ear lobes. Nobody has ever caused your life to be one way or the other. It's been your show from the outset, designed by how you were flowing energy, designed in every moment of every day by how you were feeling.
Now it boils down to what you want to do with the rest of your life and how willing you are to put forth the feeling-effort to get it.
So here are some quickies, a fast rehash of the most salient points to bear in mind as you move into this exhilarating new world of deliberate creation. First, the main steps:
Step 1. Identify what you don't want
Step 2. Identify what you do want
Step 3. Find the feeling place of your Want
Step 4. Expect, listen, and allow the universe to deliver— and—(Step 4A: Keep your bloomin' focus off those blankity-blank conditions!)
You can't screw this up. You can't make a mistake or a wrong decision. It's impossible. In fact, you never have made a mistake; you only invited lessons to help you get out of vibrating negatively. Now you know!
This whole business of creating our lives by flowing energies of a higher frequency than what we've been living is incredibly new for all of us. It's a gargantuan about-face, a momentous new orientation to life. So be gentle with yourself, take it easy, play with the energies, become curious, laugh more, smile more, experiment. See how long you can hold a buzz or how fast you can turn it on. Find out what gives you joy, then do it. Play with your Wants. Play with it all, but remember, this is all very, very new, so please, please, please don't get discouraged.
We're like toddlers on training wheels just learning to maneuver in our new world. Everything in that toddler says, “Get up and go.” So it does, again, and again, and again, no matter how many times the tumbles may come. That's called passion … and practice.
Practice is what this new way of thinking and being is all about. It has to be; it's too new, too foreign. Right now, this concept is just so many words on paper that may sound enticing, but the proof is in the pudding. And that means practice!
Practice flowing the energy. Practice flowing it to your Wants, or practice just flowing it. Learn to turn it on at will … in any situation … wherever you are … whom ever you're with … whatever's happening. You control your life by controlling your reactions to life. So practice!
After you get through with your thirty days, design your own new program to keep the interest jacked up. Maybe a week of feeling gratitude. Then maybe a week of feeling wonder about everything, or reverence, or awe, or excitement. Then maybe a week of feeling amusement, a week of being enthusiastic, a week of being in love, a week of feeling “God, it's good to be alive,” no matter what is happening around you.
Practice in the oddball moments while you're sitting on the john, disciplining your children, doing your income tax, holding a board meeting, or working on the production line.
What's so new to us is grappling with this seemingly backwards concept that real Life is about feeling first and performing second. That's just utterly backwards to us. Only practice will bring the fruits of that outrageous new concept into being.
Yes, life may get bumpier for a time because you've increased your desire, so you've increased your magnetic energies. But with that desire comes genuine Life.
So learn to feel, feel, feel … good or bad … positive or negative. If a feeling ultimately opens the doors to the treasures of the universe, how bad can it be? If you want it enough, you'll learn to feel it.
Then learn to feel good, no matter what. This whole approach has to be conscious, deliberate. Knee-jerk responses have to go out the window. If you want to change the conditions of your life, you have to change your vibrations, so practice until you can change them in a blink. If you're not feeling warm fuzzies, you're either flat-lining or feeling tacky. Either way, you're sending out negative vibrations.
If you have a problem, talk it out to yourself for ten or fifteen minutes every day. Explore it out loud until you've found out what's troubling you and you've talked it down. Every time you do that, you permanently leave a little more resistance behind until finally you've dumped enough to allow your vibrations—and your experience!—to change.
Just remember, the way you think is the way you feel, and the way you feel is the way you vibrate, and the way you vibrate is the way you attract!
So if you want it, feel it, feel it, feeeeel it 'til it's a warm fuzzy. If you can feel it, you can have it. You can have anything you want if you can feel it first.
The world can be your oyster. You have only to give your attention to what's coming instead of what's not here. Once you are comfortable doing that, by the powers that be and the power you are, you will begin to live the life you came here to live. You will be fulfilling your reason for being.
It's all energy. That's all this world and universe are. You can either be its master or its victim. By learning to control the tenor and flow of your electromagnetic energy, you are learning to take control of your own destiny, steering your ship wherever you desire. When storms come, you know what created them and what to do. You are in absolute control, headed toward reaping the sumptuous rewards of a life that is—to the fullest extent of its possibilities—at long last being lived!