6

Anything Is Possible

Your Creative Power

JULIA’S SECRET BOX

Julia lived in an abusive, hostile environment. Both her parents emotionally abused her. They would belittle her and tell her she was going to fail at anything she attempted. But, as you will see in her story, Julia had a secret that kept her creative spirit safe and alive.

I started filling my box when I was in seventh grade. It’s really just an old ammo box that I used as a pencil box when I still drew portraits and landscapes in what precious playtime I had. I hid this box under my bed. My parents were not exactly supportive when it came to anything I did. They belittled me for my art. They said that I would never amount to anything if I kept up my drawing, and, being twelve, I believed them and quit.

Their taunts did not quit with my drawing. I was the chosen target for all of their frustrations. They decided that I was a “useless bitch,” and they never passed up an opportunity to remind me of this whenever they got the chance, and as I got older the name calling got worse though the physical abuse was tapering off. Being called worthless by your own family hurts more than any beating.

At a particularly low point, just after I had tried to take my own life, I transformed my box. It became my “bible.” In it I put everything that I held dear. It didn’t take long to fill it with pretty stones, seashells, dead bugs, foreign money, small toys, and printed stories of ancient wisdom that I found fascinating. The box became an extension of my soul. While I had to change on the outside to cope with my life, my box contained my true self. In my box my “tender heart” still beat and I still loved the natural world and its beauty. While I became stoic, cynical, and sarcastic, my box held my soul for safekeeping.

I hid my box in various places to protect it . . . hiding my heart from the hell that was my life. When things got bad, I would bring out the box. It was a source of strength for me . . . my empowerment. Once, my mother found my box, and with her critical eye examined its contents and declared it the “dumbest thing” she’d ever seen. Her comment cut deep into my heart. That box held the essence of who I am. She criticized my soul when she criticized my box.

I declared my independence that day. I would get away from that place, and I would start my own life and be my own person. I would not have to hide my heart in a box under my bed. By that time, the box was the center of my universe. I was older then, and getting ready to go to college. I taped a bumper sticker from my college to the lid and began counting down the days. Whenever I opened the box I was reminded of my ultimate goal. Finally, the morning I left for college, I packed my box.

“No one is hurt by doing the right thing.”

—HAWAIIAN PROVERB

“I have thousands of books in my brain. I can tell you anything.”

—LYDIA ISHMAEL, AGE 6

“Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.”

—MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER

As I write this, Julia is in her second year of college. She is on the honor roll and volunteers as a Girl Scout leader to local impoverished girls. She teaches them how to make candles out of beeswax, draw and paint, and believe in themselves through their art.

ANCIENT TIBETAN STORY

retold by Julie Tallard Johnson

There was once a famous Tibetan medicine man who was revered by everyone for his healing powers. He was particularly gifted at chanting mantras. Many would come and listen to him. Students would travel great distances to receive spiritual instructions from this great teacher.

One day this great Lama was out canoeing on a large lake when he heard a man chanting on a distant island. As he got closer he heard the chant that very few sing because it is so difficult and is meant to be sung so precisely. This particular chant, when done correctly, is said to bring the chanter enlightenment and such powers as walking on water and healing the sick. Well, this chanter was singing it wrong. The Lama, having a kind heart, got off his boat and gently tapped the lone chanter on the shoulder. “Excuse me, kind sir, but you are doing the chant incorrectly.”

The chanter recognized the great Lama and was both surprised and pleased. “Oh, thank you for letting me know. I have been out here for months and months chanting. Could you please teach me the right way to do this chant?” The great Lama took several weeks to teach this dedicated young man the right way to sing the chant. On the final day, the great Lama decided the man had the chant down perfectly and left him to chant alone on the island. The young man was very grateful for this help.

As the great Lama paddled away, he could hear the young man chanting. He sounded beautiful and the Lama was happy that the chant was being sung correctly. But then he heard the chanter return to the way he had been chanting before the Lama had taught him. And it was all wrong. As the Lama listened he saw something crossing over the water approaching him. It was first just a black spot on the lake but as it got closer the Lama knew what it was.

The young man, having walked across the water, tapped on the Lama’s shoulder and asked, “How did the chant go again?”

“Every time you don’t follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness.”

—SHAKTI GAWAIN, AUTHOR OF DEVELOPING INTUITION

OPENING UP TO YOUR SHAKTI

“I learned that the real creator was
my inner Self, the Shakti . . .
That desire to do something is
God inside talking through us.”

—MICHELE SHEA, INSPIRATIONAL SPEAKER AND WRITER

You are directly connected to the creative power of the universe—it is inside you; it surrounds you and connects you to all things. It is always available to you. This creative energy that is inside of you is called the shakti. The shakti, according to yogic tradition, is the female energy of the soul, which is the original source of all creative energy and ideas, the energy that gives birth to your ideas. Your shakti is the embodiment of creative power. All you have to do is tap in to this energy and you will bring about good things. This creative energy inside of you will connect with the energy outside of you—and make things happen!

“The creative person is the master rather than the slave of his imagination.”

—MICHAEL LEBOEUF, FROM IMAGINEERING

“Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away.”

—TOM CLANCY, NOVELIST

At the center of many spiritual practices, you will find the importance of creative expression. This is because each of us is meant to create. Spirit wants us to create. Shamanic practices teach you to harness the powers of your imagination in order to manifest your dreams. You have inside of you this fire, this shakti, this desire to be something, to create, to become. Listening to this shakti, feeling its burn, is listening to the voice of spirit, of the creator, talk to you and through you. When you are in touch with this creative fire inside of you, you will know that there are things you are meant to do, “riches” you are meant to share.

“Our deepest desire is to share our riches, and this desire is rooted in the dynamics of the cosmos. What began as an outward expansion of the universe in the fireball ripens into your desire to flood all things with goodness. Whenever you are filled with a desire to fling your gifts into the world, you have become this cosmic dynamic of celebration, feeling its urgency to pour forth just as the stars felt the same urgency to pour themselves out.”

—THOMAS BERRY, POET

Your “riches” may be offbeat and unconventional; they may even disturb some people. Only you can truly know what form your shakti will take. Discovering just how your creative expression will manifest will be a primary focus during your teen years and into your twenties.

There is a saying that there are many paths to the Buddha’s house—many roads to enlightenment and happiness. There is not just one way to bring forth your intuitive and creative powers. The young man in the Tibetan story was doing the chant “wrong,” yet he was able to walk on water. We are told to color inside the lines but often the hand of the most creative child goes outside the lines. Creativity is messy. Creativity is a surprise. Creativity is dynamic and personal. Your creativity is an expression of your very soul and its connection to spirit. There is no wrong or right way to be creative. Sometimes we have to hide our creativity from insulting words, sometimes we may want to create a special place to hold our creative dreams.

“To live the creative life we must lose our fear of being wrong.”

—JOSEPH CHILTON PEARCE, AUTHOR OF THE CRACK IN THE COSMIC EGG

“Desire, ask, believe, receive.”

—STELLA TERRILL MANN, CHRISTIAN AUTHOR

CREATE YOUR OWN SACRED BOX

If you are in a situation similar to Julia’s, you may want to create your own sacred box. It can be as simple as a shoe box. You may want to decorate it. Whatever its shape or appearance, your sacred box will hold evidence of your true self—your creative self. It will remind you that spirit is active in your life. Fill it with cards that friends have given you, quotes that empower you, ideas that come to you, pictures of your allies. Place some of your favorite art in it. Collect objects that inspire you and give you hope during difficult times, and keep it in a place where you can look at it when you need to remind yourself of your dreams and who you really are. If school is more difficult for you than home, perhaps your box can be in your locker at school.

“I started a box because my parents don’t get what it is I am all about. I want to leave the family business and find myself. Find out what is truly me. I feel bad about leaving my younger brother behind; he is going into middle school next year. But Julie says that going out and doing my life will be a better help to him than staying home. My box is filling up with stuff that keeps me focused—quotes from the Tao Te Ching, my best friend’s picture, lyrics from favorite songs, some stones, a scholarship I was given, and a pamphlet about the college I will be attending. I want to be a music teacher when I graduate. When I am down and afraid nothing is really going to work out for me, I just look inside my box.”

—SARAH, AGE 18

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.”

—MARTHA GRAHAM, INFLUENTIAL DANCER AND CHOREOGRAPHER

TO IMAGINE IS TO CREATE

Mark Twain was known for saying, “You can’t depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus.” And most of us have heard the saying attributed to the physicist Albert Einstein: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” It is your imagination that the shamans claim is your ultimate power in creating the life you want.

Creative Visualization

Creative visualization is a potent technique of imagining—“seeing”—things as you would like them to be in your life, so they can become real.

Shauna was very stressed about taking the college placement exams, which were a week away. She had studied for them and was doing well in school, but still she was becoming increasingly anxious.

Then she sat down and did a simple visualization in which she imagined doing well on her exams. She breathed and relaxed and used the visualization exercise to calm her fears. She “saw” herself going into the testing room and being focused and relaxed. She felt how it would be to have the energy and mind power to focus on four hours of exams. She imagined herself finishing up each exam in time and feeling very good about being done.

She practiced this visualization a few times the week before the tests. When she took the exams she found herself moving through all the questions effortlessly and not getting hung up on the ones she didn’t know. She finished up with time to spare and felt great about the whole experience.

Without your imagination you cannot create anything or make anything happen in your life. This chapter shows you how you can use your imagination to manifest your dreams. Your ability to imagine something for yourself will increase what you will actually have in your life. If you can “see” it, you can create it.

“The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.”

—JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU, FRENCH PHILOSOPHER

“For shamans imagination encompasses more than just brain activity; a vital and principal vehicle, imagination connects us with the web of power and the spirit in all things.”

—JOSÉ STEVENS AND LENA S. STEVENS, SECRETS OF SHAMANISM

Fantasy versus Imagination

There is a big difference between imagination and fantasy. Fantasy is what a gambling addict uses to justify a destructive habit. Fantasy is not real . . . is not grounded and often is not even safe. It is the voice that says, “I will feel better when . . . I am thin, or I win the lottery.” Fantasy is not productive and is a displacement of your intention and creative energy. Whereas you want to be rich and successful, you end up using your energies to fantasize rather than using your imagination to create what you desire. Without creative use of the imagination, fantasy has no power to become a reality.

Fantasy is an illusion and doesn’t feel authentic in the body. The energy of imagination and of fantasy are different. The more you practice listening to your body, the more you will know what is true and what is not—what is a creative idea and what is an illusion.

“Make me shine brightly like fire produced by friction.
Illumine us, make us ever more prosperous.
Enthused by you, Soma, I find myself rich!
Enter within us for our well-being.”

—INUIT INVOCATION, TOLD TO KNUD RASMUSSEN, EXPLORER

Try this: Find a lottery ticket and hold it in your hand. Take a moment to feel the energy of this ticket and the thoughts and beliefs it generates. Notice how you feel in your body. This is the energy of a fantasy—an illusion. Notice how your energy body feels after watching too much television. This is the energy of illusion and fantasy.

Now put the ticket down and imagine finishing a race or doing well on an exam, accomplishing something you have worked for. Imagine how you will feel at the finish line after weeks of training, or putting down your pencil when you’ve finished the exam that you studied so hard for. How does this feel in your body? Notice the difference in the energy. Imagination will feel more grounded, alive, and real, while fantasy will feel unreal and static.

Your Own Manifestation Bowl

Find a bowl that looks and feels right to you, or make a bowl if you are so inclined. This will be your personal manifestation bowl.

To use it, you first need to know what it is you want. Be as specific as possible (the vaguer you are, the less likely you are to get what you really want). Consider in detail what it is you would like to manifest in your life at this time.

Write it down on a small piece of paper. Fold up the paper and place it in the bowl. Hold the bowl in your hands and place your energy and your intention into the bowl. Feel around the bowl’s edges; this is your personal manifestation tool. Put your love and energy into the entire bowl.

Now bring to mind that which you want to manifest. While holding on to your bowl with the paper in it, imagine this particular request coming true for you. Use your imagination to notice what the manifestation of your intention will look like, feel like, smell and taste like. Breathe . . . and imagine how your life will be with this particular request manifested. Take as much time as you need to get the full feel of having this request come true for you.

Then place the bowl in a special place in your home. This can be in an obvious place where you will easily see it every day or it may be in a private place just for you.

After a week, unfold the paper and read your request to yourself. Then burn it safely in a fire or by candlelight, letting it go out to the universe to bring forth that which you asked for.

All of our addictions (to food, drugs, alcohol, sex, relationships, television) are rooted in fantasy. The “white knight” or “beautiful princess” fantasy is a particularly alluring one. “If I can just find my white knight, all will be right in my world.” José, who is now eighteen years old and has a serious drug addiction problem, knows he needs help. But he keeps focusing his mind on finding the “perfect girl.” He goes from one fantasy girl to the next, as his friends are getting jobs, moving on to college, and getting on with their lives.

Sometimes you may need help in believing you can make something happen. You may feel stuck, or afraid, or just unsure of yourself. Using a manifestation bowl (see page 163) and walking the spiral (below) are two ways to invite the creative energy inside you, your shakti, to connect with the creative force outside of you. Manifestation is a result of these two creative energies coming together through the use of your imagination. When you do these exercises, keep this thought in mind: That which you are searching for is also searching for you.

Walking the Spiral

The spiral is a shape that is plentiful in the natural world: in seashells, vegetables, and vines. It is an important symbol in many spiritual traditions. Its design expresses how everything is connected and that everything changes. No matter where you are in the spiral you are connected to every other part of the spiral. Its circular path represents cycles in nature such as the phases of the moon and the rising and falling of the tide. These cycles remind us that everything is always changing. The spiral also represents balance in life—you cannot live in one state of being all the time. You can’t always be creating, or sleeping, or angry, or happy. You circle in and out of these emotions and states. The spiral helps you to get in touch with this natural and creative “flow.”

“You are the artist, you are the raw material, you are the work of art and you are the reality behind the work of art . . . One experiences ecstasy when one discovers the creator in one, as oneself.
    “The whole of life is a process whereby the unmanifest becomes manifest. Divine Creativity is completed by human creativity. Of all the qualities in your being, the one that is most Godlike is creativity.”

—PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN, SUFI MYSTIC

In the wild prairie that sits outside our front door we have created a Sacred Spiral to walk. Many adults and teenagers have come to walk it, seeking advice. It is a path that circles in to a center. At the center is an altar, a simple stone for offering prayers and blessings. To walk a spiral is a means to consult with the divine inside of you (your shakti) and outside of you (the creator, spirit, nature, the Tao). It connects you with your inner truths, and gives you an idea of where in the circle of life you may be at this moment. It can help you see what you need to move forward with confidence and purpose.

“I went into the spiral with the question about my own path. I turn eighteen in only a few months and I will have a summer to get my act together and figure out who I am. I realize it will take longer than that but I just want a first step. A sense of things. Julie asked me to identify and release my greatest fear before entering the spiral. I released the fear of getting lost. I am so afraid that somehow I will just get lost and never find out who I truly am and what my true path is. And since I am an agnostic I don’t pray to any God. So I put out this prayer to myself and to the Tao, to help me release this fear.
    Then I crossed over the threshold and began my walk into the center of the spiral. What really freaked me out was that I found myself at one point feeling really lost. But instead of tripping out totally, I waited a moment. I breathed and relaxed and took a minute to find myself and then finished my walk into and then out of the spiral. It was powerful.”

—JAMIE, AGE (ALMOST) 18

“The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice.”

—R. D. LAING, BRITISH PSYCHIATRIST

“The universe is a fluid, ever-changing energy pattern, not a collection of fixed and separate things. What affects one thing affects, in some way, all things: All is interwoven into the continuous fabric of being. Its warp and weft are energy, which is the essence of magic.”

—STARHAWK, FROM THE SPIRAL DANCE

Jamie’s experience in the spiral provided her with a lot of insight. As she walked the spiral she had to face the very thing she most feared in her life—that she would get lost. But this time she moved through it and didn’t let the fear get out of hand. Her feelings of being lost didn’t stop her. Our souls communicate with us through such symbolic acts as walking the spiral, so she moved through her fear on a very deep, soul level. Chances are if this fear comes up for her in the day-to-day world, she will again just breathe and move through it. It may even be that she has successfully passed through the fear and will not experience it again. With fear no longer blocking her path, she can look ahead and imagine her future.

Peter, aged eighteen, walked the spiral and found a deep sense of peace when he was done. “I just felt more connected to myself and everything. I don’t know how it will help, but I know it has somehow . . .”

Creating a Spiral Walk
Before creating your own spiral walk, you may first want to check with your local colleges, cathedrals, or Celtic and spiritual book-stores for the location of a sacred spiral near you. You can also contact Circle Sanctuary (circle@mhtc.com). They have a networking source book of groups who celebrate the earth by offering labyrinth and spiral walks to their communities. More resources are listed and described at the end of this book.

You can create a spiral walk inside or outside, although it is best if you can do this out-of-doors. This will connect you more directly with the natural rhythms of earth and sky. To create an outdoor spiral you can use rocks, cornmeal, or sticks to outline the path. You may even want to mow a path in an unmowed lawn or in a prairie. As a school or class project you can create a spiral or labyrinth on the school gym floor with chalk, paper, or objects such as books. Make it as large as possible with room in the center for an altar and room at the entrance for a threshold.

“Energy flows in spirals. Its motion is always circular, cyclical, wavelike. The spiral motion is revealed in the shape of galaxies, shells, whirlpools, DNA.“

—STARHAWK, THE SPIRAL DANCE

“When the earth was made
When the sky was made
When my songs were first heard
The holy mountain was standing toward me with life.”

—APACHE AFFIRMATION

The threshold is the entrance to the spiral, a place where you acknowledge that you are leaving the mundane world and entering the world of the sacred. A threshold can be made of special or sacred objects or it can be just a simple opening to the spiral. If the spiral is indoors, the threshold can be the door going into the room.

All spiritual traditions teach us that in very deliberately sending out our prayers and requests, we ignite a personal response from the spirit world. If you don’t put an intention out there, it is much like an unsent letter. How do you expect to get a response? In sending a request out, how do you expect not to get a response? Likewise, if we never went to the mailbox to actually retrieve the response, it would be as if we never got one. If you pay attention on the way out of the spiral (and in the weeks after your spiral walk), you will then notice a response.

“The Sacred dance is circular.”

—BARBARA G. WALKER, AUTHOR OF THE WOMAN’S DICTIONARY OF SYMBOLS AND SACRED OBJECTS

“The spiral was concocted with the idea of death and rebirth: entering the mysterious earth womb, penetrating to its core, and passing out again by the same route.”

—BARBARA G. WALKER

“The music flows within me like pure spirit. What a wonderful conversation within the flow of universal energy!”

—A MODERN PRAYER FROM VIENNA, AUSTRIA, FROM THE BRIDGE OF STARS, EDITED BY MARCUS BRAYBROOKE

Consulting the Spiral

Take the time to consider what your intention is before entering the spiral. What would you like to manifest in your life? What would you like help with? What would you like to get more direction and insight into? Here are a few questions that teenagers have taken into their spiral walk:

What is my next step in my life to be successful?

What is my path?

What do I need to do to prepare for leaving home?

How can I feel better about my choices?

How do I become stronger and more independent?

You can consult the spiral with concerns about relationships (“Give me insight into this relationship”) or about any plan or idea (“Is this job a good idea for me?” “What is my next step with this project?”). Write down your request on a piece of paper and fold it up.

You may want to cleanse your energy before entering the spiral, to clear out any negativity. This can be done with a rattle, a feather, or the burning of sage. Cleansing negative energy with sage is called smudging in Native American traditions. Wave the rattle, the feather, or the smoldering sage around your body (or have someone else cleanse you this way). Know that your energy is being cleansed, so you may enter the spiral open and safe.

Now that your energy has been cleansed, enter the spiral through its threshold, bringing your written request with you. On the way into the center of the spiral, focus on your request. Walk slowly and mindfully until you reach the center. When your mind wanders off, just notice where your thoughts are and bring them back to your request and to walking the spiral.

Once you reach the center of the spiral, focus completely on your request. Take some time to fully imagine what your life will be like once your request has come true. What will happen? What will your relationships be like? Hold the feelings that you will have, imagine what your life will look like when this request becomes true for you. Place the request on the altar or under a stone. Leave it there with a small offering to the earth (seeds, a stone, a flower, tobacco) and thank spirit for hearing and answering your request. Then begin to slowly walk back out of the spiral.

As you circle out of the spiral, your request is being answered. On your return walk, notice what thoughts, experiences, animals, sounds, and smells get your attention. As you enjoy the walk out, pay attention to what crosses your path (internally and externally). Know that your request has been heard. When you pass through the threshold again, acknowledge that you are leaving the sacred space and entering back into the world of the mundane.

Continue to pay attention to what crosses your path for two weeks. Spirit has been sent a request and you will be getting responses. Watch for that surprise package in the mail!

Justin, age nineteen, experienced a change of heart as a result of his spiral walk:

“I have always been afraid because my dad has always been afraid. He always has excuses about why a job hasn’t worked for him, and he is never happy. I wanted to be free of my father’s negativity. As I walked into the spiral, I kept asking for help to release my dad’s negativity. Then in the center I took the time to see what my life could be if I wasn’t like my dad. It’s weird but it just struck me then that I am not my dad. Just walking a spiral proves that. We are two different people. I love my dad but I don’t want to be my dad. I felt I left my dad in the center of the spiral and came out with more of myself. It is hard to explain to others but I am braver now.”

Your walk through the spiral has awakened your shakti. Sometimes waking up the shakti gets us feeling impatient to express ourselves. Notice how you choose to express your shakti. Are you tempted to fall back into negative habits or are you really opening yourself to something new?

Neale, who is eighteen, asked if it would be a good time to move in with his girlfriend. He had mixed feelings and wanted to consult the pendulum. He had a sense that he had an answer within himself but couldn’t get to it by going over it in his mind.

“If you can‘t ‘see’ it, you can’t create it.”

—COLLEEN BRENZY, INTUITIVE HEALER, PHILOSOPHER

“If you are a dreamer, come in
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hopeer, a prayer, a magic bean buyer . . .
If you’re a pretender, come sit by my fire
For we have some flaxgolden tales to spin.
Come in!
Come in!”

—SHEL SILVERSTEIN, AUTHOR OF WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS

Consulting The Pendulum

The answer Neale received from the pendulum was yes—this would be a good time to move in with his girlfriend. Interestingly, he decided to move out of state to attend college and the couple are postponing their plans to live together. Here is what Neale says about consulting the pendulum:

A Simple Yes or No Will Do: Consulting the Pendulum

Sometimes, your shakti will bring up an idea that involves making what seems like a big decision. Instead of being inspired and energized, you may find yourself feeling indecisive and frustrated. A pendulum can help you break this stalemate, by giving you a quick yes-or-no response. This technique uses your energetic Rainbow Body to help you move more quickly toward finding an answer to your question.

A pendulum can be a favorite necklace or a crystal or quartz at the end of a chain or string. You can use anything that you value that can swing easily from your hand when you hold it out. Barbara Brennan, in her book Hands of Light, recommends using pear-shaped pendulums made of beechwood. Mine is a favorite necklace made of turquoise and red coral.

Make sure that the pendulum is infused with your energy if it is newly purchased. You can do this by placing the pendulum in your left hand and imagining a gauge that reads FULL, then slowly goes down to EMPTY. This represents emptying out other people’s energy from the pendulum. Then place the pendulum in your right hand and imagine the gauge going from empty to full. You are filling the pendulum with your energy.

Give yourself about five minutes to do the exercise, and a few more minutes to journal.

Hold the pendulum about six inches away from your body. Still the pendulum completely. Then ask the pendulum to show you a yes response. In a few moments it will begin to swing front to back or left to right. Notice which way it swings and note that this is your yes response. The other direction is then your no response. Still the pendulum once more and bring your question into mind. You need to formulate the question in a yes-or-no fashion.

Ask your question out loud. Then watch to see which way the pendulum swings. Trust whatever answer comes. Whether or not you follow its advice is still your choice. Consider keeping your questions and responses in your psychic journal, so you can remember your question, the response you got, and what you did about it.

“I find myself consulting it whenever I need some clarity. I don’t always follow it but it eases my mind because I can stop thinking about the issue. It felt great to know that it would be okay to move in with my girlfriend—knowing this ended up freeing me to make other choices. Strange, but we are both happy about my decision to go away to college.”

Letting Go Is Getting

Try this simple visualization technique for manifesting your desires and goals. It helps you get a better sense of exactly what it is you want. Take a moment to ground and rest in your breath . . .

Imagine—see in your mind—your goal or desire. Focus all your energy into really seeing it. Continue to breathe, and relax into the image . . . Put as much detail into this image as you can. Take out things that don’t feel right and add things that do.

Now infuse this image with your desire and enthusiasm to have it become real for you. Imagine sending into it all your positive energy and excitement. Feel your body engage in this infusion . . . empowering this image as much as possible.

Repeat the above steps three times, noticing how you improve on your image each time you re-create it. You can even journal about this exercise after you re-create the image the third time and come back to it later to refine and re-create it one final time.

Now it is time to let this image go . . . see it being released, like letting go of a kite string, see it floating away, up into the sky, and disappearing out of sight. You are sending out this image, empowered and infused with your energy and love, to meet up with the creative power that is out there.

“Look. This is your world! You can’t not look. There is no other world. This is your world: it is your feast. You inherited this: you inherited these eyeballs; you inherited this world of color. Look at the greatness of the whole thing. Look! Don’t hesitate—look! Open your eyes. Don’t blink, and look, look—look further.”

—CHÖGYAM TRUNGPA, TIBETAN LAMA, AUTHOR OF SHAMBHALA: THE SACRED PATH OF THE WARRIOR

YOUR PERSONAL TIMING: GETTING IN SYNC

All through school you have been expected to function according to other people’s timing. You have to show up for class at scheduled times and make sure to get your assignments in at a required time. There seems to be a “right” time for everything—when you should start dating, when you should attend college, when you should get a “real” job, when you should get married. Although there is a natural timing for everything in nature, human beings have lost touch with this natural timing. Our culture really interferes with our own natural and personal rhythms—advertisements, popular television shows and movies, music, social organizations, and businesses all dictate what you should be doing, and when.

“People have a tendency to move either too fast or too slow. They are tuned into what others are saying about them and forgetting to get in touch with their own internal clock.”

—COLLEEN BRENZY, INTUITIVE HEALER, PHILOSOPHER

“Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness.”

—JAMES THURBER, AMERICAN WRITER, HUMORIST, CARTOONIST

Spiritual teachers and shamans realize that each of us has his or her own natural rhythms, his or her own pace. Like fingerprints, each person’s timing is unique.

“I am an honor student and do well in all my classes. I tend to wait to the last minute and cram for tests. This drives my mother and father nuts because they are planners and have a completely different way of doing things. They also are very worried that I will give up school to get married. That’s because my mother felt forced to get married before she finished with college and now regrets it. I have no intention of getting married soon. And so far, this cramming has worked okay for me.”

—JESSICA, AGE 18

Not surprisingly, many people suffer because they are caught between what feels like the appropriate time to do something and when others expect them to do it. Some people live their entire lives according to timetables imposed by other people. If you know any unhappy adults, you will probably discover that they have been denying their own sense of timing. An example might be: “My grand-father wanted my dad to put off school and stay and help him on the farm, so he never did make it to college.”

Feeling out of sync with what society sees as the “ideal” timetable and pace for life can distort your self-image. Back in 1991 I was feeling upset with myself. All my life I had felt I was lazy. I liked those times I gave myself to just hang out at home, reading or doing nothing. But I always had some unfinished project hanging over my head. I often felt overwhelmed by the feeling that I was a lazy person. Now it was so much on my mind that I shared it with my spiritual adviser.

She smiled at me and asked, “How many books have you written so far? Isn’t it true you have a successful business and own your own home, and you find time to play and relax?” I laughed at myself. She had a point. If I was so lazy, how had I written three books and managed to have a full work and personal life, with time left over to just relax? I discovered that I was beating myself over the head with other people’s notions of timing. My timing included hanging-out time, and that to just relax and do nothing is not necessarily being lazy. I had thought my life should “look” a certain way but it wasn’t my way.

To manifest your own personal goals and dreams, you need to honor your own timing. Your energy body will have its own unique rhythm and pace. Tuning in to your own timing will help alleviate frustration at not doing things when other people are doing them, and will empower you to make choices based on when the time is right for you. Nothing cramps your creative spirit like feeling pressured to do something when you aren’t ready or being prevented from doing something when you do feel ready.

“. . . I am circling around God, around the ancient tower,
and I have been circling for a thousand years,
and I still don’t know if I am a falcon, or a storm, or a great song.”

—RAINER MARIA RILKE, GERMAN POET

There is no grand rule book in the sky that says you have to get your driver’s license as soon as you reach the legal age, or get married before a certain age, that college has to take exactly four years and then you have to go into graduate school right away. You can choose. You can tune in to your own pace, and your own sense of timeliness, of readiness. All the exercises in this book will help you get in sync with your own timing.

When You Feel Impatient

When you feel frustrated and impatient about your goals, try this: Slow down and take some quiet time to answer the following questions in your journal.

1. State what it is that you feel you are not accomplishing. For example: “I am not a millionaire.” “I may not get into that college that offers journalism.” “That girl I really like may not want to go out with me.”
2. Ask yourself, Is my goal realistic? Give yourself some time with this question. If your goal is to be a millionaire in one year, does that sound realistic? Is getting into that particular college realistic, given your grades and other admissions criteria? Are this girl’s interests and personality traits really compatible with your own? Consider this question and be as honest as you can.
3. Do I know the steps I need to take to get to my goal? Write out all the steps you would need to follow to get to your goal. For example:

• Call the school for an application

• Complete and send the application to the school

• Check out financial aid

• Ask parents for financial support

“People, like plants and trees, grow according to their own inner clock as well as in relationship to the outer seasons. It is important to respect the rhythms and seasons in each of our lives and to pay attention to dreams and synchronistic events that will help us to grow in an organic way.”

—JEAN SHINODA BOLEN, M.D., AUTHOR OF THE TAO OF PSYCHOLOGY

Holding a goal over your head can be quite frightening and make it very difficult to take the next step. So, take one step at a time. This really does make it easier. Once you have decided that your goal is realistic, what is the next step that will move you toward it? And the next? Hold the goal in your heart like a horizon to move toward and see the steps as the road that will lead you there.

To manifest means to make something real. When you create, when you manifest something, you are expressing the divine; or the divine is expressing itself through you. In fact, the divine seeks to create through us. Everything, alive or not, even a rock, as still as it may be, is an expression of the divine. So when you take yourself out into the world and begin to express yourself, you are showing that you and the divine are one.

“Ojibwe women weave a net in a willow hoop, just like grandmother
Spider’s, and hang it over the crib of their babies. It’s a reminder of the gift of a Grandmother, and a reminder that most gifts come from places where we least expect them.”

—DENNIS L. OLSON, AUTHOR OF SHARED SPIRITS

Your creative act doesn’t have to be a big deal. You may be at your most creative in your simplest moments. Reading a poem to a child, talking to a stranger at the bus stop, sending a letter to a friend, all are simple but valuable acts. Then there will be times when the result of your creative impulse will be a bigger deal—inventing something, writing a book, speaking up, painting a picture, starting a business, or getting an article in the paper. Big deal or small, what matters is that you keep that creative energy always moving through you.

 

Across the wall of the world,
A River sings a beautiful song. It says,
Come, rest here by my side.
• • •
Lift up your eyes
Upon this day breaking for you.
Give birth again
To the dream.

—MAYA ANGELOU, FROM ON THE PULSE OF MORNING

 

“They are sending a voice to me.
From the place where the sun goes down,
Our Grandfather is sending a voice to me.
From where the sun goes down,
They are talking to me as they come.
Our Grandfather’s voice is calling to me.
That winged One there where the Giant lives,
Is sending a voice to me. He is calling me.
Our Grandfather is calling me!”

—OGLALA SIOUX ELDER, CHANTING FOR A VISION