Picture It…

You are on a veranda overlooking the sea. White billowy curtains blow in the sea breeze, framing a gorgeous seascape. In front of you, palms sway on a white sand beach as you drink in the glimmering emerald-turquoise water with your eyes. Walking over to a divan, you feel the cool marble floor beneath your feet, the gentle swish of your light silk dress against your body. You recline, breathe deeply and realize there is no place you’d rather be than here now. You feel perfectly content. This is your house. Your blissful life.

Picture It…

You are at a dinner party thrown in your honor. You are surrounded by friends. As people walk by, they  pat you on the back, shake your hand or hug you. In reciprocate, while lavishly soaking up their generous affections. You feel great in your body. You are wearing your favorite outfit and you feel wonderfully comfortable in your skin. A deep sense of well-being and rightness arises in your chest and travels throughout your body. It feels so good to be acknowledged, recognized and seen for who you truly are.

These images, one for me, the other for my husband, sprang to mind after listening to this inspiring talk by Neville Goddard, and talking about it, together. It’s a fantastic reminder about how to create the reality we want to experience, and it found me in perfect timing, on the heels of a belief breakthrough: a full-on 3-D awareness of my limiting beliefs and how they were holding me back from the life I want.

One night, unable to sleep and overwhelmed by self-doubt, a handful of “what if?” type of questions fired off in my head: “I can’t…” “How?…” “I’m not good enough…” “It won’t work…”

Ever had that happen?

I had just begun to comprehend how this belief system was running a certain area of my life. When the fear that I couldn’t even change the belief system I’d just discovered popped up, I reached my tipping point (that’s how insidious beliefs are; that was the belief at work!). I made the decision to not believe the negative beliefs any longer. To just stop it. At first, it was a bit like piloting an airplane and deciding to manually make a one hundred eighty degree turn. It took spiritual muscle. But as each worry arose as though it were brand new (they weren’t, they never are) I decided the answer to every question or “problem” could only ever be “I’m good,” because that is the reality I choose to live in. “What if…?” “I’m good.” “I can’t…” “I’m good.” “I feel…” “I am good.” I did this until I was filled with deep peace and calm. I went to sleep that night and woke up feeling so clear, so peaceful I knew I had affected a profound shift.

Belief shapes our thoughts. Deep down we know it’s true… and yet it’s surprising isn’t it, when we wake up to the fact that we have been living in one tiny dark room of our Goddess given palatial palace, because of a belief or two?

Picture It…

One belief creates perceptions that become windows or doorways to life, open to endless possibilities.

The other belief makes a mental prison of our worst fears, keeping us small, tight and afraid.

We are free to believe anything we want about life, about our self, others… and, whether we realize it or not, we will always experience the consequence of what we believe. I can believe Divine perfection in all things is the one true reality; everything else an illusion. I can believe I am healthy, abundant and loved… and expectantly, patiently orient myself toward receiving proof. Or I can believe the world is a lost cause, dangerous, unsafe, all is gone to hell in a hand basket… Either way, it will be proven to me.

One belief will literally create perceptions rooted in the Eternal truths of life– in the belief that we are spiritual consciousness, we are eternal, we are whole, perfect and abundant and nothing is ever denied us. The other belief is rooted in subjective, fearful, doubt-riddled mind, where all the conditioning we received throughout life we re-play in our minds like a bad record we don’t think we can shut off.

I’d done this work before. I’d radically changed my belief structures about being single forever, poor, always having unfulfilling work and limitations in health. So as I began to play with this kind of mental training, the more I remembered what I had already proven many times over: that fulfillment or lack in any area of life was primarily a question of cognitive habit.  It took work, but the results … well, you just can’t fail.

Even though I had been going really deep in my inner work lately, I realized I hadn’t gone deep enough. True Self change is about aligning with YOUR Divinity from the inside out. Your Divinity wants to give you everything you want and need to fulfill your Soul’s mission, here. But to do so it helps to develop an intimate relationship with infinite possibility of Spirit as You… and then to unclog everything obstructing your natural flow, the main obstructions being negative beliefs and fears.

Aquarius season breaks up mental stagnation. Air seasons bring in new thoughts, conversation. We crave “fresh air” during air seasons– new ideas and fresh mental perspectives. A New Moon like this, after eclipse-packed January and last years topsy-turvy chaos, liberates, frees — if we play our cards right.

Speaking of cards, one of my favorite tarot cards in the Thoth deck is the “science” card. It is associated with Mercury in Aquarius. I pull it when I needed to creatively work with and shift mental attitudes. It basically says that in order to create innovation in our life we need to employ the objective, inventive, experimental scientific mind.  Just as a scientist conducting an experiment will decide what outcome she’d like to achieve and then set about proving it, first we decide this thing will happen, then we design a methodology that assumes it is happening. That’s exactly how to successfully work with self-change.

Here’s one of my methodologies for manifesting change:

1. Commit.

This is a vital first step because without commitment your indecision will keep you stuck in limbo. What do you want? Who do you want to be? Decide to commit to that image of yourself, and place it above all other versions. As Dolly Parton once said, “Figure out who you are and then do it on purpose.” Or as I like to remind myself: As you know yourself so shall you be. Truly. Ponder it. It’s deep and true.

2. You don’t have to know how this will happen.

You don’t have to know HOW you will do or get the thing you want, or become person you want to be. All you have to do is commit to the desire/intention. Then give it up to Spirit, and allow Spirit to do the work of bringing it to you. We tend to get hung up on the “how” “who” and “what”. But how will I get the money? But what will I do once I get there? Who am I going to be (in this vision I want)?  It is not your job or responsibility to know how, who or what. Only to ask and then prepare to receive.

But… you are afraid…The new always feels new. It feels unknown. There are unknowns! Get okay with that. The oak seed has the DNA of the Great Oak tree within it. It doesn’t have to think about how it will get there. Only to KNOW that it will, and to TRUST its natural unfolding. Know that you are getting there.

3.Clear limiting beliefs that are no longer relevant to who you are now.

This is a vital step. Limiting beliefs are the main reason we don’t manifest what we want. A limiting belief exists in our psyche for a reason– it once protected us from being hurt. Yet beliefs have expiration dates. Periodically we need to sort through and discard what is no longer serving us.

A practical example: For over twenty years I could not eat a number of things without having a pretty immediate physical reaction. When I moved to Hawaii that all changed- no more food sensitivities! Yet I’ve noticed that this whole past year, my mind wants to go back to that old tape out of habit. If I get a symptom I still habitually think, “maybe it’s because I ate this, or that” and feel that very strong old self-protective mechanism kick in (FEAR!) that was once designed to keep me healthy. However, when I check in with my Soul, always the message is: Don’t worry about your health. Just don’t worry about it.

After 20 some years of chronic food and illness stuff, “don’t worry about your health” is a huge cognitive leap for me! When I get some funky symptom I’m tempted to worry. Yet this is exactly what I mean: We all have mental habits that are no longer relevant to who we are, today. Do we stop to question them? If I chose to keep believing what is no longer true for me I wouldn’t allow myself to indulge in all these new experiences: the passion fruit-coconut cocktails, local chocolates, pineapple, oh my.

4. Relax. Don’t work so hard at it.

Play with an intention or affirmation by embodying it in both feeling and mind… then doing something relaxing and mindless. This morning I was affirming for something and I decided to vacuum the house. As I was vacuuming an image came into my mind that inspired a next step (below). The secret to answered prayers is surrender. Spirit IS the principle of relaxed and surrendered flow… so doesn’t respond to pressure, pushing and desperation. Know it’s possible. Then allow Divine Universe to bring it to you.

5. Picture it.

Earlier I described receiving an image of me on a house on a beach, curtains blowing in the breeze.  I am in an opulent house, relaxed, content with my life. I’ve always loved the trompe loeil style of art. If you are not familiar, it offers the impression that you could just step out of your room and into the picture. Usually there’s a window or doorway that opens into a beautiful, blissful panorama. Like stepping into a dream.

I began to look online for an art piece, a visual reminder to inspire and that would help me to “step into” my new home and life. Lo and behold, I found what I had visualized in my imagination… right down to the flower petals at my feet I’d imagined while vacuuming earlier (above pic)! I purchased it instantly.

Imagination is that powerful. The pictures we circulate in our imagination, whether as a product of old belief structures, or a spiritual foundation, are creative. They attract, just as mine did. The difference between just doing the mental idea of “positive thinking” of affirmation or law of attraction and actually creating real results rests with our ability to fully embody a more comprehensive knowing, in our feelings. It rests in our ability to BELIEVE what we see in our mind’s eye, as more real than what we do not yet see in front of us. You can easily put frosting over a shit cake and wonder why you’re attracting crap (without doing the work). Or you can commit to taste, feel, believe, know, picture who you want to be.

Feel into it: 2019 is a different year from 2018, offering new potentials. How will you make it so? This is a fantastic New Moon for clearing away the old conditioning and beliefs keeping you from the life you want. What keeps tripping you up? Where do you feel invisibly “held back”? Can you change your mind, and change your life? Self-change is an inner process. The first step is to decide. Make the decision. Commit.

Who will you be in 2019?

Picture it…