Intention & the Universe

[Hopalong]

Dear Mum,
You and several other people have now and then referred to your experience of setting your intention, and trusting that the universe will respond to your need. You mentioned it in the Selling Out thread when you were talking about your return to optimism after a period of negativity.

I struggle with having that trust, and wondered if you and others who do find a strong optimism is working for you, might want to explain more about how that came to be and how it works in your lives.

Is is meditation? Positive affirmations?

For example (this is my selfish reason for the thread)...I am quite worried about finding another good job, as so much depends on it. A good job, so I can keep our home. Do you believe that in addition to the work of a job search, that there are other personal practices that might help?

I would love to learn more about this from anyone who has found a deeply optimistic and positive way to look at worry...fear...uncertainty....change.

(And absolutely no offense, and deepest respect, to anyone who wants to share their faith in God from any tradition...but I don't need to read more about that just now. I'm looking for different language--may amount to the same thing in essence, I realize!) Thanks for understanding.

Hops

[Portia]

Hiya Hops

A good job, so I can keep our home

What helps me is: what's the worse that could happen? and seriously consider it, and make a back up plan.

So...I don't get a good job, we can't afford to keep this house - then what?

once I have a back up plan in my mind, doing the positive stuff is much easier (i.e. removes the fear).

If all else fails (for me) I shall sell my house and buy a big sleeper van and travel around Europe. Then become penniless and live off whatever is available. Sounds okay to me!

[mum]

Oh, Boy, Hops, I could write a book. But instead, since I can't post for long right now...
I read tons of stuff. I took what worked for me and left the rest. Some things I read did not make sense when I read them, but they did later. Some things still don't make sense to me.

My dad lived this way. I heard him say it, and saw him do it, but never really "got it" until lately.

here are some books that I got lots out of:

The old standard: The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale
The Power of Intention by Wayne Dyer
The Power of NOW by Ekhart Tolle (heady stuff....I suggest the smaller "Practicing the Power of Now"....a lot less cerebral...)

THis is cracking me up....they all say POWER!!!

And although at first glance, the following books/teachings seem contradictory in their content, they are not really:
Almost anything by Pema Chodron (Buddhist teacher)

And the one that helped me clarify the seeming conflict in the above works: Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain.

Gotta Run. Just want to add that it is NO COINCIDENCE that you are asking this, and that people are hearing you. Do you recognize that is the universe responding to your intention?????
It's really that simple.

[moonlight52]

Hi ya Hops , This subject is very important to me for many reasons.Its like letting go of the fear of the situation to make room
for the good experience to happen.Like attracts like we live in fear there is where we stay stuck(i am speaking to me as well)
Just like MUM says thinking and thoughts are so important.Thinking positive is the most difficult when you are being tested but that is just the best time to use MUMS scorpion PROCESS .Watch the tape in your head and then do it.Its like brain washing in pure
light of Gods Love Hops You are all wisdom wrapped with wit .Very marvelous and amazing .There is no reason why all you deserve
should not and will not be. And so it is true
Moon

[mum]

Excellent point, Moonlight!! I really should go, but this kind of thing just brings me such inspiration.

Your CORE BELIEFS about yourself must align with feeling deserved of such goodness. Otherwise, as Moon put it, like attracts like...and all the reading or thinking in the world will not line up....if you don't think you are truly worthy of love and goodness and prosperity.

It's ok to want a good life. It is something I had to relearn. One of my core beliefs was that I was not deserving .  Ironically, I did not learn this inner tape from an N....or at least not just one. I learned it from a centuries old religious tradition and my interpretation of it. "We must suffer to be good and to be loved by God."  Bulls***t!!!!! This mentality lies in fear. In a consiousness of lack and a mindset of fear.
I knew it wasn't right because of my dad, but he was not able to impart this to me entirely while I was younger. I saw his association with the Catholic church as in total disagreement with how he lived, but for some reason he managed the conflict. Maybe because he was male, I don't know. Or maybe I just needed to find it my own way, in my own time (likely).

Anyway, good stuff here. Keep searching....keep the faith that you will find. (my dad's mantra, by the way>>Keep the Faith)

[Healing&Hopeful]

Hiya ((((((((Hops)))))))))

Don't have long but really wanted to reply briefly to this.... I don't really think it's about meditation or positive affirmations... it's about believing you really deserve it.  Once you feel you deserve the job and you know you can do the job better than anyone else, I feel this comes across in your job interview.

Maybe with the next job you look at, think about why you don't think you deserve it, write it down and then trash it... then write down all the reasons why you can do the job, why you deserve the job, and how you can do the job better than anyone else.  Once you know you're the best person for the job, why should the company employ anyone else?  If you want to post it here, I'll be really happy to read it, but if not that's ok too...

Hope this makes some sense....  I've just used the job as this is something which is relevant in your life at the moment, but you can turn this round to why you are a good friend, a good mother etc etc etc....

Take care

H&H xx

[pennyplant]

Just want to add that it is NO COINCIDENCE that you are asking this, and that people are hearing you. Do you recognize that is the universe responding to your intention?????
It's really that simple.

Hops, I'm as much in awe of mum's approach as anyone could be and I like to absorb what she tells us.  Just wanted to comment in particular on her idea of "no coincidence".  I have seen this concept for myself.  Don't really have any concrete examples to give you to illustrate it, though.  My version of this is that the same things keep happening in our lives until we learn the lesson that is in there.  People come in and out of our lives in order to have an effect on our journey and we can have an effect on theirs.  There are patterns in our lives.  I only realized how this worked a few years ago.  It took awhile to put together that my whole life had been working in this way.  And if it works this way in my ordinary life (by ordinary I mean that I'm not some kind of psychic or mystic), then perhaps it is a bigger force than me and that is how it works for everybody.  Now I am starting to be able to see what lessons may be coming my way by looking at what keeps happening and who keeps coming along.  I'm not always right about which lesson or which direction, but at least I know enough to start PAYING ATTENTION to what might be indicated by the "coincidences".

Mum seems to have tapped into it.  Moonlight seems to understand it intuitively.  I'm just in the beginning of being able to see it.   So, if my explanation and comments don't make a whole lot of sense, well, I'm still trying to explain it to myself.

I just think that mum is really onto something here.  Awhile back I asked her about it myself--don't remember which thread it is on but she did give some details about how it started for her.

That is funny that so many of the titles contain the word Power.  I'm guessing "power from within" rather than "power over".

PP

[Hopalong]

Wow. Thank you all, so much.

Portia: That's just like what Victor Frankl concludes in Man's Search for Meaning, which I recommended to somebody else once! (I can dish it out but can't take it in, evidentlly. What a twit.)

H&H: Busted. You got me. This is my core problem: believing you really deserve it

Mum: You are amazing. Knowing that this is the universe responding to my intention...not sure what that means or how it works. Is the simplicity just that I asked the universe (by starting the thread)? If so, I can see that.

And...I AM

truly worthy of love and goodness and prosperity

? Oops. I see with my urge to add a question mark that it is plain I don't have it firmly in my mind...there's my task. Whew.

Moon:

And so it is true

The simplicity of this...helps a lot. Thank you Moon.

PP: It is that wondrous assumption, that the universe even notices, that I wish so much to make. But maybe I should just "try it on", instead of trying to prove it before I risk it. Hmmm.

I've got to turn this around fast!!! But thank you all so much for pointing me there. That really is it, feeling unworthy of good fortune, and I had not realized it.

Very, very gratefully,

Hops

[pennyplant]

Hi Hopsy,

Two things--

With me, I don't think I believe that the universe notices my life.  I think I believe that my life is an equal participant in a universe that has a certain rhythm, rhyme,  and reason.  Now, how's that for a ringing endorsement?  "I think I believe."  If I come up with a better way to put it, I promise to clarify.

The second thing is a question:  What do you mean by risk?

PP

[Hopalong]

Hi PP,
Well, in terms of faith (not religion)...sorry but I guess I can't stay completely away from this. And it DOES relate to healing from narcissism injuries, voice, etc.  Anyway, I'm agnostic. Yet I still have the urge to pray. It was a conflict for a long time (sometimes still is). Because I don't want to be a hyprocrite. How could I legimately pray when I wasn't sure what or if I believed? Then one day I had a lightbulb moment.

I had spent so much energy sweating over the salutation (Dear, ummm, g-g-g...okay, no, well, umm, Dear Whom It May Con....nope, that's not right either, etc, etc, ad nauseum)--that I hadn't contemplated the action. What it is. I recognized that what it is, for me, is trusting. And I was burning out my optimisim in worrying about "who" to trust IN, and wasn't getting past that.

Then one day, I decided, just practice trusting. Just...trust. (No salutations, texts, etc., needed.)

Now I realize that I have forgotten lessons I had previously learned. This dialogue has been such an important reminder. Another way of thinking about it for me is, just speak. Don't worry about "fashioning" a prayer or supplication, etc. TO something or someone...just get to it. So then it would be something like: I ask for ____________. No "dear anybody", just I ask.

So that was probably my way of "setting my intention" but I didn't connect it up.

The risk is...trusting. The universe, life force, cosmos, etc. As you describe, Penny.
Thank you again.

Hops

[Jona22]

Hop

I have used this in my life over and over again.  Jobs, homes, cars, more money, friends, vacations.

First you have to be clear as to what you want.  If you want a new car picture in your mind the car you want--color, make, model, year.  Just picturing a different car every time probably won't work or at least not as fast as picturing the exact car you want.

Then you declare to the universe that you intend to have it.  Feel like you already have it--even if only for a few seconds.  Imagine how you will feel when you have it.  See it clearly in your mind--in the case of a car, you are in the driver's seat.  Don't picture another person in the car.  Picture yourself.

Hold this thought for a couple of minutes and then thank the universe for what you have received.

You must realize within yourself that you deserve the kind of job you want and the size of paycheck you want.  This is true.  You do deserve it.  Your job is out there waiting for you to claim it.  Some employer is out there complaining that you just can't get good help these days and is just wishing you would come along.

Decide the kind of work you want to do, how you want to do it, where you want to do it and how much you will be paid for it.  Make it clear in your mind and declare your intention to have it.  Also, declare that you deserve it.  Hop, if there were only one good job out there it can be yours. (I think there are probably hundreds or more.)

The next step is to let it go and not think about it too much.  If you think about it too much, negative thoughts begin to creep in.  It is kind of like "Letting go and letting God."  Let the universe do its work for you.  You still must make job applications--you have to do your part.  Just trust that the jobs you don't receive were not the right ones for you.  It sometimes feels like you are being led by some higher power to be in the right place at the right time to receive what you want.

Now it is very important that you do not try to get something that someone else already has.  Say there is a house in your town that you really, really want.  It would be wrong to want that exact house.  You could want a house just like it though.  Also, only use this for something that will not harm someone else.  This will not work to get a specific person to do what you want and for obvious reasons shouldn't be attempted.

Sometimes when I am intent on manifesting something in my life I get something that is sort of like what I wanted.  If I keep on with my intention and keep vizualizing what I want, it eventually comes along.  Be careful what you pray for.

The book someone mentioned "Creative Vizualization" is excellent and it is just a small book.

Now the question comes up--how long will it take?  That depends on your clarity and your intention.  Declare your intention two or three times a day.  Say it out loud.  Yell it when you are in your car and no one is looking and your windows are closed.  The more manifesting you do, the faster things come to you.  Also, I have noticed that if I am desperate for something--it takes longer.  You just have to calm yourself down and have faith.  Sometimes I just remind myself that Jesus said, "Ask and you shall receive."  The key thing there is that you have to ask.  Not beg.  Not plead.  Not say please.  Just ask.

It is not for you to know how it will all come about.  You cannot know.  These things come about in the most unexpected ways.

When you have received what you want, be sure to say "Thank you."  I like to do this at night outside, looking at the stars.

[pennyplant]

just speak

Yes, that's it.  For me the problem was the other half--understanding the language of the answers.  And accepting them.

Trusting--that is risky.  Perhaps you are getting ready to take that on.

PP

[lightofheart]

Hi Hops,

I'm sorry to have to rush here...it's good to read all these generous suggestions, and give you crossed fingers, collectively.

Maybe you've already heard this exercise, but it was a real lightbulber for me when someone relayed it at a gathering:

1) What are the three things you want the most in the world? Picture them.

2) Once you have them, how do you think you will feel? Try to answer as concretely as possible. 'I'll feel_____'

3) So you really want to feel_____. What do you think you can do--separate of these goals--that will help you feel____?

Forgot about this visualization, until...we were on the verge of losing our house. Boy do I relate to that fear, Hops! I was so terrified about this, and the idea it would be my fault (due to my surgery bills/inability to work for a time) that I froze, mentally. FEAR. Listened to Pema Chodrin, eventually got 10% less scared, then remembered the visualization above. Realized, for all the lovely feelings I attach to my house, I could be as happy any number of places, with much less. That little leap freed me up. Worked out a backup plan, approached my job search differently, felt serene during interviews, and was more accepting of love and support from others, rather than isolated by fear. Exercised my bum off, too, & spent all the time I could in the woods or at the beach, soaking up negative ions. The better I felt, the more my energy gravitated to positive outcomes--until I really couldn't picture anything less.

Hope some of this makes sense? imho, it is all about power, and you have all the strong & wonderful power you'll need, Hops.
I'm positive of that--can see your light from here.

G'nights and best to all,
LoH

 

[Healing&Hopeful]

Hiya Hoppy

I have a bit more time so thought I would expand on my previous post….

While I do believe that ask and you shall receive, and about visualisation techniques etc, I believe these are an aid and it is about your core belief system… believing that you are worthy of good things is a key to unlocking the good things if you like.

I’m going to use trying to get a new job because I feel it is easier to adapt this thinking to getting a new job, and because it is possibly a main relevant part of your life at the moment.

If you think, I am the best person for this job what’s your first thoughts… for me it was, what a conceited way to think, I’m thinking that I’m better than other people, that’s not a good thing to think…. But when I examined this more closely, I felt that actually no, I’m not saying I’m better than anyone else, just for this job I’m applying for I feel I’m the best person for it… I deserve a good job, and I can bring value to the company I’m applying for.  If I was applying for something that was in a different sector, say nursing for example, I wouldn’t be the best person because I don’t have the training.

A job interview is a two way street…. It’s about the employer looking at if you have the right skills and experience (which they do from your CV which is why you get invited for an interview) and if they feel you would fit into their company, and for you it’s about seeing if you’d be happy working there, if you feel the job would suit you etc etc.

Once you genuinely feel you’re the best person for the job, instead of thinking I need this job otherwise I will lose my house, I won’t be able to do this, this and this…. Maybe try and think, I’m the best person for the job so all I need to do at this interview is show them I’m the best person for the job.  Can you see yourself in the job?  Can you see yourself doing well in the job?  How do you show an employer that you’re the best person for the job?  I feel it’s by showing them what you can bring to the role… giving examples of your current experience, of ways where you have added value to your previous roles, examples of where you have problem solved, how you problem solved, how you liaise with customers/clients/staff, areas where your ideas have changed a company for the better.  You have a huge wealth of experience to draw on.

Another option is have you looked at the company you’re currently working for…. Are they recruiting in other areas of the business?  Is there anything within your current company that you could apply for?

Another thing I wanted to share was this… I was chatting with a friend the other week.  This is a very dear friend of mine, a lovely girl… and we were chatting about love, life etc, and she’s friends with many of her ex’s.  Some of these people have treated her appallingly in my opinion and she’s still friends with them.  She was supposed to move to America to be with this guy and then he dumped her a month before she was due to go, and she still talks to him about him and his new girlfriend, giving him advice etc.  She said to me that life was too short to hold grudges, but I said I felt it wasn’t about holding a grudge, it was why should I spend my time still being friends with someone who obviously didn’t want to be with me?  Obviously not everything is as black and white as this, but I do feel it is still a big key.  Years ago I was with this guy for 3 years… loved him dearly and he broke my heart.  He split up with me 3 days before Christmas, and while it was hard, it was also timing wise one of the best because I thought, “no one splits up with someone 3 days before Christmas unless they really mean it.” (and believe me this thought when round and round my head for quite a few months!)  So when he got in touch 6 weeks later, this thought kept me going and kept me strong enough to defend myself if you like…. So I didn’t go back….

Gosh, I hope this doesn’t come across like I’m trying to tell you what to think Hops hon, because that isn’t my intention at all.  When I was going through things with bio dad, one of the questions I asked him was “how does your belief system help you to grow throughout life?”.  And I asked this question to myself too and shared the answer with him with examples… however his response was that his belief system did help him because of something which happened which he never did share with me, even though I asked him a few times if he would.  I’m not saying share the answer as it’s a very personal question, but I do feel a good question to ask yourself.

My two cents anyway, and maybe some food for thought.

Take care

Love H&H xx

[Hopalong]

PP, this is lovely:

my life is an equal participant in a universe that has a certain rhythm, rhyme,  and reason

and Jac, thank you for those beautiful verses. It brings back what I loved about the bible.

I am taking all of these wonderful posts to work and will read them several times today. I'll order the books, and try the exercises out loud.

When  you say, declare your intention, I guess that is:
I will have _____________, I will find _____________ ...like that?

love\
Hops