Focus and Discipline

To create the life you want, you need clear intention. This requires focus. You sometimes need to do some soul-searching to find out what is important to you. It has to be what is important to you now- not ten years ago.

As we grow, what is important to us changes. These changes sometimes manifest in "existential crises" such as midlife crises. The way to resolve an existential crisis is to redefine what is important to you. This allows you to focus and create something new. This can be done through a "rite of passage"- or consciously changing what your life is about.

Then you can attract the thing you intend to yourself. This is what The Secret and Law of Attraction talk about.

Once your intention is focused, you need discipline. You have to hold that focus long enough to for it to manifest. If you let your mind and intention go all over the place, you will create random things for ourselves. By the time the things that you intended presents itself, you are onto something else and often do not even recognize it.

Discipline allows us to work with our intention long enough to unfold it. This is illustrated through a metaphor of shooting arrows. If you shoot your arrows in the same direction, it takes you further and further toward your goal. If you shoot your arrows in all different directions, they are not able to be as focused and effective.

So take aim and keep shooting your arrows until the thing you intended presents itself. Many people give up or get distracted right before what they want appears. Focus and discipline.

Spring Equinox: the time to create new beginnings

Saturday, March 20th is the Spring Equinox and the first day of spring. The Spring Equinox is celebrated by Native Americans and other earth-based spiritual traditions by doing ceremonies and rituals. The idea is to connect with what is naturally occurring with the earth and nature. You can then draw on that energy to create movement and change within yourself.

Spring Equinox is represented in the east in the Native American Medicine Wheel in the tradition that I was taught. It is the time of birth and new beginnings. Plants are sprouting and animals are giving birth. It is the perfect time to plant seeds for the coming year.

We can plant seed for our lives as well. This is accomplished by becoming clear in your intent of what you want to create for yourself this coming year. Expressing your intent through prayer, thought, journaling, or meditation plants the seeds for your new life to grow.

This happens energetically at the spiritual level in that the power of your intent or thought focus will actually create and open the doorway for the thing that you want for yourself. This is some of what The Secret and the Law of Attraction talk about. The Secret talks about the law of attraction having three steps to attract what you want to yourself: asking, believing, and receiving. Spring is the perfect time for asking and believing.

At the physical level, focusing on your intent and what you want helps you do what is needed to create it and then to recognize it when it presents itself to you.

Spring is in the air. Make sure you take the time to clarify and express your intention for the coming year. The energy to do so is all around you.

An Addition to the Law of Attraction?

The Secret by Rhonda Byrnes describes a "law of attraction" that governs the way that we can attract the things we want to ourselves. Byrnes explains "negation" one element of this law, "The law of attraction doesn't compute 'don't' or 'not' or 'no' or any other words of negation." As you speak words of negation, such as I don't want a bad haircut, the law of attraction is receiving, "I want bad haircuts." She concludes, "The Law of attraction gives you what you a re thinking about- period."

Bart Anderson, teaching from a Native American perspective, explained, "Spirit only knows the collective and connection. It does not recognize "I consciousness" and separation." He continued, "If you want your prayer or intention to be answered, always pray in terms of "we." Include other people in your "stream of consciousness" or people working with the same awarenesses as you. He added, "Make sure that your intent is what is best for the whole. Then Spirit will answer your prayer."

So maybe it is time for an addition to the law of attraction. This additional law would state that the law of attraction only recognizes things that are based on the collective or "we consciousness." If I say I want this for the gratification of my ego, this additional law of attraction does not hear it. However, if you say I want this so it can benefit a number of people including myself, the added law of attraction receives that and provides what you are after.

Of course, that would require seeing ourselves as part of something greater than ourselves.

Allowing Ourselves to See Possibilities

Possibilities for the things we want most are presenting themselves to us all the time. But we only allow ourselves to see the things that we believe are available to us. We all have limiting belief systems that tell us what aspects of life are available to us and what are not. We say to ourselves, "That works for my friend, but I do not have those types of experiences." So when possibilities present themselves to us, we do not even see them. They pass right on by. Our self-beliefs create a veil that prevents us from seeing them. They are blind spots for us. And then we say, "See, that kind of thing never happens for me."

A really funny example of this was the ending of the movie Dumb and Dumber (See video clip). After spending most of the movie trying to find women, Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels are along the side of the road- complaining that they never get a break. A bus full of women on a bikini tour, stop by and invite them to go on tour with them. The guys say, there is a town a few miles down the road where you ought to be able to find two guys. After the bus leaves one of them says, "Some day we will get our break." My theory is that we do this to ourselves all the time. It is not that we are dumb- it is that we have blind spots. We turn down opportunities that will get us what we want, because we do not see the possibility.

I have done exercises with single clients, asking them to list every woman/man in the room-and then to go talk to the ones that they didn't notice before. They reported things like, "He is nice and really good looking, but I didn't even see him before. Or, "I saw her when I came in, but figured that she would never be interested in me." Upon talking to her, he found out that he figured wrong.

Not seeing possibilities also happens with business opportunities, jobs, promotions, money, and anything that you want. Perhaps God, Spirit, or the universe is trying to answer our prayers and we don't even notice the opportunity put in front of us. That is what I find interesting about The Secret and Law of Attraction which teaches us that we create our life. People spend all this time asking for the things that they want, and then when the thing they want presents itself- they don't even see it. They do not really believe it is available to them. It does not come the way that they pictured it. It's like we need a "The Secret Part 2- Recognizing the things that we created for ourselves."

To change this unfortunate pattern, it helps to be aware of and to challenge your limiting belief systems. Another tool I use is that whenever an experience presents itself to you, ask yourself, "What are the possibilities?" Or, "Are there possibilities here that I am not allowing myself to see?" You will be amazed at the things that appear out of thin air!

Completing Our Harvest

The Native American medicine wheel illustrates our cycles of life and growth throughout the year. The spring (or east) is a time of new beginnings, birth, and planting seeds. The summer (or south) is a time of activity, learning, and growth. The fall (or west) is the time of harvest, maturity, and completion. The winter (or north) is a time of introspection and death of the old- so something new can be born in the spring.

The beautiful fall weather we are experiencing in the Inland Northwest led me to reflect on the importance of this time of year. The fall harvest is the manifestation of the things we planted in the spring and nurtured during the summer. Doorways open up to us based on what we conceived earlier in the year. This is similar to what The Secret and "Law of Attraction" suggest when they speak of our thoughts creating our reality.

The fact that the things that we ask for often come in a form that is different from the way we pictured makes the fall harvest little trickier. We sometimes do not recognize what we have created for ourselves. At the beginning of the Autumn, we are often sorting out what our harvest is.

But by November it is time now to bring our harvest to completion. What are the missing pieces that we need to tie up for ourselves so that we can reap the most out of our harvest? How do the different elements of our harvest interlink? It is essential that we tie this up now- as it will be soon time to detach from the activity of our fall harvest so we can get an objective understanding of it during the introspective time of winter. Besides, completing it now allows just enough time to be thankful for it at Thanksgiving.

Angry? Send'em a Prayer

Next time you are mad at someone, send them a prayer. It doesn't have to be Christian. It doesn't even have to be a prayer. Send them a blessing, some love, or positive thoughts. The Secret http://www.thesecret.tv talks about the power of our thoughts. Point is- they probably could use all the help they can get. They are probably experiencing pain, stress, and difficulty. Them pushing you away, being short with you, judging you, or being irresponsible likely has nothing to do with you. They are probably projecting their misery onto you.

So next time you want to throttle them, send them a prayer. Send them some love- or better yet love them. Not only will it help them, but it will free you. Free yourself of the resentment that you carry (that hurts you more than it hurts them). Free both of you from your attachment of them being something that you need them to be.

Free yourself to experience some other things.