Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Learning to Manifest is an Experiential Process

Over the past days since posting the urgent call to prayer from Arvol Looking Horse, and following the issue of coordinating collective thought for positive change on Les Visible's Reflections in a Petri Dish, I've been pondering the activity of Manifesting. At different points I was ready to post something here, then finally realized that it's a much larger topic than can be handled in one post. With this in mind, it seems best to start by sharing some of my journey in learning about manifesting.

One way we can analyze our lives is to see it as on ongoing process of gaining conscious awareness of how we create our reality. Thinking back, it was six or seven years ago that I started a focused inquiry into consciously manifesting. At the onset, I felt intuitively that I could bring about what I wanted, I just didn't understand how to do it. There were a couple of situations in my work life that I wanted desperately to unfold in a different manner than they had been doing thus far. First I read books like Wayne Dyer's The power of Intention and a number of Deepak Chopra's books. I studied Feng Shui. It seemed to me that I understood what I was reading, but none of the situations changed at all. I kept working at it. I kept visualizing and visualizing. I got more and more frustrated and discouraged.

Very early one morning I got up to journal. My writing led me to an exploration about manifesting. I started writing down every instance I could remember that what I wanted appeared "like magic". The list got longer and longer. As it grew I confirmed for myself that I really did have the ability to create what I wanted. I did it all the time. So what was hindering the manifestation of what I wanted in my work situation?

The term Like Magic struck me very strongly. Suddenly, I jumped up and went to a piece of artwork my daughter had made for me, and there in the piece was the written message "Remember you are magic." Then came the memory of more than one client telling me what I had done to change their life was magic. In my head I heard the lyrics of a song that played on the radio during a summer when I experienced a very magical transformation, Olivia Newton John singing "Magic". "You've got to believe you are magic, nothing can stand in your way..." OK, one answer to what was tripping me up was not believing I was magic. Believing in our own ability to create is one of the keys to consciously manifesting.

As I looked over the list I noticed another common element in each of the successful situations. I hadn't tried really hard to make what I wanted appear. Actually, I hadn't tried at all. I'd simply said in my mind, "I want ....." or "I need .....", then went about whatever I was doing without thinking about it much. And it showed up, even when it was a total long shot. So another answer as to what was hindering my efforts, was that I was putting way too much effort into the process. I was trying too hard. This is a big problem, especially when what we want to manifest is something we really need at the moment. And we all know about those situations.

What I didn't understand at the time was that I had only just started to scratch the surface of what is required in order to consciously manifest. Everything is a process. The process of learning to consciously manifest takes time. The various elements are revealed to us when we reach the point in our evolution and growth, that we can grasp their significance and utilize them for our highest good.