You ARE on the right path!

What if you knew that EXACTLY what you are doing right now, today, this week, right this minute was the PRECISELY correct action to take you where you ultimately want to be in your life?

What would that feel like?

You may be sitting there, in a job you don't particularly like, looking for a way to take another break, but unsure of the vibratory effect of yet one more cup of coffee, you are simply sitting for now... Or maybe you know what you "should" be doing to make some progress, but, you don't really feel like it right now... Perhaps you are indulging in my all-time favorite time-wasting activity and watching the television, lamenting the time NOT spent on the treadmill, outside, with your family, reading, writing, painting, planning - anything but what you ARE doing right this minute? ...Even sleeping, eating, showering, or web-surfing - all things we must do on a daily (or almost daily) basis, yet, they don't seem to be things that are directly related to the fulfillment of our dreams and goals! (...at least, not most of the time!)

What if what you are doing RIGHT NOW is the EXACT activity that is ABSOLUTELY necessary to the fulfillment of your fondest wishes and goals???!

What if not only what you are doing right this minute is absolutely necessary to the fulfillment of your desires (because, right this minute, you are reading my blog, and that is DEFINITELY helpful for the achievement of any one's goals!!!! (wink and a smile!)) but, EVERY action that you take today is absolutely, positively necessary to your progression along your path??? ...The commute, the traffic, the seemingly mundane lunch, the phone calls, the billboard that caught your eye, the annoying guy in the next cubicle, the memo that you hate to write but must do all the same, the television, the distractions, all of it???!

How would your current life look different, feel different, if you KNEW that ALL of it was an INTEGRAL part of creating the YOU that will eventually be experiencing ALL of your dreams??!

Guess what? It IS! All of it.

How exciting is that? Pretty darn exciting when you observe the traffic jam you are stuck in and ponder the idea that it is and absolutely necessary part of your path to your own dreams! Now it may not be directly obvious how that can be true, it may never be, but the point is to be able to look at some situation in your life and KNOW that it IS helping you - however indirectly that may be!

So, the next time you catch yourself frustrated, aggravated, overwhelmed, or even just plain bored, try asking yourself: "How might THIS situation, AS IS, be helping me in the long run? What is this situation showing me about where I am going in LIFE? What are some aspects of this that are HELPING me, right now??"

...Maybe it is only to be more clear about what you DO want in your life, but, when you spend some time thinking about and pondering THAT - I guarantee that you will be FEELING better about exactly where you ARE! ...And THAT is the key to the Law of Attraction: Feel better about where you ARE in life, so you can attract more of THAT! It is what is meant by the "art of allowing" - allowing what IS to be, as it is, without trying to change it, and thus, allowing yourself to focus on it's benefits to you rather than any frustration that may be present.

Your inner self, your own higher you, the REAL YOU and the Universe are conspiring and calling your attention to everything that comes into your awareness right now - all with the singular purpose of using it to craft and fine-tune YOU to be able to be the YOU that will be experiencing the dreams YOU have! ...It is BY you, and it is FOR you!

For instance, as I was finishing up the line above, trying to finish this very post, the computer suddenly went blank - it had run out of juice, and went dark without warning. For a moment I was quite frustrated, as I enjoy finishing things and moving on, and here I was, SO close to finishing and posting, then poof! After a minute of looking for a power source in order to "change my situation" without any success, I decided to try my own advice on myself... I asked myself: "okay, so little miss smarty-pants, what could be the good in THIS situation for YOU, Andrea? Why might the sudden IN-ability to continue writing and get this post out to the eager masses of loyal fans be a GOOD thing? How might this situation be EXACTLY the right circumstance to move me along the path to my own dreams of glory or being offered a book deal????!" Silence. I couldn't think of anything. Zilch. But, on the other hand, I wasn't spending the downtime raging against the injustice of it all either - I was actively looking for the positive, or even, the necessarily neutral in the situation, and thus, felt a sense of inner peace with it all. ...I wasn't annoyed and frustrated anymore either! That is the REAL beauty of it! The goal is not necessarily to be happy-go-lucky all the time, just NOT to be focused on the upset!!! As it turns out, when I finally got back to being able to continue working on the post, I had used some more of my interim time to pick up a book a love and start to read a bit. (The book is "The Passion Test" by Janet and Chris Attwood - a book I highly recommend to anyone who is on the path of crafting where it is they think they want to go in life and or fulfilling big dreams and wondering the best way to go about it - it has a remarkable ability to give one a sense of confidence in the pure power of simply following one's own fascinations!) In it, I immediately found a quote that confirmed the wisdom of what I had been writing in the post in the first place: "Your challenge is to stay open, let go of your concepts about how your life should be, and embrace the way it IS! ...When you love the PROCESS, the results will take care of themselves!" (emphasis added)

What this all means to me is a confirmation of the ideas I had presented at the beginning of this post - that this IS the right path! What I am doing RIGHT NOW has a greater purpose for me, even if I don't know what it is right now! That staying open to the ideas about how any (and every) moment might be of benefit to me, I am allowing greater and greater levels of clarification, and, perhaps, even actual progress toward my goals and dreams even if I am not consciously aware of HOW that could be possible. And, most of all, by looking for the grace that might be living in any situation I may find myself to be in, I am much more likely to find it. And that, in itself, is the essence of the Law of Attraction - choose to focus on the good and the desirable, and make it your intention to feel good despite the circumstances and conditions you find yourself in, as THAT is the way to get to where your heart wants to go! And that, as far as I know, is what we all really want anyway!

Take heart... You ARE on the right path!
...Simply because you allow yourself to see that you are!

Testing your Mettle

The Universe has a way of testing your mettle at the VERY moment you are on the verge of something you have been waiting for, wishing/hoping/dreaming about, or are just about to manifest for yourself.

As soon as you have definitely committed to a goal, or, even worse, right when you are "on the brink" of something good, or something great, or something perfect, or EXACTLY what you want/need for where you want to go in life... It happens - the Universe will toss an obstacle, or a distraction, or a temptation your way, and typically make it VERY EASY for you to back out of the opportunity or settle for something else that's "not quite right".

"The Universe will ALWAYS give you EXACTLY what you are WILLING to settle for..."

Unfortunately, I have seen this time and time again, both in my own life as well as in the lives of my friends... Just this week I have first-hand knowledge of 3 or 4 occurrences in the lives of people I know well!

• My mom, having recently made an absolute commitment to getting healthy and trimming down, and having carefully built up a good habit of exercising every day for a month or so (to the point where results are just visible) slipped and broke her shoulder...
• A friend, hemming and hawing over whether he is going to move from NY to LA or not, finally decides "YES! I am going to move to LA!" and is visiting to interview and make plans today - the ONLY day it has rained in months...
• A client whose primary intention is to be in a good, loving relationship, who is focused on that ONE aim in our sessions together, has an opportunity to attend a class with a very high probability of being the EXACT thing she needs to further her goal, decides she is too tired to attend after having car trouble earlier in the day...
  
• Another friend is building up his business in the healing arts, is making really good progress, and then gets a tempting job offer that pays really well in his OLD industry...
  

Now all of these examples may seem like coincidences, they may even seem like "messages" or "signs" from on high that the original goal/intention/aim is not the right one for us, that perhaps we 'really should be' going a different direction...

I don't think so!

In my experience with consciously using the Law of Attraction and the power of intention, I say that it is EXACTLY the opposite! I say that when the Universe throws us these curve balls it is actually an indicator for us to RUN EVEN FASTER toward the original goal - be EVEN MORE DEDICATED to the results you are consciously creating and attracting! In a way, the Universe is testing us to see just how committed we really are to our own visions!!!!

Do NOT be deterred!

These "tests" are not malicious - it is more like forging steel to make it stronger. The loving and abundant Universe is actually TRYING to give you exactly what you want. You may say that you want more money, a relationship, to lose weight, more business, to have more fun, etc., but, somewhere in your subconscious/unconscious mind, maybe that isn't quite accurate. So, when you start to take action toward that goal (or any goal) that action (or progress) upsets the equilibrium of how 'it has always been', the stasis, our comfort zones... Now the part of us who is afraid that there may be 'no turning back' wants to put on the brakes and slow it down a bit (if only subconsciously) and starts to attract occurrences which give us the opportunity to bail out. Literally, giving us a "legitimate" reason to stop short of the goal and declare it "good enough". It takes energy, effort and focused attention to align our intentions with our subconscious motivations. Unfortunately, it is VERY DIFFICULT for us to see or know WHAT our subconscious/unconscious motivations ARE...

THAT is what the "tests" are! These obstacles, temptations, and challenges that the Universe gives us to test our mettle are the physical manifestations of our subconscious motivations coming to light (coming to LIFE) - manifested to focus our attention to how WE are unconsciously blocking OURSELVES from what we consciously think we want!

The real question is what are you going to do about it? So what if the Universe gave you a flat tire? Can you ask a friend to drive you to that important event? So what if you have a sprained ankle? Are you going to do sit-ups and work out with dumb-bells anyway? So what if I have a big expense right when I was trying to manifest more money? Can I find a way to clear the part of me that is attracting it? So what if a friend is doing something you wish you were doing instead? Are you going to go out and do something even better yourself?

Yes. There IS something in your way... But you have the power to go around/over/under/through or clear that obstacle and use it as a cue to focus your intention even more clearly - strengthen that vision, clear your unconscious, take an even more courageous action to honor your heart's desire. Strengthen your determination!

Don't negotiate with yourself by allowing the "curve balls" to re-negotiate your desires for you!

The more we exhibit determination and commitment to our goals and intentions, the more we use the feedback we are being given by the Universe to strengthen our focus and vision on what we truly want to be experiencing, the faster is HAS to come! The Universe is giving us exactly what we need to be able to forge our dreams into physical world reality - the Universe is pointing out where the weak spots are and where we may not be in complete alignment so we can do something about it!

...Literally SO we CAN have the vibrant life we TRULY dream of!

How to both "let go" AND "be receptive"??

It has been so long now since I posted anything on the blog that I was starting to get really cold feet, building up all kinds of pressure, feeling like I had to post something incredibly profound to be worthy of having waited so long to do it!

It was getting serious... All kinds of old perfectionist patterns started to rear themselves and pop up again... Thoughts of: "I can't write that" or "nobody will care about that" or "that is not a fully formed idea!" I was trying to motivate myself by forcing some big and monumental idea out of my brain. Even little glimpses of brilliance in an e-mail to a client, or a quote from a friend which would ordinarily stir up quite a nice little riff were leaving me cold.

What's a girl to do? Where is my life coach when I need her? How am I supposed to manifest a brilliant blog entry when I feel so confused in my own life right now??? What would I say to me if I were my coach?

I'd say: "let go and do something, anything, toward your goal!"

Huh?

How am I supposed to do THAT, when my goal (to write something on the blog) is the VERY thing I can't seem to do right now!!??!!

"Make an attempt. Try. Just try."

The word "try" gets a lot of bad press in some circles these days... If I had $100 for every time someone quoted Yoda to me with all the "there is no try, only do, or not do" stuff, well, then, I'd have more than a few hundred dollars. But, seriously, we often hear that there is no such thing as "trying", and I wholeheartedly disagree!

I believe that it is in the very act of "trying" to make progress toward our goal - taking some little action or putting something out there BEFORE it is perfect or fully formed - that actually communicates to the Universe that we are serious about attaining the goal! [Warning: Bad analogy approaching!] In other words, I could meditate on a pizza all night long, set intentions, and visualize myself having it, and still probably go hungry. But, if I do something to TRY to take action to get it, even if that attempt is not perfect, I'll have a MUCH better chance of getting it! (Like at least calling the pizza delivery place (even if I don't yet know exactly what kind I want yet!) [See, I told you it was a bad analogy. Oh well.]

But I left it in to illustrate my point. Making a lame attempt at what we want to try to experience is our way of meeting the Universe half-way... A cosmic way to sort of "prime the pump" and make a gesture that symbolizes that we are ready for more action, more assistance, more inspiration, more synchronicity, more gifts... Any one of which may be the very thing we have been waiting for!

How do you let go? Focus on a successful outcome while you try to do any little thing you can to make it real yourself, and then watch God rush in and finish the job. Try.

Why doesn't "The Secret" work for me?

Larry King did another show with some of the folks from The Secret a couple of weeks ago, this one specifically on The Secret (3/8/07). The first two broadcasts were entitled "Beyond the Power of Positive Thinking", but all the shows explored the ideas presented in The Secret surrounding the Law of Attraction and answered questions about how to use it in one's life. (If you did not catch one or more of the shows, you can watch any or all of these episodes online for free at JamesRay.com, or you can purchase a DVD of the CNN broadcasts from Voxant for personal use.)

Although the shows were provocative, informative, and quite thorough, there is one question that seemed to come up in various forms, again and again, without ever being fully answered, and that is: Why isn't The Secret working for me?

The truth is that there are many, many reasons why it might not be working even if your are actively applying the principles. It could be conditioning, bad habits, the presence of unconscious beliefs that are working against you, competing intentions, the influence of naysayers around you, a negative environment, a lack of action, or a lack of right action, timing, the lure of the safe comfort zone, tuning out your intuition, disbelief, or not believing long enough, or simply not being clear enough about what it is you really want... But I believe that a big reason why it may not be working is the tendency we all have to inadvertently be focusing on NOT having it rather than truly focusing on having what we want!

This is a very subtle but essential point. Allow me to try to explain:

• When you think of money, what is the very first thought that pops into your head?

...Is it your credit card balance, the bills that are due, or the car repair you can't afford? Or is it the absolute utter joy you feel at the piles and piles of cash you have lined-up in your bedroom closet?

• When you think of your body, what is the very first image in the mirror of your mind?

...Is it that you need to lose 10 pounds, the cellulite and the love-handles, or the chronic back ache and tension headache you are feeling these days? Or is it how very HOT you KNOW you look today and how great it felt to smile sweetly at ALL the compliments you've received?

• When you think of love and relationships...

You get the point.

The experts on the show, including Lisa Nichols and James Ray talk about the necessity of applying action steps when you are struck with an intuition or insight, and that IS absolutely true! Action IS necessary, however, action steps taken in the wrong direction (in answer to the thoughts about the LACK of what you want) will most likely serve to bring you more of that lack - more of what you don't want!

Take a good look at what you want to manifest for yourself, and WHY... Now, when the ideas that come forward seem to illustrate images of not yet having what you want, begin to turn them around, one by one: What does the opposite of what you don't want look like? What is the opposite of "in debt" and what does it look like? What would 180 degrees from "overweight and in pain" feel like? What are some antonyms for "looking for love"? Begin a practice of being vigilant with regard to the images you are creating for your future!

Make sure you are truly picturing and imagining HAVING what you DO want - *NOT* NOT having what you DON'T.

Money is a by-product, not a goal...

What if money were just a by-product of doing what you love?

What if the ONLY way to get money was to BE DOING what you loved, and the more you loved it, the more money you got??!

What if that REALLY is how it works? What would YOU do? How would you "spend" your time?

I say that is EXACTLY how it really works!!!

Ask people what they want, and most of them will say "more money". ...They want it to pay bills, buy more stuff, take a trip, get a new car, to quit that stinkin' job, whatever.

But, in actual fact, money is not what they REALLY want - the money is just a means to an end. What they REALLY want is what they believe the money will do for them (or free them from...) What they REALLY want is the security of knowing that the bills are all paid and there is more where that came from, the ease or entertainment that the latest gadget can bring, the relaxation of time away from worry, better health, more joy, fun, warmth, comfort, beauty, freedom, or even just permission to live the life they have always wanted! (...and usually a combination of all of the above!)

The trick is that THAT is EXACTLY how money is manifested - by focusing on that which you want the money FOR!!!

Then, DO THAT thing!! Think about what the money would do for you (or allow you to do) and DO THAT!!! Take any action you can toward that thing as your goal rather than waiting for the money before you do it, do something, ANYTHING! Start doing anything you can to go in the direction of what the REAL goal is NOW!

What do I want a whole heap of money for? To pay-back any money I owe to anyone, to landscape the little tiny patch of soil I call my front yard, to hire a professional organizer to help me clean, to take some time off to write a book... How can I start doing these things, or at least take steps toward having the experience I want for my life right now? I bet you can think of many possible steps I could take! ..I can pay-back just one person, I can plant one plant a week, I can clean out one drawer, I can write for 15 minutes a day - and that is just a few things! If I were to do any of these regularly, I would eventually have what I wanted even without extra money. But my REAL message here is that as soon as you START taking action to make the experiences you seek a reality, you are simultaneously manifesting the money at the same time! When you are "spending" your time doing something you value, and taking action toward your goal, or doing something you love - you ARE attracting more money!

The truth is you are not poor - you have everything you need right now! You just need to start to take action based on the BELIEF that you do...

What if the ONLY way to get money was to BE DOING what you loved, and the more you loved it, the more money you got??!

What would you be doing?

As best you can - start doing THAT now.

Life starts now!

It doesn't matter how old you are, but life starts NOW!

I am visiting a friend right now, who is turning 40 tomorrow, and I am not far behind her. We were talking about all the friends we have in common who are still "the same" no matter how old they are getting, how many birthdays come and go...

It made me start to think about when they are going to decide to start taking action and make their lives what they WANT them to be? When are they going to DO SOMETHING to make life the experience I KNOW that have always wished it would be?!

Now's the time. It doesn't get any easier to turn your life around the older you get - it gets harder! With every passing day passing the time in your life, waiting until tomorrow to really GO FOR IT and put your energy into what you have always wanted to have, do, or be, you get more and more entrenched in how it has always been...

What do you really wish your life was about right now?

I suggest you start now.