Feeling Good

By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired. –Franz Kafka

A friend recently emailed me asking about happiness and how to manifest his desires.  He said, “I really do want to be happy with my life. I wonder if the problem is that I want too much and am never satisfied ( I was up until 2am last night thinking about my future and where I can go from where I am currently at today. Is this the peak of my life/career? From here on out, it this as good as it’s going to get?)”

The following is an excerpt from my response to him:

Basically, Law of Attraction says that “thoughts become things” and everything in our physical experience begins as thought.  First we think it, and then as we live with that thought the Universe goes to work to bring you what you are thinking about.  There have been all kinds of examples of this throughout history and if you think about it you will find examples in your own life of the same principle at work.  It is this reason that so many people never see much change in the patterns of their lives.  They continually reflect on the way things exist for them in the moment and the Universe keeps bringing them more of what they have which may not be what they really want. 
 
So let’s apply this to your situation.  You want to be involved in a career that’s different from the one you are currently in.  You think to yourself, “I would really like to do X, but I’ve got it pretty good and there are so many people who don’t have as much as I do.” Following Law of Attraction, the Universe responds to “…I’ve got it pretty good…” and sends you more of what you have which leaves you right where you’ve been all along.
 
So then you think, “I wonder if the problem is that I want too much and am never satisfied.” In short, the answer is no.  It is our nature to want more than we have no matter what that may be.  And there’s nothing wrong with that.  That desire for more is what keeps us growing.  We don’t have to worry about getting more than our “share” because the Universe can supply an unlimited amount of resources.  In other words, just because we are getting more does not mean that someone else must get less.
 
The single biggest stumbling block for most people is that they can’t get past the way things “are” in the moment.  If you want the Universe to bring you something more than you have then you must “ignore” the way things are and focus on the way you want them to be!
 
The way to know if you are moving in the right direction is with your emotions.  If you feel good about whatever it is you are thinking about then you are moving in the right direction for you and what you are focusing on is making its way to you!  If, on the other hand, you are feeling bad when you think about something, then you are moving away from what you want.  It’s that simple. 
 
The key to all of this is something of a balancing act.  You must be happy (feel good) with what you have in order to move in the direction of what you want while not being completely satisfied and continually wanting more.  As far as being happy with what you have, the easiest way to move in that direction is to learn to be thankful for what you have.  Find something about your current situation that you can truly be thankful for and offer that up to the Universe.  Seek out more and more things to be thankful for and offer those up at every opportunity.  In the end, the ironic part is that the more you “hate” what you have, the more difficult it is to move on and this is true of any situation be it a job, a relationship, or whatever.  Conversely, the more thankful and appreciative you are for what you have, the easier it is to let it go and receive more of what you want!

Life leaps like a geyser for those who drill through the rock of inertia. –Alexis Carrel

Ok, so I’ve been feeling so good lately that I started to wonder just how to reach for something better when I couldn’t possibly have any way of knowing what “better than I’ve ever been” would feel like.

Now, stay with me for a minute, I realize you may not be at this point on your path. In fact, you may be wondering how you will ever feel anything other than bad. You may not be able to imagine anything close to what you think I’m talking about. But, I submit to you that where you are is not that much different than where I’ve been lately.

I’m moving in a particular direction and, as such, I experience the inertia, or “vibrational escrow”, of the direction I’m moving. You know, “A body in motion tends to stay in motion.” So the motion I’ve created keeps me moving in the direction I’ve been going (sound familiar?) so that more of that situation shows up in my experience.

So the question becomes, “How do I reach for something I don’t understand in the first place?”

The answer is nothing new. “Ask, Believe, Receive,” or however you want to say it. Simply put, it starts with your desire to want something more than what you have. That’s it. It’s as simple as that. You know what you don’t want. So just turn that around and state it as what you do want. Here’s the “difficult” part, assuming there is a difficult part (doesn’t the simple thought that it’s “difficult” make it so? –you should be shaking your head in the affirmative). Because we are moving in a particular direction that inertia (vibrational escrow) that we have built up will keep us moving in that direction and we will have to make deliberate attempts to keep our thoughts on what we want until the time arrives where we’ve “purged the buffers” and can begin to receive that which we are now creating!

So, we’ve started to focus on what we want and we’ve maintained that thought even in the face of the “reality” in front of us. So what happens now?

Something or someone shows up in your experience that demonstrates to you, without any doubt, what you need to think/feel/do in order to move to toward that new direction.

In my case, I met an individual who stirred something in me unlike anything I have felt before. This individual helped me understand what to reach for by providing the necessary contrast between the way I have been feeling and the way I could feel. And, interestingly, it wasn’t about anything that was said but simply about the feeling. In case you’re wondering what it felt like, the only word I can come up with to describe it was “awe” but this doesn’t seem adequate somehow.

Today I am grateful for the arrival of this individual in my experience for I now know how it will be possible to feel better than I currently do.

The question is not what you look at, but what you see. -Henry David Thoreau

I talked to a friend today who was concerned about the fact that he had attracted some of that lower vibrational “stuff” that occasionally shows up in our experience.  He shared with me some of the specifics to which I immediately responded, “Ah, you have bugs in your eyes!”  Since he hadn’t yet read my last post, I couldn’t help but laugh when he responded with, “HUH?”

I went on to share with my friend that even though he may not be where he would prefer to be at this moment that he was, in fact, exactly where he should be.  The fact that something less desirable shows up in our experience is nothing to worry about.  In fact, worrying about it is the last thing we should do as that will only attract more of it!  The best approach to handling these kinds of situations is to remove yourself from the equation by mentally seeing yourself as an uninvolved party observing the events of your life from the vantage point of one who can see the past, present, and future all at once. 

Here’s an example of how to get a mental picture of something like that.  Imagine yourself looking down on a busy street from the third floor.  You see someone walking down the street but because it’s so busy, you know that person can only see the people directly in front of them.  From your vantage point, however, you can see where he is, where he’s been and the events that are happening in his wake, as well as things taking place along his path that he can’t currently see.

That person you are watching is you.  You can watch the events you’ve been living without being attached to the feelings associated with them because you are now outside of those experiences.  Watch what that person does, how he reacts to the situation and see if you can pick up on what it is he can learn from all of this.  How can he apply the lessons of this experience in such a way that he no longer needs to experience it or anything like it?

Answering that question will help you clean the bugs from your eyes and, further, teach you more about attracting bug free experiences!

Guest: I kind of promised I wouldn’t ask this question.  (I’ve mentioned it to people and they said, “Oh, don’t.”) But, this is a quick one: Why do dogs risk getting bugs in their eyes by sticking their heads out of car windows?

Abraham: Well, tell your friends that you have given us an opportunity to give the answer we have been waiting a very long time to give.  And that is, because the contrast of the bugs in the eyes is a small price to pay for the exhilaration of that ride. And it is exactly the same way you felt when you made the decision to come into this physical existence. You knew there would be contrast here, but you said, the ride is going to be worth it! 

-Abraham via Esther Hicks
Excerpted from the workshop in San Francisco, CA on Saturday, July 30th, 2005

The last few days have brought a couple of those situations to the surface that are lower on the vibrational scale than what I’ve been experiencing overall in my life.  They caused a bit of momentary stress and would have formerly been the kind of occurrences that I would have easily allowed myself to get “stuck” on.  However, upon experiencing these events this time, I found that I was very quickly able to shift my thought process and move back into a better feeling place.

Once I was able to move back to that better feeling place, I realized how I was then able to appreciate that higher vibrational state all the more.  I found that the experience of the contrasting state of being was actually something of a nudge to move even higher on the scale as it helped fuel a desire in me to continue to reach for more.

So today, as I wash the bugs from my eyes, I think about how fun it is to feel and hear the wind blowing by my face and I can’t help but be thankful for those moments of contrast.  How about you?