I’ve been thinking a lot about working with intention these days. Specifically, I’ve really been focusing on how our basic beliefs can get in the way of our intention to thwart reaching our goals. In the past, I’ve written a number of posts that discuss how framing our thoughts is a critical aspect of working with the Law of Attraction. Yet even I find myself getting bogged down in limiting thoughts and beliefs on a fairly regular basis. Thankfully, I am usually fairly quick to realize that I’ve settled into negative self-talk, but many others may not be so lucky (or aware of their negative chatter).

So, let’s do this again, shall we?

We can boil this down to a few pat sayings:

Thoughts Become Things

Those who speak most of prosperity, have it.

The only effective way of changing another person is by changing yourself.

I think it’s really important that we pay attention to the thoughts we think on a regular basis. Repeating thoughts are what eventually become beliefs. After all, beliefs are merely thoughts that we’ve repeated so many times that we’ve come to accept them as Truth. I’m not one to espouse that we become overly conscious of our daily thoughts, though; I’m very aware that because we have so many thoughts every hour, it’s literally impossible to try to monitor every thought we have. It’s more important, I think, to deal with trends than it is to go after every single thought we have.

I’ve come to consider taking care of the thoughts I think on a daily basis in the same fashion as I consider my meditation practice. When I meditate, I focus my awareness on my breathing and bodily sensations. Inevitably, my monkey mind chatters away about the shopping I need to do or, perhaps, about a self-imposed deadline for doing some exercise or writing. When that inevitably happens, I simply disengage from following that line of thinking and re-focus my awareness back on my breathing and my body. During a single meditation session, this might happen dozens of times. And because of this, it is the very essence of why we call it a meditation practice. We’re never going to escape that cycle. Embrace it. It’s precisely why we do it.

When we apply that meditation concept to dealing with our daily negative self-chatter, we can stop worrying at all about slavishly monitoring each and every thought and just follow the process of adjusting our focus whenever we become aware of an anomaly. Each time we notice our negative self-talk, disengage from it. Let it go. Then draw your focus back to reframing your thoughts in a positive voice that will help create what you want instead of that which you don’t.

I call this practice of gradually becoming more aware of our thoughts Cultivating the Observer. This practice is wonderfully practical. It is the basis of every mindfulness practice there is. When we’re hoping to create a new reality, employing our inner observer to draw our focus back to positive framing can dramatically improve our creative prowess. But make no mistake: Regardless of whether you’re mindfully creating or mindlessly creating, you’re going to create your reality no matter what.

In case this is a new concept for you, it’s worth stating that whatever reality you’re experiencing now, it has come about by way of the thoughts and actions you’ve taken in the past. Remember: Thoughts Become Things. The thoughts we repeat and the actions that we’ve rehearsed so many times are the very things that have created the life we’re experiencing today. When we wish to create a different reality, therefore, it’s essential that we learn to create new thoughts and actions.

One of the most powerful tools in your arsenal is the If Money Were No Object exercise. At its most basic, imagine that you had some astronomical amount of money, maybe a billionaire. And then imagine your life without having to worry about money in any way, shape or form. What would your life be? What would you do? How would you think and how would you act? Write it down. Make a vision or mission statement of that imagined life. THEN take a look at where your life is now and draw a virtual path of thoughts and actions that take you from where you are now to where you want to be in that perfect If Money Were No Object  life.

It’s very important for me to emphasize that this isn’t an exercise to make you feel badly about where you are in life at this moment. This is an exercise that is intended to give you clarity on where you would find your greatest joy and what the baby steps are that can gradually get you closer and closer to that ultimate joy. Even more important, it’s essential to remember that you simply cannot have a happy ending to a miserable journey. The purpose of the baby steps here is to build you up via achievable changes to your thoughts and actions. And when you almost inevitably find yourself questioning your worthiness or ability to stick the landing, remind yourself that life isn’t a destination. Death is our ultimate destination in this physical incarnation. No, life is the journey from birth through to that inevitable demise. Our task is to experience it with as much joy as we can.

So, here we are. We’re focusing our awareness of positivity and looking for the baby steps that can take us ever closer to our perceived goal. Is there anything else of which we should be mindful? I’d suggest that we should pay close attention to signs from the Universe (AKA Source) that lead to opportunities that are associated with the goals we wish to attain. The more we attune our thinking to positive manifesting, our intention becomes laser focused. And whenever that happens with any regularity, we begin to experience all manner of synchronicities delivered to us by the universe.

You might want to think of Source as being akin to the proverbial genie in a bottle. When we manifest with positivity, our personal genie works behind the scenes to deliver to us all manner of opportunities that can aid us on our journey to the goals we want to achieve. That isn’t to say that we want or should try to apply meaning to all the events in our life. Rather, simply be aware of all the circumstances that surround us and become more sensitive to how these circumstances may be useful opportunities. You should always be true to yourself, of course, which means that you shouldn’t feel as though you should take every possible opportunity that comes your way. You should, however, give each some thought to see how your inner guidance system resonates (or not) with the opportunity in play.

I’d like to just mention that no matter how far away from your goals you feel you are, your entire life can change in an instant. As bad as things might look one moment, circumstances in life can change in just a few breaths such that everything changes and opportunity is born anew. I can’t recount the number of times I’ve been reminded at how quickly and completely life can change for the better. This really is a miraculous universe.

Finally, I encourage you to embrace the journey. The Universe Provides. This is something I’ve come to accept as truth. Looking far down the road at what might be an unattainable goal is not where your attention should be. Think of it more like driving at night. We can’t see the full route between here and there. There may be detours along the way. And we may only be able to see a small portion of the roadway that is lit in front of us with the headlights. And yet when we keep driving and adjusting course as required, we can drive across an entire country.

At some point, you’ll either get to your destination or you’ll change your mind and enter a new destination into your inner guidance system. As long as you pay attention to your feelings, frame your thoughts in positivity and pay attention to the route and opportunities afforded to you, you’ll arrive somewhere all the better for it.

Much love,

trane