Creating my world, one day at a time!

3 Months and 16 days and not one time has the Magic of creating a Clear Intention failed me.

I am sure you have heard it before. All of this talk about; the law of attraction, affirmations and creating a clear intention to manifest it into existence.

I have met many people and gone to many workshops (both business and Spiritual) that have issued a challenge to apply the law of attraction to making your day each morning.

All of these suggestions were ridding the wave that books like; The Secret, Abraham Hicks, The Power of Now, etc, had created. It all sounded like a great idea and years ago, with the support and prompting of a life coach, I even gave it a try.

This was the plan; every morning grab my journal and write down what I wanted to create each day. Every night grab the journal and write down how it went and what lessons I learned. Great plan and I did it… for about 3 days.

What were my results? Lots of moments, after the three initial days, of sitting in my car, on the way to work, realizing that I had forgotten to do it again and cussing under my breath with a promise to do it tomorrow.

I know that there are those of you out there that have pulled this one off. People who somehow manage to take the time every morning to write down in their journal. If you are one of these people, I invite you to comment below on how you did/do this!

To those of us who don’t pull it off that way. I invite you to keep reading…

So, here I it is over 6 years later and somewhere along the way, I realized I had a belief that “it has to look a certain way”.

I think the belief that “it has to look a certain way” was also amplified by my, what many have called, OCD. A great curse to have, if you are making business plans and management systems, etc. Not so great, if you are attempting to find a way to manifest your intentions into reality.

I have the thought, that I am not the only person who has found that a certain belief was/is standing directly between them and what they wanted. This belief often led me to frustration, expectations and disappointment.

The first step was acknowledging the belief. The second step was to do some work that would clear the belief while practicing a new one (more on this another time).

On January 1^st, along with the millions of other New Years Resolutionists, I decided to give it another go. Since the last time I tried, I had picked up / created a few tools that have made my ability to set goals and achieve them sky rocket so I figured now was the time. Except this time I didn’t have the belief of “it has to look a certain way” fogging up my vision.

Every morning, when I get to work, I see this bright neon pink post it that I leave out on my desk (pink for dramatic affectJ). I keep it simple and write at the top of the pink post it “created today” (affirmation in the now). Then I write a list of what I am creating.

That’s it, no journal and not even until I get to work. Granted, I leave my car ride to work up to chance and on weekends I usually get around to doing it at 11 am but I have found that doing it this way works great… for me.

So here I am 3 months and 16 days later… and what are my results? I can honestly say that every intention I have written, I have created!

Granted, I am keeping my intentions to things that I don’t have huge beliefs about (fears, doubts, behavior patterns, etc. Those I am still working on and they will make this list soon. But with what I am writing down I have accomplishing some pretty miraculous stuff.

Here is an example. One day I wrote:

Created today

• Connection
• Energy
• Fun

And on that day I meet 3 new people that I really connected with and became friends with. I had tons of energy and the whole day was a blast. In fact, now I write Energy on almost all of my days.

Here is one of my favorites. Just one week ago, I wrote:

Created Today

• Energy
• Financial Abundance
• Accomplishment

With in 10 minutes of writing this my wife called me and said that she had talked to the hospital about the baby delivery bills. (They had told us the day before that we still owed them $750 dollars. When my wife told me this I couldn’t believe my ears, not another bill!).

When she called them up them up that morning they noticed that they had screwed up and that they owed us almost $1,000 dollars. With this new news we ended up paying off all the rest of the doctor bills with money left over… and on top of that I had a ton of Energy and accomplished allot!

Over and over this has worked for me and here is why I think it does this time:

• Unlike last time, I found a way that worked with the way I all ready do things, i.e. lists, at the office, pink post its, etc.
• Instead of assuming I know how the energy, financial abundance, etc is going to come to me, I stay open to how ever it might come.
• I stay aware, conscious and in tune so that when it comes I notice and I take advantage of it.
• And I practice it over and over so that I train my mind, body and spirit that this is reality not just theory.

If you are all ready manifesting your day, each day, keep it going, you are a superstar. To the rest of the world that, like me, didn’t pull it of at first try, here is my invitation for you; keep going! Find a way that makes sense to you and the way that you do things. Notice the beliefs that might be standing in your way and above all keep it simple!

-          Mr. Rogers

To all my extreme friends and family… Take a rest!

Here it is, time to come clean; I am an addict. That is correct; you heard it from me before you heard it through the grape vine.  To my friends and family who might be wondering how they did not know this about me until now; I would have told you but I just realized…

…I had been invited by an inspiring friend of mine, Sylvia Nibley, to participate in the filming of something… I wasn’t quite sure what. I said yes because every time I hang out with Sylvia and her community, I walk away the wiser.

It was Friday the 29^th at 1 pm. I showed up to some familiar faces. Shannon Simomelli (The class/lady I wrote Dancing into my body about), as well as other people that I am sure I will be soon writing about, were there.

As it got started Dan Howard was introduced. I had seen him speak before and I was inspired by his calmness and sincerity. I also thought he looked very familiar. Come to find out I have known both of his sons for years (see you guys in Kamas and at echo this year!).

Dan started by telling us that the message he wanted to share would only take minutes. This caught me as strange since I was told we were going to be here for 4 hours. Dan was right, it only took a few minutes for his message… and then 4 hours to start comprehending the depth of it.

He explained what he calls Intentional Resting. Sounds simple enough, to intentionally rest for ourselves, right? He went on to explain how, because of the chaos/distractions of the world, we never let our bodies reach homeostasis, we keep our attention (and intention) so distracted that we very rarely have time to heal.

I am sure you are no stranger to meditation and have probably paused to send your headache some light, received a massage, spent a day relaxing to recharge, etc. This is in the same vain that Dan spoke about but his was a little simpler and for me it was a piece I have been searching for.

Just a week before I listened to Dan speak about Intentional Resting I was speaking to a friend about stress. I was mentioning how I couldn’t figure out why I was getting ill all the time. Yes I live a very active and stressful life (or so I am told, I think my stress meter is broken), but I take time out to relax, meditate, go on vacations, etc.

The person laughed and pointed out that even when I meditate, I meditate in an extreme way. They were joking but I got the message. I realized that my idea of relaxing was working on the house, cleaning, etc. My idea of meditation was using SyncCreation to remove energetic blocks and manifest things into my life, or take the Zen approach and send energy through me by actively clearing my mind.  My idea of going on vacations was to see and do as much as I could.

I realized that I didn’t know what relaxing was. I spent that night and many sense thinking about it as I lay awake (yes I even sleep intensely)…

Back to the class, here was Dan, telling me about rest. I had heard this word but it wasn’t part of my vocabulary. He told me that we can rest for our wounds. We can rest for our aches, we can rest for our bodies, our immune system, etc. and after telling us this he showed us.

He had us say, I am resting for my _____ now. I did it for my lower back because it was a little uncomfortable. He had us say I am resting into my ______ now. After I said this not only did my lower back feel better, I felt more present, but most importantly I felt true rest… that simple.

The more he talked about rest; resting for ourselves and others, the more I realized, just like my friend said, there wasn’t one thing I did that was actually resting! I have been told I was addicted to extremes before. But I wrote it off because I also relaxed. But I wasn’t relaxing and in fact I was just juicing up doing a less active way of using, creating and burning up more energy.

In that moment I got it and now I am okay with telling you. I am addicted to the highs of everything! Yes I know the power of affirmation. But if I started the article out with I now rest it wouldn’t have captured the addictive irony of this article.

My new affirmation is that I am a well rested person. I have the thought that the more rested I am the more I can be awake (I know there is a quote or something like this).  All last week I caught myself jumping from extremes to extremes. But now I know! And now I pause and rest!

All ready I have felt it affect my health, I have noticed it in my ability to be in tune with my body, I have even shared this with others and felt it bring whole rooms together and rested in minutes.

To all the other addicts of the extreme; take a moment, pause and rest… we could all use some! And imagine a world of well rested beings, present and peaceful… now that is the stuff!

Here is a side story. I was in Vegas last weekend to see Preston and Kimball (A.K.A. Fyzyk and Litmus One) play a show (hip-hop with a soul and conscious lyrics). Before the show I was sitting with Preston (one of my best buddies in the whole universe) and I was having a hard time connecting with him.

I thought it might be due to the long (but awesome) car ride or that we were just on different pages. Then it clicked that he wasn’t really there with me. He was 4 hours a head thinking about the show with nervousness. Some how the conversation got turned into a discussion about meditation and energy (happens all the time with Preston and I. If you don’t believe me listen to Preston and Kimball’s lyrics and read my other blogs).

He asked me to walk him through a meditation. I had been thinking about Intentional Resting a lot so I explained it to him and asked him if he would like to give it a try. He said yes so I invited him to close his eyes and repeat “I am resting for my body now”.

When he said it the room went still and so did his jitters (twitching leg, etc). I then asked him to repeat “I am resting into my body now”. I felt all of his energy that was somewhere else come and settle in his body. I got goose bumps! I looked around the room and I could tell by the expression on everyone’s face that they felt Preston arrive.

He went on to rest for his brother Kimball and the crowd that would be at the show and then sat in the rest for a few minutes. The rest of the time before the show was beautiful, everyone there felt connected, present, and in the moment and it set a beautiful tone for the evening.

As for the show later that night; ask anyone there and they will tell you that Preston and Kimball were the 2 most present people that performed. The energy flowed through them like water. There crowed was connected and engaged. It was beautiful, powerful, inspiring and fun as heck!

What an awesome experience of resting!

Poker playing… and actually winning! What a metaphor for life!

As I mentioned in previous posts, I happen to have a unique profession that allows me to do things like spend 4 days meditating with 24 very inspiring and powerful people (that was this January’s SyncCreation workshop).

I also have the opportunity to go to Las Vegas… to gamble… and meditate… as part of my job.  About 4 times a year SyncCreation hosts its Las Vegas Adventure. 3 days of meditation, throwing the dice, and practicing affecting the physical with our energy, while in an intense environment.

While many people practice being inspiring creators and in the comfort of their own environment. The SyncCreation folks, as Dr. Joe Gallenberger says, “see how fun it is to light a candle in the darkness”. In other words; practice creating intentions and manifesting them amongst the chaos (lights, smoke and noise) of a casino.

The last time I went to the Las Vegas adventure was this summer and it was one of my most fun experiences of 2009. I met people that could get slot machines to go (by go I mean give them money) by just getting in tune with them. I saw, felt and experienced being in tune with the dice as I rolled long runs at the craps table.

The Las Vegas Adventure is a highly enjoyable experience and it as also very powerful. It gave me the opportunity to test my ability to be in tune with my intuition on a minute by minute basis. It changed my beliefs about money. Heck, it showed me my beliefs about money and because I was finally clear what they were I had the choice to change them.

While describing all of the things I learned at the Las Vegas Adventure and sharing every detail might be fun (for me at least) I did title this Poker Playing and Actually Winning for a reason. I have played electronic poker (online and off) as well as poker (Texas hold’em to be specific) with my friends for years. I really enjoy the game. I find it an exercise in willpower, strategy and reading other people’s energy. All things I find to be very valuable skills.

Before I went to the Vegas Workshop I had never played poker in a casino. Doing so was on my list of things to do way before I die. I had some good runs on the dice table and the group was done for the day so I thought I would give it a try.

I went in the room with the intent to be present, in the moment and focus more on listening to my intuition and feeling the game then trying to out strategize the other players. I sat down in the last spot of a full table. As I got started in the game I overheard talk from a few of the players about making sure they were logging in enough hours of playing for the casino. I could tell they were regulars.

I started out with five dollars. I played for about 20 minutes. I could feel the energy build, I could decipher between the nervousness of my first time and the flow of the energy as it moved from player to player.  I could feel who was going to win and when I should bet.

I rode my intuition all the way to winning $68 dollars in 20 minutes and then I felt a shift in energy. I felt my energy pull back from the table and pull in the direction of the door. I got up, cashed out, tipped the dealer and left… $68 dollars in 20 minutes… not bad for a first timer.

Before that week, when I played live poker with my buddies, I would usually be one of the last 3 or 4 people left (out of about eight people). I had never won. Since the Vegas Workshop I have played 3 times and I have one every time (or ended the game with some version of the split pot due to the time).

I think I have found a sweet spot, a balance between strategy and intuition (this is something Joe teaches at the craps table as well). Sometimes I find myself relying more on one while starting to ignore the other. When this happens my game starts to tank.

If I maintain my strategy, constantly check in with my intuition and start the game out with a clear intention to win (I usually couple that with intentions of having fun and deepening my relationship with my friends)…  I win.

Will this happen every time? I don’t know. What I do know is that poker has just taken on a whole new level for me. It has become an opportunity to practice my intuition and stay in tune while maintaining the will power to follow my strategy. And yes it has also inspired me to practice that in life as well.

That being said, you want to play some poker?