I am a very visual person. I see images and they are often emblazoned on my mind. This can be a liability for a “deliberate creator” because it means that I can easily vividly focus on what I don’t want. If you have a visual learning style, you may want to have a few tools for letting go of the images you don’t want to be focusing on and replacing them with the ones you DO want.

In the Abraham-Hicks teachings, they say “Look around less. Imagine more.” This is because when we keep looking at “what is”, we keep validating the current experience. Fine, when you like what you see, but what about when you are seeking improvement?

I noticed that I  have a very powerful ability to recall what I have seen and hold the image in my mind. How I turn that into an asset in deliberate creating is to use the power of my imagining to create even more vivid images than those I am currently looking at. Here are two ways to do that:

1. Find a memory with a vivid image that matches the way I want to be vibrating. In other words, I align my energy with a mental image that is powerfully positive and uplifting. To strengthen this image, I find the feeling that matches and amplifies the energy of the image. I step into this emotionally charged vision and live in it, right in this moment. The more I do this, the more real it becomes.

2. When there is no matching memory, I create one, in my imagination, and charge it with emotion. This can take some words to bring it to life. My favorite way is to script a scenario of what experiences I will be having as a result of the change. I write this as if it has already happened. The trick here, for me, is to forget about telling how I got there and go right to what it feels like to have arrived, the gratitude, the “rightness” of it and the ripples of other amazing results that came as a result of the manifestation I started with.

To keep things really simple, when an issue is really “charged”, just focus on feeling good!

Here’s a story about how to use focusing and the feelings that are generated to lift your vibration, even when you aren’t trying to create anything in particular. I focused on something as simple as a message from a friend and expanded it into a vivid emotional image that I can come back to for alignment.

Working in my studio yesterday, I missed a call from my friend, Val, who recently moved to a new town. What is it about having someone dear appreciate me, that feels so good? In her message, my friend said that she missed me and then that she misses the way she feels when she is with me. This is “Abraham speak”. Abraham-Hicks teaches that when we miss someone, we are really missing how we feel when we are around them.

We can access this feeling any time, really. So, while my friend is far away, I can think about her and feel how it feels to appreciate who she is and I become instantly aligned with my own inner being. Appreciating others is one way that I take the shortcut to feeling good whenever I want to shift out of negativity. I actually learned this as part of my HeartMath practice and I teach it to everyone who will listen!

So, when I got the call from Valerie, here’s what happened for me. I heard her voice, I pictured her in my mind, a smile came across my face as I remembered my appreciation for her. The message was lovely, too, of course, but the reason I could really feel and take in her appreciation was because I was already in the vibrational vicinity of it.  Love really does multiply and grow as we let it in. From this vibrational “vantage point”, it is easy to move into creating something specific, or I can just bask in the good feeling, knowing that more goodness is being attracted into my experience.

Yes, let’s talk about the forgotten art of resting. By resting I do not mean sleeping, nor is it about meditation. This is the art of, what I call “laying about”. It turns out that Americans, in particular, have a deficit in this area. We are a country of dreamers, of inventors, of entrepreneurs.

So, as you make yet another “to do” list in the endless quest for self improvement,  it might be a good time to ask: “When was the last time you just did nothing?” I don’t even mean curling up with a good book or puttering around in your jammies on a Saturday. I mean plunking yourself down and watching the fire blaze in your wood stove or sitting in a sunny window and watching the birds.

In my stress programs I help people to recall and re-experience moments that bring them joy, peace or appreciation. Just recalling such experiences is restorative! It also brings us into what Abraham-Hicks calls “The Vortex”. When we just BE and APPRECIATE, there is no experience of resistance or trying hard or pushing against things.

One of my best moments to appreciate and re-experience is the period shortly after the birth of my first child. Those who have cared for infants know, this is hardly a time of “not doing”. It was winter, cold and often rainy. My son had been born a bit jaundiced and I was told to leave him naked in the sun and the yellow tinge to his skin would clear up in a few weeks.

A blissful number of sunny days finally arrived, but it was still too cold to venture outside in a diaper! I set my rocking chair in a sunny window and rocked my son to sleep over my shoulder. As his body was warmed and healed by the sun, I was given the gift of doing nothing. While he slept, I simply rocked and felt the sun on my own body. To this day, I can recall the delicious warmth of the sun, the weight of my child, the smell of his baby body as I surrendered to being at rest.

If you resist the idea of rest, you are not alone. From every direction we are encouraged to make good use of our time, to be efficient and productive. For some, the closest we get to rest is zoning out in front of the TV. Yet, I think we are missing some of the restorative nature of true rest and the benefits of getting into alignment with our Source.

Would you like to give rest a try? Look for inspiration from your animal companions. They  live in alignment much more easily than we humans do and they will teach you what it means to rest. Or try putting a hammock or lounge chair out in the sun. Just sip some water or tea and watch the world go by. Think of it as an easy and free way to re-charge your battery.

The restorative power of rest is any easy one to tap into when you want to raise your vibration and attract more good into your life.

Perhaps you’ve even started a Gratitude Journal or go to bed saying what you are grateful for. But, do you know the reason behind being grateful? Below I have listed three reasons why the law of attraction is so responsive to your gratitude and how that supercharges your manifestations.

The Tradition of Thank You Notes

Reason #3- When I was a girl, my parents insisted I write thank-you notes when I received gifts from my elderly relatives. I was told that, if I didn’t thank them, they would stop sending me gifts. As a child I learned that my thank you note ensured that my relative knew how much I enjoyed the gift and made it more likely that I would be gifted again! As an adult, I thank the Universe for all the gifts I receive. This is a way of saying “Yes! I like this and will be happy to have more gifts of this type. Thanks for noticing what I enjoy.” When it comes to expressing gratitude, whether to a friend, an auntie or the Universe, it is important to let the giver know that you appreciated it.

Being a Good Steward of What You Have

Reason #2- Appreciation of anything is a good indicator that you will take appropriate care of it. Several abundance coaches have taught that even a penny, found on the ground, is cause for gratitude and celebration. Wealth coach, Sandy Forrester, tells that when she finds a coin on the ground, she picks it up and sqeals a loud and joyful “thank you” to the Universe. In this way, she sends the message that she is ready and able to take good care of the small things she receives. Would you entrust a million dollars to someone who squandered the money that they did have? The expression of gratitude is also like a promise: “I will take responsibility for this gift and demonstrate that I am ready for more.”

Feeling Good Creates More Good

Reason #1-Gratitude makes you feel good. This is probably the most powerful reason for being grateful. When you focus on the things you appreciate in your life, you raise your vibration to one of joy and that joy attracts more of that good feeling into your life. Gratitude and appreciation are very powerful vibrational attitudes. You can’t help but feel good when you are in the mode of gratitude. You also can’t focus on what you don’t want while you are focusing on what you love.

So, next time you remind yourself “I should write in my gratitude journal”, put some intention behind it. My intention sounds something like this.
“I have so much good in my life. I want the Universe to know how much I appreciate what I have. I feel grateful for the opportunity to tend to the gifts in my life and I am ready to accept even more good into my life. It feels so good to acknowledge all of my good. I love basking in the feeling of knowing that my life is full of abundant blessings.”

Before bed, my husband and I tell each other aloud- what we are grateful for. This is a lovely way to set ourselves up for a delicious sleep and positive dreams.

What are you grateful for? Gratitudes are a powerful way to immerse yourself in the goodness of what IS and what IS COMING.

Think of the aspect of you that is always connected and aware of your inner light and beauty, the part that is attuned to All That Is. When you are in the flow and aware of your divine nature, you will naturally feel awash with love and joy. This is when you are dialed in for allowing your results to arrive.

But, being in the world, by its very nature, is about experiencing challenges and opportunities to learn and expand. So, we are often faced with experiences that bring up frustration, disappointment and more. These situations are actually the source of the expansion of the Universe! By experiencing what we don’t want, we become clearer about what we do want, we imagine and explore and new thoughts create new things in the world.

This is why we are here, to be creators and designers of wonderful expansion in the world. So, the secret is to decide that the uncomfortable experiences are welcome. Of course, this is not always our first inclination. You can use the challenge as a jumping off point for feeling better, though.

By knowing what you don’t want, you can allow yourself to move your attention to what you do want. This is easiest if you start to recognize how you are feeling. Know that if you are having uncomfortable feelings, your thoughts can be gently nudged toward feelings that feel a little better. Gentle nudges work better than trying to go from a very low, unpleasant feeling to one that is very high. It is easy to move from hope to excitement. It would not be so easy to move from despair to excitement. Law of attraction is going to find similar vibrations to where you are currently vibrating. Inching a long by reaching for a thought that brings a little relief is the best way to improve your vibration.

How do you know if you are in the flow or not? You can tell by how you feel.

If you feel irritated, frustrated, angry, sad, discouraged, you may be focusing on what you don’t have, rather than what you have asked for. Sometimes it’s hard to tell by just naming the feeling. Anger can feel great, if you’ve been feeling sad, but not so great, if you have been feeling hopeful. That’s why “relief” is such a good indicator.

Sloppy thinking is when you notice that your thoughts don’t lead to gradually improved emotions and then you don’t do anything to change them. None of your thoughts are inherently bad. They are part of your response to the experiences you have in the world. What you do with the thoughts is the key. To continue to focus on thoughts that keep you feeling the same uncomfortable feelings is what I call sloppy thinking. To release yourself from a habit of sloppy thinking:

• Ask yourself if you are enjoying this thought
• Ask yourself if you keep repeating the same thoughts that you don’t enjoy
• Ask yourself what thought would feel just a little better
• Choose a new thought that you can easily embrace, one that lifts your emotions to create a sense of relief.

It doesn’t matter what others think of you or your thoughts or feelings. All that matters is that you experience relief. The law of attraction is working in all our lives. Choose thoughts that raise your vibration. You will naturally begin to attract like minded folks.

Slowly melt it away!
When you’ve struggled with something for a long time, your focus is on what you don’t like. This builds resistance. And with resistance
you actually create more of what you don’t want. You’ve probably heard the adage “what you resist persists”. And I am sure you can recall how tension, anger and frustration build, creating more and more resistance. When you have resolved tochange something in your life, it is not helpful to push against it.

So what can you do? Resistance can be released gently and gradually. Instead of focusing on what you don’t want or can’t have, you focus on what you do want. Whenever you notice that you might have gotten sloppy in your thoughts, you can notice resistance and reach for a feeling of relief by changing your focus to something that feels just a little better. Feel the resistance melt away as you turn your attention to better feeling thoughts. Your deliberate effort to find an improved vibration will open the door to more of what you desire because you will be releasing resistance and allowing yourself to connect with your own high vibrations.

You can get it here: Unleash Your Success

There are so many things I love about this recording. And I’m still really blown away that it is this easy to share it with you. Technology has definitely been moving too fast for me lately. My kids both have iPods, but I still listen to my music on a CD player.

Every morning I pop the Unleash Your Success CD that Neil made for me into the player. I like that it is short enough to listen to every morning. I’m a busy working mom, but I can always find the 5 minutes it takes to set myself up to feel the freedom to succeed. And I know that the benefits of doing something little, a lot of times are huge.

So many people just try to DO too much. They either end up exhausted and missing out on the joy of being alive, or discouraged because they aren’t succeeding after so much “efforting”.

When my geeky husband, Neil told me how easy it was to share audios, I realized I could give you something you could easily use: A joyful, gentle and quick reminder to stay in tune with your greatness.

Each day that you listen, you will find it easier and easier to believe and know that you deserve success. It’s been working for me!

Have a fabulous time connecting with the star that you are!

Law of Attraction is based on the fact that we live in a vibrational universe. Your thoughts are the vibrational seeds of creation. Every manifestation was once a thought. The feelings that accompany a thought let you know that your vibrations are a match for the outcomes that you desire.

So, if you are thinking about what you want, but feeling about its absence…what are you creating? You are creating more of the lack or absence of your desire.

How can you be happy about something you want but you don”t have?
I am not called the Joy Genie because I grant wishes, but because I know how to get happy. And getting truly in a vibration of joy is one of the fundamental ways to make sure the Universe grants your wishes. This is because the Law of Attraction responds to the vibrations of thoughts, not the words. So, if you are thinking, “I really want to take a beach vacation in Maui”, but your vibration is one of lack, you aren’t sending the right message. If your emotions are a match for the empty and deprived feelings you have when you think about how you wish you could do that, you are not a match for it.

To become a match for your beach vacation, or any desire, you have to be feeling good. If you have been doing a lot of reading and studying about Law of Attraction, this may not be a new idea. But, I”ve noticed that folks have a hard time really grasping what this looks like.

Here”s a story from my friend, Sue, that might illustrate.
Their family is walking down a city street. Sue and her husband, Jake, are discussing the details of financing the car they want to buy. They are reviewing cost factors and how to tighten the budget a bit to cover the monthly payments. They are a kind of excited about the car, but also anxious about the costs.
Behind them trail the kids. They are goofing around, enjoying the bustle of the big city, awed by the tall buildings, the bright lights and the people in fancy business attire. Five year old, Jacob, is enjoying the city lights. He is also very focused on his new shoes and the sound his feet make as they squeak on the pavement. He is happy and care free.

Ten year old, Matt, is daydreaming about how he is gonna grow up and be a pilot, own his own jet and fly all over the world to big cities like this one. Suddenly, Matt calls out: I’m rich! He is jumping around and waiving a $50 bill around. Matt found the bill on the sidewalk. Mom or Dad probably stepped right over it!

This little story is a great demonstration of how vibration works. You  see, Matt is in a joyful vibration of abundance. He isn’t  just thinking about being rich, he is feeling the joy of it, as if it were already a given. His little brother is happy, but with no focus beyond the moment. Life is good. Sue and Jake are offering a mixed, or conflicting vibration. The dominant vibration they are in is worry or concern. Matt finds the money because it is a match for his focus and his feelings.

It”s kind of funny, as adults we aim to help our kids to be like us, to be practical and watch our pennies, like Sue and Jake were doing. If we could take our lessons from Matt we would put our energy into enjoying the passionate and unbridled joy that comes from imagining our desires as already done. Its the kids who envision a bright future and hold fast to the image and the emotion who get the results.

How do you get the Universe to deliver if you are a grown up? Expect success. Expect it and enjoy the joy of knowing that. Look, if you expect something to happen, you aren’t also worried that it won’t happen. The vibration of worrying: “will it?”,  “Can it?”,  “Is it gonna happen in time?”…these are not a vibrational match that enables us to receive.

“I know I am gonna be rich, own a jet and fly around the world.” That is a vibration of joy and expectation. From that place money can just show up on the sidewalk AND in that vibration, Matt could see the money that his parents walked right by!

To “get” the Universe to deliver your Hawaiian vacation, your buns of steel or your perfect job, you need only be in the vibration of joyful expectation that it will be delivered. Most of us are walking around in the uncertain expectation of “is it coming and when?”. Let yourself be a little more like Matt and keep the channels open for the Universe to deliver on your wishes.

Discover how the Joyful On The Way game will tune your vibration like Matt’s.

If you are like a lot of people, you don’t often spend much time recognizing yourself for your successes. You probably recognize that you have accomplished your goal, to some degree. Perhaps you also do some of these things:
* Criticize yourself for taking too long
* Tell yourself you didn’t do it well enough
* Immediately start working on your next goal

This is a problem because the feeling of success is so important for creating happiness. When you take the time to pat yourself on the back, you build up your own self-esteem and your sense of self-worth. You also spend time basking in the feeling of joy that comes from the success. You may have been taught that it is wrong to “blow your own horn” and have mistakenly believed that to mean that you shouldn’t talk about your accomplishments. Maybe you worry that others will think you are boastful.

The more that you value yourself, the more you feel up to meeting the challenges that life provides us. Celebrating your successes reminds you that:
You are capable
You are committed
You care
Celebration says “I did it. I contribute by being me and doing things that matter to me. I am a success!”

When you feel good about your successes and celebrate them, you are experiencing exactly the emotions that can take you to your next success. While you are feeling good and proud and happy is the best time to choose what your next actions should be.

Sadly, many of us choose our actions out of desperation and that often points us down the wrong path right from the get-go. Then we struggle with actions that feel difficult and we begin to feel even worse.

The definition of celebration that I like is “to observe an occasion with appropriate ceremony, festivity, and rejoicing.” Of course, celebration means a different thing to each person and how you celebrate is a personal thing. Whatever ways you choose to celebrate your successes, the most important key is that you feel good while you do it. In fact, the purpose of celebrating successes is to increase your feelings of joy and happiness.

Success creates more success and celebration keeps you focused on what is working, which causes that to expand even more! What a gift it is to know that when you are having fun focusing on your accomplishments you are opening the door to the next success.

The actions you take when you feel inspired are rewards in themselves. Keep in mind, though, that we want to celebrate progress, not perfection. In addition to celebrating actions, your courage, your efforts, and your commitment to keep going are also worth celebrating. End every day in appreciation and celebration and watch your creativity and success blossom.

Enjoying the contrast?
That’s one of the questions Abraham always asks the attendees at an Abraham-Hicks Law of Allowing workshop.Contrast is a word that we don’t often think of when focusing on things we are unhappy about. And one thing folks often have contrast about is when we think we have goofed, blown it, or “ruined everything”.

Let’s take a look at what happens when you make a mistake.  Often, mistakes are thought of as failures or poor outcomes. As humans, we tend to criticize ourselves and beat ourselves up when we goof up. Here’s an example from my practice that turns that viewpoint upside down:

“Lindsey” came to me very discouraged. She had put so much effort into applying to art school, building a portfolio, having it photographed and completing the different requirements for application for each school. She had completed her first year in college and realized that she had chosen the wrong school, perhaps the wrong major. She was lonely and stressed. Her grades were poor and she no longer enjoyed drawing, something she had always loved before.

Lindsey’s words spilled out about all the things she had done wrong and all the time and money she had wasted. Finally, she said “It was all a big mistake. I am such a loser!”

It took some work over a few weeks for Lindsey to get to the place where she could see some benefit to all the things she had done, even to having gone to school where she did. She chose to take some time off and work and explore her interests. She took a class at the Junior College in her other love, writing. We continued to work on separating her from her results- valuing who she was.

Later that year, as she was saying goodbye and preparing to head out on a new path, we sat laughing about some of her memories. When I asked her what had helped the most, she said “It was when you told me that I would know I was really living my life if I was making lots of mistakes! I really got how being afraid of blowing it can keep me from going for my dreams. I have a little sign up in my bathroom that you gave me. It says “Mistakes Are Wonderful Opportunities to Learn”.

Perhaps you would like some new points of view about mistakes:
Mistakes are legitimate and justifiable:
You could say there’s no such thing as mistakes, but we are all pretty used to that word. So let’s reframe it. Mistakes are proof that you are trying new things. If you aren’t making mistakes, you must be playing it so safe that you are hardly living. So, when you try something new or things go awry, celebrate! You have just gotten a little clearer about what you don’t want, and told the Universe a little more clearly what you DO want.

Acknowledging mistakes is a sign of strength:
Being willing to explore, go out on the edge, and fail, especially in front of others, is a sign of someone who believes in herself and her ability to succeed. This is a powerful creator of a person.

Mistakes indicate temporary unreadiness, not permanent incompetence.
Along the way to big successes, you may find it hard to keep up to speed with your dreams. You may try things that you don’t have all the skills and resources to succeed at…yet. Time is definitely on your side when it comes to developing competence and eventually succeeding.

Mistakes are laughable.
Don’t take it all too seriously. If you can laugh at yourself and your failed efforts, you will be able to stay in the positive energy required to try again or take the next step.Mistakes are generally not catastrophic. And even those that have nasty outcomes can offer up huge opportunities to learn and to retune our vibration.

Therefore, mistakes are profitable. You learn from them.

All in all, mistakes are proof that you are human. They are part of the process of being here on the planet, living your life. Imagine how boring life would be, if we always got it right the first time!

Enjoy the contrast that mistakes provide. That’s what life is all about!

Have you noticed that when you think about something and are feeling good about it, you have lots of energy and excitement about accomplishing it? I sure have. When we were planning our family trip to Hawaii, I was so excited about it. I must have looked at the travel brochure 100 times, imagining how much fun we all were going to have. It just felt so good to think about that.

How would it feel to live each day choosing to DO what feels good and feeling good about what you DO? When you choose actions that feel good, instead of actions that prove you are good, you set yourself up for a great day.

Focus on thinking about things that feel good, and you will find success unfolding easily each day. Feelings of joy and appreciation naturally move you toward success.