Yesterday I was on the phone with a client who was having a hard time swallowing the effectiveness of working with affirmations. Personally, I think affirmations are great, but I do see more to the recipe of creation and manifestation. Anyway, I began to share a few stories with him. He was fascinated and told me I should write another book. Well, the least I could do was compile a few for an article, in the hopes it might get you inspired a bit.
One of the keys to manifestation is releasing attachment. The stories I shared did not include having a sense of desperation. It seems to happen when I am just matter of fact about the request. For example, just about two months ago, I was in the pantry and I called out to my husband, “Hey Brent, we need coffee, peanut butter, apple sauce and mushroom soup. Also, I really want a new comforter (five kids, five cars and two dogs does not a nice comforter make!). It was just that simple. “Hey, we need…and I want…” I had no fear, no worry – it was just a simple statement.
The next day I went to my mom’s house. She told me to take a look in her car for a box from my grandmother’s house. They had been secretly cleaning clutter (they accumulate stuff like survivalists) “Take what you want” she says…
What’s in the box? Three cans of coffee (not my brand, but coffee nevertheless), three cans of mushroom soup, one jar of apple sauce and three jars of peanut butter (again not my brand). Then, lo and behold, I spot a bag. In it is a brand new feather comforter. I am blown away by the exactness of what I had “put out” and bring everything home, glad I have a witness in my husband because most people would not believe the story. I didn’t get my preferred brands because I never got that specific. And, I found that the other brands were just as good (well, not the coffee – sorry Maxwell House!).
After we laughed a little (which is what we tend to do when we manifest stuff in this way) I tell my husband that we will need to get a duvet cover for the comforter (it’s the kind you need to cover) and my phone rings. My mom’s on the other end and says, “I never got you a birthday present so go check your email. I just sent two links to select a duvet cover for the comforter – pick one and I’ll get it for you.” I just smile real big. I say “Thank you God, I love your creative humor!”
I had no inkling of desperation over “having to get” these items. I just stated “Hey, we need and want…” I wasn’t even trying to manifest anything, at least not consciously. I was just literally sharing a future shopping list. I had no attachment to getting these things as proof something. I said it and it was done. Literally, it was done; I just had to wait until the next day when the Universe delivered them in the form of someone else’s give away’s.
Same thing happened a few months ago. I was on a group call when someone shared that her raspberries were in bloom. I said, “Wow, I wish I had raspberries in my yard…that would be so awesome!”
That was Friday morning. Sunday afternoon, I was getting into my car, going on a date with my daughter, when I saw a flash of red. I looked over and to my great surprise saw raspberry bushes. As I looked closer, I saw and entire garden of raspberry bushes lining my entire driveway. Later, I went into the back yard and found that we had bushes all along two fences. I swear, my mind says, “OK, these must have been here all along, you just didn’t see them because you didn’t know you wanted them.” Regardless, I manifested raspberries in less than two days.
Anyway, here I find we have over a tenth of an acre of raspberries and over the next several weeks I went out twice a day to pick them. Each one was treated like an answered prayer. Picking them became a metaphysical game. I learned a lot about the Universe during the few weeks of a bountiful harvest.
Like, depending on where I am looking, I might believe that I have picked all I could. However, change my viewpoint and wow! A whole new bush of berries! We couldn’t have eaten them all so we gave tons away. Friends and family came over with buckets and helped themselves to our little miracles. It opened a really cool flow of energy, love and sharing.
This is what we do with abundance – we share it! When I left my job in 1998 (awful hours and a two hour commute) to work closer to my new home, future husband, etc., I took a $12,000 pay cut. In 36 hours, my husband got a phone call from his boss telling him he had sold the business. In the selling process he told the new owner that Brent earned about $12,000 more than he was actually paying him. Guess what? The new owners kept him and he got a $13,000 raise. Go figure. All I know is that we were committed to rebuilding a life that better fit our image of a family. Plus, quite frankly, my husband and I really like hanging out with each other and our schedules were not conducive to our desire to see each other a lot more than my crazy hours permitted.
Our wish was the Universe’s command. It always is I suppose.
Last year, after my husband had been laid off, we decided to give him the chance to follow his dreams of writing and performing our original music and building a recording studio (it had been my turn). We didn’t know how it would work – we just decided it would and had faith in God to take care of us.
Losing $75,000 of annual income, a company car and three computers in a day was pretty drastic, I must admit. It is not like he celebrated (I did because he hated his job). Plus, did I mention that just prior I had decided to stop working with corporate hostages and instead focus on my higher purpose, my writing and sharing my book and music with the world? Yep, so the big fat contracts were not rolling in but I’ll tell you, I was so much happier focusing on my passions.
Three months later we get a bizarre phone call from child support telling me they have a check for $50,000. That was a great story too. One that was so in our faces we could no longer doubt that the Universe was incredibly creative. I had released any hope of ever getting child support and yet it came to us as if we had been saving for a rainy day (a rainy year is more like it!).
The only time I ever received child support was about 7 years ago when we stumbled across the house we now live in. We did not have the money for a down payment but we just knew it was our home. It was exactly as we had been dreaming…minus the textured wall paper and smoky glass mirrors!
I opened up the mail about a week after dragging my entire family to the house and claiming it is ours. Inside the mailbox I find an envelope with three checks in it! They added up to about $4,500, just what we needed to make a down payment. That’s a whole other story – the house of our dreams that came to us when we were flat broke, living in a way too small house with more of our kids living with us then we planned for when we first moved in. We worked out our demons in that little house and then wham! Our real home just literally fell into our laps. And, the owner gave us all of the furniture for free and left little treasures hidden in all sorts of wacky places. For years we were finding these funny gifts and every time they reminded us of the power of our intention and partnership.
I could not make up the weird things we manifest. A house, a down payment, jobs, vacations, dog food, a fridge, money, raspberries, just in time clients, groceries…I am working on trying to understand the recipe – the exact recipe that causes such a quick manifestation. Other things take longer, but they don’t lose their significance just because they don’t occur in our desired time frame. That’s important – the what is our business. The how and when – that’s up to God. So, we state it, release it, believe it will happen and it does. Even a modicum of fear or disbelief can get in the way.
This is how life works for us. We are very grounded in faith and gratitude. It is the foundation of our relationship and we remind one another that neither of us is the source of our abundance. I have never gotten used to the fact that we experience so many miracles...at least not to the point that I have lost the immense awe every time we experience them. Just because they are ordinary – they have not lost their extraordinariness. Plus, it is just so much damned fun!
Have a great weekend and if you have not already signed up, go to www.metaphysicalmasterminds.com for some awesome interviews with manifesting masterminds!
Ps Anita...you have a typ-o in you www.metahysicalmasterminds.com link...missing the "P"
Doug
Posted by: Doug | December 01, 2006 at 09:00 PM
Hi Anita,
Great stories! I have been studies the manifestation process for a while now and what I am beginning to notice is that the least resistance I have to something the quicker it shows up. But in areas where I may have either conscious or sub-conscious limiting beliefs is where things seem to slow down. I am learning that it stops the flow. So that is the challenging part. Yes sometime, somedays I get things pretty quickly, the smaller things and that's fun, but I also realized that I must be paying attention and that my awareness level must be high for sometimes these things just slip by without me noticing.
Lately when I'm trying to get something done on the computer and I forget to ask for help and just go about struggling, trying to figure it out. Now I stop and ask for help from spirit and bam it starts working. I think years ago I'd just think that I finally figures it out myself but now when that happens I give thanks...it comes pretty quickly when I ask ..I just have to keep asking
Yes I do believe that gratitude and faith are the energies to keep present in yourself all the time. I have been blogging lately on my blog about manifestation adn gratitude, I also have a free gratitude meditation on my blog site if you care to visit and download.
Anyway loved you stories ..I will tell my readers to come visit your blog and get an understanding of how manifestation works and how we need to pay attention, let go and have faith.
Blessings to you,
Doug
Posted by: Doug | December 01, 2006 at 08:56 PM