play with your power to create, enjoy your dance with consciousness Image of sewing supplies, including a button drawer, on mint-green mesh fabric from Curated Lifestyle on Unsplash. GAME = FUN GAME = EASE GAME = LOW STAKES GAME = A WONDERFUL WAY TO LEARN & PRACTICE SOMETHING NEW GAME = GETTING OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY GAME = NOT TAKING IT TOO SERIOUSLY GAME = Since this is no big deal, I’m going to see how well I can do, have fun doing it, and not worry about results. (Aka, detachment from outcomes already in place.) I’m going to tell you here about a game I made up to play with clients that has served us all very well. Think of it as a manifestation game. Or think of it as a way to play with everyday magic. Or simply see it as an opportunity to feel more alive and generate more easy fun as you move through each new day. You may know I’m a proponent of grand experiments. This is a small one! It costs next to nothing (a simple intention & some awareness) and can yield high results. Kind of like buying a scratch-off lottery ticket and winning the jackpot—except it’s more fun than scraping gray gummy stuff off a card with the edge of a quarter. The button game allows you to gather bits of data every day that confirm your relationship with a responsive Universe—you’re in dialogue with Source energy and not the only one talking. Maybe you already cultivate and love being in a dance with consciousness. Or perhaps you want to increase your ongoing awareness of your connection to your Inner Being and ALL THAT IS (along with the delicious fun & sense of belonging that goes with that). If you have any interest whatsoever in knowing & harnessing your power to create your reality or living in conscious contact with all that is alive and sparkles, I highly encourage you to run this gentle experiment.  Image of castle in the mist from Tim Rebkavets on Unsplash. The basis of the button game is an intriguing quote from Abraham-Hicks: It’s as easy to manifest a castle as a button. Maybe you beg to differ. Buttons are a dime a dozen. You may be wearing several right now. So you have little or no resistance to buttons—no aversion, outrage, annoyance, or even much of an opinion! You’re not worried about not having enough buttons or being unworthy of buttons. You’re not concerned about anyone seeing you as an entitled jerk or a fraud if you have too many or insufficient buttons. You don’t think you need more resources than you have access to in order to fill up on all the buttons you could want. They’re just buttons! Conversely, you might have all kinds of resistance to castles. Just reverse everything above, and there it is: lots of reasons to keep castles way out of reach from the realm of possibility you typically reside in. So how do you play the button game? If you’re curious about this idea that it could be as easy to manifest a castle as a button, then at least show yourself that you’re a rock star at manifesting buttons. Establish with a playful daily practice—a GAME— that you can manifest a button just because you’re carrying that intention and constantly seeing it fulfilled. You’ll find your solid footing on the button end of the scale and, from there, you can scooch all the way to castles. Note that you’re not GENERATING buttons. You’re inviting life to send buttons your way, then your job is to notice that life is doing just that. Look, there’s a button! Damn, another button! Add to your job description to appreciate the button, admire the button, enjoy the button, and more than all of that, appreciate that you’ve set up a game to play with the Universe (the Force, Source energy, God, whatever you like) AND IT HAS JOINED YOU IN IT. Which can equally happen if you play a castle game. If you go for the things you want in life (the job, the relationship, the creative expression) and you actually believe that your intention plus noticing how life is playing with you can bring it on. … But start with buttons.  Image of person buttoning up a nicely crumpled linen golden shirt from Hrant Khachatryan on Unsplash.
To play the button game, declare a low-stakes (button-sized) thing you’d like to see every day that you have no resistance to and ultimately no need for. You’re going to manifest this thing daily just because you’re intending and inviting that. It will in no way affect your life, never mind your well-being, if you turn out to be a total loser at this game. (You won’t, though.) Clients I’ve played this game with (especially in my manifestation groups) have declared these sorts of things as buttons:
Note that button-sized is quite a subjective concept. If you have a big story about feeling disconnected and no one else ever reaching out to you first, then setting other people reaching out first or initiating things as your button won’t work at all. It’s got too much charge. Go for something easy that will rev up no resistance FOR YOU. When you’ve got buttons down, you can go for something bigger on your way to castles. Perhaps you’re already up for a heftier project. Find your just-right level of engagement, and tweak it if it’s not feeling fun and easy. This game works best when it activates your joy, delight, awe, wonder … A word about forms (and more of what the button game can teach you) Let your daily button surprise you. It can take many forms, and some may be so unexpected, you could miss them altogether. Some buttons already obviously leave room for unspecified form—for example, heart-shaped things could come as flowers, leaves, rocks, puddles, clouds; jewelry, dots on I’s, a mark on a dog’s fur; a dollop of mashed potatoes, a pile of laundry on the floor. But any button can come to you in various forms and venues. Here are just a few:
My client whose button was yellow birds had it delivered one day in audio form when someone else had the TV on. Their focus on their own task was interrupted by a classic cartoon voice—Tweetie Bird musing out loud about spotting a cat. (Does everyone know what color Tweetie Bird is?) When I was playing with unexpected bird sightings, I had so much fun with that. The red cardinal poking in and out of a bush in different spots. The sparrow in the coffee shop’s outdoor space taking a sip of water from the edge of the dog dish provided. The hawk suddenly twisting at the tree line as if deciding on the fly to perch here now (with a brilliant flash of sun on its fiery tail feathers). I recently launched a new round with TWEAKS as my button—that is, representations of little adjustments needed (as opposed to major revamps). I hadn’t thought of my new button once on day one, until my last client told me they were bringing a topic that just needed a tweak. I got a fun little jolt and felt a little secret smile form inside me. (I love that aspect of the button game.) In every realm of life, the Universe can always bring in what you want in any number of forms. Super-specific instructions about your desires are not needed (and indeed, could get in the way of forms coming in that you haven’t yet dreamed up—certainly not that specifically)! The button game will give you a visceral knowing of this truth as you engage with it daily, and better, feel surprised and delighted by the plenitude and sheer brilliance of the forms your intention takes when manifest. As in all of life, you don’t need, in the button game, to determine the how. You don’t need to figure out, declare, or orchestrate the specifics of what comes to you. Staying with the general essence of what you want and knowing that it’s on the way is the bulk of what’s needed. Watch for it, and fully enjoy and appreciate it when you notice it’s here. Trust your own capacity to recognize what you’re after, and maybe find a time daily to remember and savor your button—or look for it retroactively if you missed it in the moment. What you playfully train yourself to do in the button game, you can do with everything you want in life. And that could even be castles! Love & blessings, Jaya Did you notice this post has an audio version? See button just under the title.
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 Photo of rainbow from car on highway from Husam Yaghi on Unsplash. JUNE 22 WAS MY BIRTHDAY—my favorite day of the year. I stepped outside early in the morning then fetched a broom to sweep the messy walkway. I took my time so I could linger in one of the most delicious breezes I’ve ever felt on my skin. It was a strong one, too, and I knew I was doing thankless work that’s instantly nullified by the next mess. But … I wasn’t in it for the thanks, or even for the task. WHICH IS THE MAIN EVENT? Have you ever had the experience of going outside to work in the garden or do some fix-it project or wash your car—really because you just wanted to be outside? And bonus, a chore gets done while you’re out there. Or have you ever gone out into the world rationally believing that what you’re up to is shopping or picking something up from your work place, and as you go about your business, you take in some beautiful or interesting sights and lovely sensations, or you hear a near-forgotten song you love on the radio, or you run into someone wonderful (and maybe something recent made you think about them, so now the magic has kicked in as well)? Which was in fact the main event—the errand or the joy-producing, soul-nourishing stuff along the way? Or have you ever gone somewhere with a particular idea of what would unfold or a particular goal in mind, or entered a conversation thinking you were moving with this person in a certain direction, and then you discovered that something entirely different was underway? Whether you expected a proposal and got a break-up instead, or you expected a routine catch-up and instead got a tempting business proposal—truly, the good or the bad of it doesn’t matter. You could say it’s all good, and you might notice it all comes with challenges. More important, it’s all the stuff of life! WAKING UP TO REALITY So what’s more aligned with reality? The stuff we check off lists, or the stuff that grabs us and generates awe and other stirring emotion? The stuff that feels good because we’re properly adulting or the stuff that reminds us of what we’ve known since earliest childhood, that life is fun and fascinating and delicious and hilarious and profound? The stuff we sleep-walk through or the stuff that wakes us up? Well, actually, in presence, we can be awake through both kinds of events. And, of course, both are reality. And both are happening concurrently ALL THE TIME. OUR REALITY ON PLANET EARTH IS OUR DANCE WITH CONSCIOUSNESS. The spiritual stuff that delivers goosebumps or quiet smiles or hard laughter is in no way opposed to or separate from the stuff that keeps us financially solvent or takes care of the physical well-being of our bodies or homes. I have a friend spending this day cleaning up flooding in her basement. I learned this in a WhatsApp exchange in which I did NOT write that I’m so sorry she has to do this pain-in-the-bum stuff. I wrote, Wishing you any bit, glimpse, or, um, flood of sparkle and joy as you set your basement straight. She will not be offended that I didn’t treat her like some god-awful thing had gone wrong, because she’s right with me. She lives in a gorgeous flow with whatever life delivers and walks herself through it brilliantly & kindly and keeps learning and loving as she goes. She’s also hilarious and I love being around her. LET LIFE SHOW YOU Let life show you what you’re doing as a human being in a material world, and let life show you what is constantly shimmering under the surface. Let life show you whether the next event is to your liking or not, but go in no matter which you think it is, curious about what cool next experience or what gorgeous new understanding or what kind of fun you’ll get this time. Go swimming without knowing whether you’ll be in the shallows or the depths this time, and just LOVE the swim.  Image of two dolphins leaping out of the water from A Chosen Soul on Unsplash. As I keep celebrating my 63rd birthday, as I savor this amazing life I’m in, I invite you to the following. Keep having fun and keep being curious and keep showing up IN CHOICE, as if you’re doing it all for you. Because ultimately, you are. This is YOUR DANCE WITH CONSCIOUSNESS, however you choose it, whether you hold a consciousness of choice or not. If you choose according to other people’s expectations, you’ll end up in resentment or deep dissatisfaction or at some level of disconnection from your authentic self. FORGETTING & REMEMBERING Later, if you find yourself telling someone (in your head or out loud) (we can be even more shrill in our heads, can’t we?) (I have a head, I know all about this) (I digress) … If you find yourself declaring how hard you worked or how much you sacrificed or alllllllllllll that you did (that they’re failing to appreciate), you’ll be inaccurate or at least beside the point in your take on the matter. What’s truer is that you forgot why you’re really here. What’s truer is, you forgot to have fun and love every moment of the journey—or at least appreciate its value and stay open to the capacity for anything lovely, interesting, wondrous—for anything life- or love-infused)—to show itself at any time; to enter into your lived visceral sensory experience of the dynamic now in the dynamic now, NO MATTER THE CONTENT OF THE MOMENT. Don’t accept being in autopilot. It’s fine to catch yourself there (yay, you caught it!). Course-correct back to presence. Don’t do things to check them off lists. Don’t miss the journey. And don’t suffer to be good or do a good job or have others think you’re a good person. Nothing will be accomplished by that except more suffering for you to live through and walk yourself out of. Live your beautiful life. The beauty is astonishing. THIS, TOO, IS ABOUT MANIFESTATION I’ve been sharing manifestation nuggets. I didn’t call this one that, but it really is. When you’re living in the mindset described here and the feeling state that goes with it, you’re much open, you’re in a state of allowing, and you generate the creative ideas & energy to move toward what you want with concrete actions in this physical world. Again, the spiritual and the earthly all married together, not separate, not at odds with each other. Love & blessings, Jaya Two more posts that touch on your dance with consciousness: 1. Follow the whispers & impulses that call you to feel alive 2. Trees & Coral put to proper use (or, Are you a Clown fish or a Mockingbird?)
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