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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METAPHOR #3 OF 3 FOR EASIER (hu)manifestation MANY INACCURATE MIRRORS WERE HELD UP FOR YOU EARLIER IN LIFE. STOP LOOKING INTO THOSE MIRRORS.  Image of a person's distorted reflection in multiple mirrors from Andrej Lisakov on Unsplash. YOU ARE NOT THAT FRAGMENTED.  Reflection of a person with a bicycle distorted in a round mirror. From yanping-ma on Unsplash. YOU ARE NOT THAT SMALL.  A person stands in a wooded area holding an antique mirror in front of their face. The mirror shows a distorted image of trees. From Natalia Blauth on Unsplash. YOU WERE NEVER MEANT TO BE MISSING FROM THIS PICTURE.  A person holds the edge of a round side view mirror on a vehicle, looking at their distorted reflection. From Natalia Blauth on Unsplash. YOU ARE NOT THAT REDUCIBLE.  A distorted, upside down reflection of a human in a round mirror. From Jeremy Mura on Unsplash. YOU ARE NOT WRONG IN YOUR ORIENTATION.  A person's reflection in an ornate wall mirror seems distorted by smoke. From Baran Lotfollahi on Unsplash. YOU ARE NOT THAT INDISTINCT.  Image distorted mirroring from Brandon Grgigs on Unsplash. YOU ARE NOT THAT INCOHERENT. The mirrors were wrong. Stop looking into those mirrors. Stop telling the story of being that, NOT being that, being treated as that, still being treated as that, being victimized by that, being plagued by that, being stuck with that, being sick because of that, being unsuccessful because of that, having fraud syndrome because of that ... If you really want to get radical, stop telling the story even of needing to heal from that, needing to unlearn that, needing to fix or improve that. What mirror has felt beautiful, right, and good to you? What mirror has shown you the truth of who you are, the beauty that you are, the goodness that you cannot help but be? What mirror has filled you with compassion, appreciation, purpose, pleasure, well-being? Go to, hold up, stand in front of, linger with, recognize all the good mirrors life has held and is holding up for you. Be still with that each time it drops in, receive an accurate vision of yourself, even catch glimpses in passing as they pop in constantly. The more you look for them, or notice you’re seeing them or in retrospect did see them, the more they’ll show up. Be well. Be who you really are. Be here now. That’s your key to creating the life you really want going forward. Love & blessings, Jaya My first metaphor involved the story of my failed trip to Rome and the importance of the journey matching the destination. My second metaphor was about the revolving door of the mind and the injunction to keep concertedly heading toward what you WANT with your thoughts. METAPHOR #2 OF 3 FOR EASIER (hu)manifestation  Image of human beings moving through revolving door (with hill and trails beyond) from Derek Lee on Unsplash. Let’s say that what you’re after (something that matches a heartfelt desire) is in a beautiful building with a lovely revolving door as you enter. If you’re someone who’s more lit up by the outdoors, let’s say that beyond the revolving door, you access entry to a gorgeous, protected natural park where flora and fauna thrive, the hiking is lovely, and the vistas take your breath away. So you revolve about halfway around the entryway and emerge into the next space, right? That’s what you do because that’s how you’ll get to where you want to be. Or, I dunno, do you maybe go all the way around (like children might do just for fun), and then hesitate and go around again, and then start normalizing the circular run, and then just keep going round and round? Obviously, that would be foolish and you’re no idiot: you’re going to head toward where you want to be. BRINGING THE METAPHOR TO LIFE (and to creating what you want in your life) I want to call your attention to a ridiculously typical and normalized way of sabotaging your mental focus on what you want. (It’s also so easy to correct, but it does require that you realize you’re doing this and commit to correcting it!) Here’s how it goes in the mind.
 Image from house nestled in trees from Ivana Radević on Unsplash. Smart reader, you get the point, yeah? Point’s a good word. The mind points
Yep, the revolving door of the mind. I know it’s obvious, but let’s say it outright since MOST PEOPLE DON’T LIVE THIS WAY. Do you? What you want to do is keep pointing toward what you want. Develop mental thought habits and spoken speech habits of pointing only toward what you want! When you develop a predominant (not perfect!) mental focus on what you want, it naturally follows that you believe more and more that you can have it, that it’s on the way, that you know what to do to head in the right direction. You catch the inspired actions that pop in as inner guidance, or the external pointers that strike you as just right or you or pique your curiosity enough to send you exploring. That’s also inner guidance, because what matters most is how the thing coming in from outside (as advice or a website you stumbled on or a book title that you keep hearing) must spark some resonance inside for it to have any meaning for you at all. You’ll find how to go into a huge project or creation at your point of least resistance and keep going in that mode as momentum builds—so that each step feels relatively easy and you don’t get sucked into overwhelm about the whole big picture. When you’re committed to keeping your thoughts going in the direction of what you want, you’ll be quicker to catch the thoughts that don’t match (the ones that will suck you back to the endlessly revolving door) and you’ll get off the topic or reach for a process to get your focus where you want it again. (I love me a focus wheel for putting a fine point on my focus, especially in the morning or whenever I feel a wobble, and the marble game’s fantastic for calling forth the thoughts and beliefs that will serve what you’re after—both from Abraham Hicks.) Point toward what you want! Interrupt what points the other way. Reach for any help to get to a better-feeling place and refocus the mind. You’ve got this. Love & blessings, Jaya Manifestation metaphor #1 is about having the journey match the destination. Manifestation metaphor #3 is about warped mirrors held up for you. METAPHOR #1 OF 3 FOR EASIER (hu)manifestation  Photo of Trevi Fountain from Michele Bitetto on Unsplash. I’ll be dropping 3 metaphors for you to fine-tune your power to create what you want on your own. STORYTIME! My 19-year-old trip to Rome I got to do a year abroad in Strasbourg, France, during my second year of college, not the usual junior year, because I was already fluent in French. That was a later gift from having spent years of childhood in a small village in Normandy. So, like most American students there, I got the cheapest Euro-train pass then available and did some traveling during school breaks. I got to have a super-satisfying trip to Florence (one reason A Room with a View is a film I keep watching) with a few Americans from my program, so I headed to the tip of Italy with one of them to fairy across to Greece. After a sweaty, crowded train ride that lasted too many hours, my companion got anxious about school and headed back to Strasbourg. Crossing into another country alone felt beyond my reach, so I ended up on a late-night train to Rome on my own. I was already in love with Italy, I had train and hostel systems down, so what could go wrong, right? Hey, a bunch of my readers have bodies containing a uterus, and others know people who do, so I’m not holding back here. I started bleeding during the night with the usual copious flow and woke up—um, how do you say …?—a hot mess. I tied a sweater around my waist and hoped I didn’t smell like fresh road kill to other travelers. I was quietly mortified, huddled on the edge of a train car filled chiefly with men speaking other languages. In my mind, they were surely discussing the atrocity of me. So here’s a summary of my abysmal trip to Rome for your metaphorical pleasure. I checked in at the hostel and right away happened upon someone I knew there, probably my least favorite American in our study-abroad group. She was an insecure chick with flyaway hair (let’s call her Fly) who talked too much and too nervously, lingering in eddies of details that invariably circled around to self-deprecation. But yay, someone familiar. I got cleaned up and struck out alone to get a quick glimpse of the Trevi Fountain—an amazing sight, to be sure, but I hadn’t shaken off my journey. Cloaked in the shame I wore in, I felt unworthy of viewing this wonder so I gazed quietly from a safe distance, a party crasher hugging the wall by the exit. Then I met up with Fly to go out on the town, though not exactly in high spirits. Somehow (I don’t remember how), we ended up going along with two charming Italian guys proposing in broken English to show us the Coliseum. I can still picture us standing on the Rome metro as I gripped some steadying bar and glimpsed suspiciously at the undeniably gorgeous guy I’d been paired with. The pairings happened instantly and wordlessly between the two men based on who’s-hotter rules that didn’t need speaking. I’ll mention I was the beautiful one because I now know that meant nothing but this: there I was giving some false impression of my value, the truth of which would surely soon expose me as a fraud. This unspoken sensation was more destabilizing than the jolts of the city train rushing me to what had to be the next humiliation. (Don’t worry, no trigger warning needed for what follows.) Turns out the Coliseum, a stunning, still light show in the night, was and perhaps still is a popular make-out place. The guys weren’t proposing to be tour guides (I know you’re shocked). Though I had no sense of personal power at the time, it also turned out that these hormone-driven dudes meant no harm, so Fly and I took some easy exit stage left (details elude me here too) and went on our way without further escort. The next day, I braved one more solo venture, putting myself on a train back to Strasbourg. Fly saw me off from the hostel breakfast room, mentioning to her coffee that she knew from the start I wouldn’t last. My trip to one of Europe’s most desirable cities was a conspicuous failure, and so was I.  Image from back of train of view of train taking a curve through a country setting from Tushar Ranjan on Unsplash. And the point is? Mind that the journeys you take match the destinations. We human beings take harrowing journeys all the time on the way to the very places where we wish to have wonderful, fulfilling, satisfying experiences. Have you done this? I invite you to actually answer that question and find where you’ve innocently used this misguided tactic. Let me jog your brain a bit. You looked (or are looking) for a romantic/primary partner (you know, the one you want to have a harmonious, fun, and connected relationship with) while
You worked or are working at a decent job with the intention of getting a promotion into a position you really want (the one that will feel like a joy to walk into daily) while
You wanted or want to get a more solid footing financially (to feel at ease, competent in your adulting, free to make some choices for a good life) and sought or seek to do that while
Like the other LOA principles I talk and write about, I got this from Abraham-Hicks: How can you expect to have a beautiful outcome to a horrendous journey? It’s a good question that begs a few others:
My time in Rome was just as unpleasant as my journey there, and my view of myself and mental climate rode in on the train with me and didn’t let me go just because Rome is Rome. And the familiar person I found there wasn’t a fun and wonderful person I was thrilled to see, but the self-deprecating worm of a person who reflected what I was feeling myself to be. Fly was actually my perfect match, the just-right impromptu traveling companion for me in that moment. I did get the benefits of not being all alone on foreign ground while on my most wobbly footing, but the person who showed up only confirmed how I was viewing myself and my prospects for a positive experience then and there. This is LOA in action. It’s not life trying to be cruel or punitive. It’s just the law of like attracts like. I invite you to stop trying to get to a high place with your focus, mood, thoughts, self-image, view of others, conversation (etc, etc) aimed low where it’s dingy and grimy! That just called to mind the old line from Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, remember? There’s plenty like me to be found—mongrels, who ain’t got a penny, sniffing for tidbits like you on the ground. LOA, folks. Mongrels find mongrels. Miserable journeys yield miserable ends. Please don’t set yourself up to arrive in paradise with your hackles up and your blood pressure through the roof. It really doesn’t work that way. Interrupt and soothe any focus that feels unlike what you’re after. Get to where you’re going while reaching constantly for the same feeling and mindset you wish to have once you’re there. ENJOY THE JOURNEY. This isn’t that hard. It really helps if you’re committed to and keep practicing feeling good, then you’ll interrupt more quickly what doesn’t and you’ll head that way again swiftly, now and now and now. I know I’m asking a lot: practice feeling better as you head toward what you think will feel better. Love & blessings, Jaya Manifestation metaphor #2 addresses the revolving door of the resistant mind. Manifestation metaphor #3 points out the old warped mirrors held up for you.  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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