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Personal
Experiences:
Focus
on Money
One
of the main focuses of New Age phylosophy is on material, as well
as spiritual, abundance. Many principles and techniques are given
in books and articles on the subject. Here we offer you the direct
experience of a person - Ted Black from Denver, Colorado
- who has manifested material abundance in his life by actually
applying those spiritual principles. "I find that each person's
story is uniquely theirs," Ted says, "and the stories
cannot be duplicated any more than my fingerprint can be duplicated.
My unique vibration weaves the stories of my life. Apply the principles
presented here, and you will soon have your own amazing stories
to tell".
Here
is a powerful 3-word formula for having more money in your life:
Focus on it! If you focus on money in joyful, expansive ways, and
if you feel it flowing
in your experience, it will be yours, it must be yours. No one could
hold it from you. If you lack money, if money seems hard to find
and difficult
to earn, then there is only one explanation: You're focusing your
attention
on lack.
As
Abraham, the nonphysical inspiration of Esther Hicks, loves to say,
"The universe
absolutely yields to our vibration." Because the law of attraction
is
absolute, what we vibrate must come to us--it is ours by law--and
how we vibrate
is determined by our thoughts and feelings. As we think and feel,
we
vibrate, and as we vibrate, we create a unique signature that reaches
out into
the universe to match its own.
Our
vibration sets causes in motion--causes
both seen and unseen--that weave from all possibilities new stories,
new characters, and new realities. If we focus on money and if we
feel
abundant, then our vibration will weave into our experience a story
that
is uniquely ours, a story that will bring to us the money we desire.
The
surest way to set our vibration is to focus on what we desire. As
we focus,
we think and feel, and as we think and feel, we vibrate. To create
wealth,
then, we need only focus on money, see it in our mind's eye, feel
it in
our heart, and know that abundance is a dominant characteristic
of the universe.
Because the universe is overwhelming abundant in all things including
money and because each of us is the individualized expression of
the
universe, we can participate in the unlimited flow of wealth through
our vibration
and our focus.
Now
this focus on money brings up some important questions, and I will
address them.
1)
If I focus on having $1 million, can I have it in the bank within
a week or a
month?
While
possible, it is not likely. Masterful creation requires a steady
focus
over a period of time. If you planted a garden today, you wouldn't
expect
to eat vegetables from it next week. Creating money is generally
the same.
We can however speed up the creation process through clarity of
focus,
enthusiasm, love, and gratitude. By seeing only what we desire,
focusing
on it with clarity, and feeling gratitude knowing we are to receive
it,
it will be ours in the shortest time possible.
2) Can
I create a fortune simply by focusing on winning the lottery?
It
is possible, but the lottery is only one limited way to create income.
In
reality, we can find an infinite number of income channels, so why
would we
limit the universe to creating our wealth through the lottery?
Instead
of focusing on the lottery as a way to create money, focus
on what you want, and then let the universe go about weaving the
most efficient
way to bring the object of your desires to you. Now your intuitive
guidance will be an important part of this creation process, and
this
guidance just might lead you to buy a winning lottery ticket.
3)
Do I have to work to earn the money I want?
One
person's work is another's play and delight. Forget about work,
job, and
career, and focus on what you want. Focus on what you want until
you feel
the flow of joy, and then allow what you are wanting to come into
your experience.
And by allowing, I mean believing or knowing that what you want
is
already yours, savoring its reality, and feeling the materialization
of what
you want flowing in and through you.
Imagine
your heart being the eye of a needle. Allow your needle's eye to
open
and expand until you feel your passion and your power as a loving,
joyful
spirit being, and trust that the Creative Universal Intelligence
is now
responding to your desires and is weaving into reality a brilliant
solution,
a perfect match to your focus, your vibration.
Now
when you focus exclusively on what you want, you may discover that
all you
do is play or you may do something productive for someone else and
find that
this too can be play.
After
12 days in Hawaii, I wanted to come home, and
I looked forward to working again. Paradise had become contrast,
and now
I wanted something new--work! Many experience great resistance to
the idea
of work because we have been told we have to do it, and it feels
like slavery,
like the loss of freedom. When we learn that we are free and can
focus
on what we want, we discover the joy of working which is actually
play.
And
the amazing truth is that the universe is infinitely flexible on
this subject
of work and money. We can play (do nothing) and receive money. We
can
work and receive money. And many people who do nothing receive far
more than
those who work the hardest. And I am perhaps the strangest case
of all, because
I have worked terribly hard in my life, receiving a small amount
of money for my efforts, and I have received hundreds of thousands
of dollars
by simply breathing.
For
example, I was raised in a lower
middle class home, and I was essentially taught to struggle, to
just get
by. Then in March 1986 I began developing my prosperity consciousness,
and one of the goals I wrote down was to live debt free.
In
November I married, and together my wife and I had debts amounting
to $17,000.
When we returned from our honeymoon, we had a check in the mailbox
for $30,000, an unexpected payment from a trust fund which I had
not known about previously. We then received dividends of $8,000
to $10,000
each year for the next 12 years. In addition, my wife had lost money
when she sold a rental cabin. Because this was a capital loss for
her
and because we had married, every penny of my income taxes came
back to
us. As a result, our debts were eliminated in this wave of cash.
Here
are
a few more examples of how money has flowed unexpectedly into my
life. Stock
investments have appreciated. Real estate has gone up in value.
Customers
regularly pay me $20 to $70 more than I ask. A few years ago, a
relative's
stock investments appreciated so dramatically that he sent 20 checks
for $5,000 each to family members just as a way of celebrating.
Abraham
has said--and my life has proved it--we can receive far more money
through
our dreaming than through our work. The only reason this is not
true
for more people is that they simply do not dream it, and if they
do, they
do not allow it, which is to say, they do not believe it is possible
for
them and therefore close down their needle's eye and clog the flow
of their
life force.
How
can money come to us without our working for it? The ways and means
are infinite
and without end. We can inherit it. We can win it. A total stranger
can send it to us for reasons unknown to us.
Here
are some bizarre examples
from actual experience: I paid off a loan for $2,500. Years later,
the loan company got into legal trouble--right about the time I
was taking
a course in prosperity consciousness. Midway through this course,
I received
a letter from the loan company saying that it was being forced through
a class action suit to repay my loan with interest. A few weeks
later
I received a check for approximately $3,500.
Another
man was tuning into
his money consciousness when he received a letter from an unknown
bank saying
that he had been identified as the heir to a fortune of several
hundred
thousand dollars. A relative had maintained a secret bank account,
and
the money was now his. Would he please come and claim it?
Stories
like this can hinder as much as help. If they seem too fantastic
to believe,
you might consider giving up the whole paradigm of believing and
not
believing. Believing is not as important as focusing on what you
want.
By
focusing my thoughts, I have created miracles even when I believed
they could
not happen to me. However, to create these miracles, I did have
to open
up to creative possibilities and then to stop worrying about the
details.
It's not our job to find the unknown bank that will give us a recently
discovered fortune. Our job is to want what we want and then to
allow--to
trust and to know the universe is now delivering what we desire.
4) Why
don't affirmations always work?
Quite
often people practice affirmations and focus on prosperity with
their conscious
minds only, not realizing that their feelings and their overall
vibrations
are stuck in the basement of poverty, lack, and limitation. For
example,
I might affirm, "I am wealthy, I am wealthy," even as I feel more
and
more stuck financially, more enmeshed in the web of poverty.
I find
that
affirmations work best when I focus on how they are true in my own
experience,
and especially when I feel the affirmation with my whole being.
For
example, I might focus on the affirmation "I am wealthy" while seeing
that
I do own a house and a business where the customers often pay more
than I
ask. And as I appreciate my wealth, I want to feel joy and gratitude
for the
money that is already flowing freely in my experience.
This
is so important
because what we appreciate grows in value. The wealth we already
enjoy
is our point of power and attraction, and as we focus on it, it
must and
will expand. If however we grasp for more wealth without appreciating
what
is already ours, we will lose both our dreams and our current level
of abundance.
Now
if we focus on having wealth when poverty is our experience, the
conscious
mind can play a trick on us. The more we focus on money, the more
sharply
aware we often become of our lack, of the sharp bite of poverty.
Abraham
uses the metaphor of a stick to represent this dilemma created by
the
conscious mind. Anytime we pick up a stick and examine it, we notice
it has
two ends. So for example when we pick up the money stick and try
to focus
on abundance on one end, we become acutely aware of poverty on the
other.
Now
the problem is that if we want to shift our experience from poverty
to abundance, the more we focus with our conscious mind on theabundance
end of the stick, the more sharply aware we become of the opposite
end--our
lack of what we desire. We become instant failures, because as soon
as we say we want something, we see that we don't have it. And as
we see
the absence of what we want, we draw into our experience--through
the law
of attraction--more lack, more poverty, more of what we do not want.
Here
is Abraham's simple and elegant solution. Find the feeling place
of what
you desire, and as this feeling fills your awareness, the sense
of any opposite
will disappear. Sift through all your thoughts and feelings as if
you
were sifting through a box of feathers, and find the pearl--the
feeling--that
matches what you desire.
With
a keenly focused awareness, find
the feeling of financial flow, affluence, and abundance. Nurture
thisfeeling.
Savor it. Dance with it. Sing and chant with this feeling. Shout
it out with exuberance. Flow with it. Focus on the feeling of wealth
and abundance until you become the essence of it. Feel every cell
of your
being resonate with it. Let it shine in and through your physical
presence
until even your voice exudes it.
When
you find the feeling place of
abundance, your vibration will be pure, and the law of attraction
will ensure
that no one can keep wealth from you.
Words
such as health and wealth naturally associate with their opposites.
This
is the nature of the conscious mind--to see the duality in experience.
Feelings,
on the other hand, replace their opposites. When we feel peace,
only
a life of peace will be drawn to us. When we feel abundant, only
a life
of abundance can be our experience.
5)
What are the best techniques for bringing more money into my experience?
This
question has already been answered above in several different ways.
A pure
focus with a matching feeling or vibration must bring to us what
we seek.
However, here are a few ideas that can assist in the creation process.
I do
believe in writing down a dream. This writing process works. Write
down
what you want, list specifics, and savor every word you write.
Take
action to create your dream only when you feel joyfully inspired.
You will
feel a little like a surfer waiting to catch a wave. Writing down
your dream,
seeking the feeling that matches your dream, and meditating in the
silence
can all be compared to waiting for the wave.
In
essence, you are drawing
in and through you the universal life energies needed to realize
your
dream. During this quiet phase, the universe is bringing to you
the people
and resources needed to realize your desires. When the time is right,
you will feel a quickening, an excitement, a sense of joyful realization
that this is it.
This
is the person or place or opportunity which
you have been seeking, and you will feel gently moved to call someone,
answer
an ad, or take some action that will begin to weave the story you
have
been savoring within your being. You will feel a wave of inspiration
rise
within you. Then
let the life force guide in riding this wave. If the wave
subsides, go back into the silence and savor the deliciousness of
the experience
you seek. The next wave will soon come.
I especially
like focusing on what I want while hiking in the mountains, riding
my bike, or driving a car. I focus, focus, focus until I enter a
joyous
creative flow state of consciousness.
Abraham
has described this as putting
your fingers into a box of feathers and feeling around until you
find
a pearl. When I find this pearl of insight and good feeling, miracles
happen.
This
is the most powerful moment I have ever experienced--finding a pure
desire, a pearl of inspiration. Miracles begin weaving into experience
shortly
after finding this powerful feeling place of insight and inspiration.
I do
use affirmations; however, for me they are most effective when I
feel them
with my whole body and being. For example, I might affirm, "I am
spirit.
I am whole, perfect, complete. I am the source of my experience.
I
am wealth. I am health. I am joyous free life."
While
saying these words,
I feel them from the center of my being like starbursts of pure
loving
energy. I engage the entire nervous system, the body, mind, and
spirit.
Another
technique is to forget about money altogether and to focus instead
on
the desired end result. For example, you might focus on enjoying
a trip to
Hawaii instead of obtaining the money needed to go to Hawaii. If
we focus
on what we want, we can have it even if it appears we can't afford
it.
Our
experience flows from our focus, and the universe always supports
our desires,
working out ingenious solutions according to our individual patterns
of thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and desires.
For
example, in 1972 I
wanted to live in a foreign country and learn another language.
I wanted to
stay with a family, and I didn't want to work while there--at least
not full
time. I had no money. I had no contacts. It seemed like a silly
dream
of a 17 year old. I wrote down my dream and told no one.
One
day, out
of the blue, a school counselor introduced me to a Brazilian foreign
exchange
student who became my best friend. The same month my mother married
a man who worked for American Airlines and who later provided round-trip
tickets to Brazil for $80. Then an old family friend called to ask
whether I would paint her house (even though I had no experience),
and a series
of painting jobs provided the needed spending money.
My
Brazilian friend's
family invited me to stay with them indefinitely, and when I arrived
there, the family gathered around the dinner table in an informal
ceremony
to adopt me into their family.
As
if this weren't enough, this family
lives in Salvador-Bahia, which is an absolute paradise with tropical
beaches
and islands and deliciously warm water.
Now
here is the point that has become especially important to me: If
I had had
$50,000 in the bank, I would never have enjoyed the extraordinary
miracle
of watching this dream weave into being. Instead of dreaming and
dreaming
and dreaming this story into reality, I would have been tempted
to simply
buy a tour of Europe.
The
money is not bad--it is wonderful. And yes,
I could have dreamed a wonderful dream with the $50,000 and I could
have
experienced that just as easily. The problem is that I would have
given in
too easily to our cultural myth that the power is in the money.
I know now
that the power and the freedom lie within me, and now I can dream
beautiful
dreams with or without the money.
6)
Isn't it just greed to focus on having more money?
Have
you ever noticed that we don't call someone greedy just because
they have
a lot of money? Greed describes the person who is grasping and clutching
and stressing to create more money. Greed has two root causes:
a)
Substituting money or food or power or stuff for love and joy.
b)
Believing
there is not enough to go around.
When
I start focusing on what I really want (love, joy, health, and wonderful
experiences), the substitution cycle comes to a quick end. When
I realize
that the more people have, the more they can give, and the more
people
give, the more money there is for everyone, then I easily let go
of the
idea that there is not enough to go around. The fear that there
is not enough
is the only cause of poverty.
7)
If everyone had millions of dollars, who would do all the necessary
work--farming,
shipping, and hauling away the garbage?
The
more abundant we become, the more brilliant solutions we will discover
concerning
work. In other words, if no one wants to be a garbage truck driver,
we will find ways to make the job so wonderful and so attractive
that
people will stand in line to do it. Or we will find new methods
of recycling.
Or we will create automated systems that replace human garbage collectors.
8)
If everyone on the planet enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle, wouldn't
we cause too
much stress on the earth's resources?
As
the masses discover their true power and brilliance, civilization
will take
an unprecedented leaps in creativity and consciousness. We will
discover
new energy sources and solutions so innovative that they would only
seem
like fantasy by today's technological standards.
9)
In summary then, how do we create more wealth in our experience?
Focus.
Steady focus. Find the joyful, easy feeling that matches what you
desire.
Focus and feel the flow of life force. Feel the joy. Savor your
dreams.
Think of what you desire as you would a lover. Fall in love. Feel
the
beating of your heart. Sense the magnetic pull between you and what
you want.
Feel the sense of anticipation. Feel the anticipation become part
of your
vibration.
Wait
in silence for the wave of inspiration that will carry you
into graceful, easy action, and when the wave rises, enjoy the ride.
Even
while you're waiting for the wave, enjoy the ride.
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