Now more than ever, it is crucial to control and harness the power of your mind to create a better life for yourself. All through life we are taught that “knowledge is power”; we are encouraged to get good grades, go to college, get a good job, etc. All important guidance, but where is the part of life’s curriculum that teaches the power and influence of your thoughts?

An untrained mind is like a great sailing vessel adrift at sea. Without steerage and sails, you are at the mercy of the weather patterns and the current. It is extremely unlikely that you can get where you want to go, and you are vulnerable to whatever storms life throws at you.

On some level, you have agreed to the state of your life or events that are unfolding around you by not taking control of your mind to create something of your choosing. It is estimated that we think upwards of 50,000 thoughts every day, most of them automatic. Thoughts have creative power; they determine your outlook and your mood, and ultimately they lead to your successes (or not).

Thoughts Are Things.

I draw my life’s philosophy from some pretty unlikely places. This event marked the beginning of a huge shift in consciousness for me over 20 years ago. Sitting in stop and go traffic, feeling hot and tired and cranky, I was in the middle of a very negative inner dialogue. A navy blue pickup truck pulled in directly in front of me and stopped. On its bumper was this statement that was to begin the process of changing me forever : Thoughts Are Things. We create with them, we tear down with them, or we bob aimlessly in the sea of life with them. Either way, with some 50,000 thoughts running through our minds every day, doesn’t it seem imperative that we work to gain control of them? Whatever we choose to focus on is what we get. Sounds simple, yes?

The Affirmation recordings I have created are intended to help you gain control of your thoughts, access your subconscious mind to create the life you want to live. They are designed to be used for meditation periods, or while settling into your bed for sleep. You cannot over use them. They will most definitely help you if you choose to believe in the power of your mind and your thoughts. They are not meant as a cure for what ails you; they are meant to assist you in gaining control of your mind, and maybe even create a recognizable moment of clarity. An identifiable, pivotal point of change. If I can assist even one person the way that bumper sticker helped me, then it has all been worth the effort.

Manifesting what you want in life starts with a seed. To continue with the garden as a metaphor for creation, poking the seeds in the fertile earth is only the beginning. Then comes protecting and tending to the seedlings, feeding the young plants, weeding, watering, pruning, thinning, and finally, after all of this committed and focused activity geared toward your goal, the harvesting can begin.

I guess I harp on action a bit much, so for this post, I’ll focus on the fun part: dreaming. The visualizing of your life as you want it to be. So back to the seed.

The conscious dream marks the beginning of the process of manifesting. You may see something that you want to have, or you may have a desire to live a certain lifestyle. Maybe you have a mental image of a home in a particular setting, or it could be just an emotional state that you want to acheive. Whatever your dreams, the beginning of their creation is marked by their arrival in your conscious awareness.

Daydreaming and imagining your desired what-have-you gives it  life, which then, from a metaphysical perspective, causes it to collect energy and become real. Without digressing from my topic and going way far over my head into string theory and such, I do believe that things become more real the more you give them your thought energy. Enough said.

It is good to gather images of the things you want (aka “treasure mapping” or “vision boarding”) and gaze at them often. See yourself in that new motorhome, traveling around the country. Smell its upholstery… feel the rumble of its engine through the steering wheel in your hands. Get some strawberries out of the fridge and take a big red, juicy bite. Oh wait… that’s me! Bringing all of your senses into it lends it more life, more thought energy, making it more real. Believing is seeing! (Have I said this too often?)

Many people create mental “down time” by tuning out with mindless TV watching. I am not opposed to TV watching, mind you, but there is perhaps a more productive way to spend that time, at the same time giving your brain a break from the sorting of your life’s details.

I like to bring my motorhome to mind. I mentally spend time in it, decorating.. or making lunch while parked by some gorgeous beach in a National Park in Northern Michigan. For example. I can hear the waves on the lake and the seagulls in the wind. I can feel the sand on my feet, and see it on the floor — and it makes me happy to see that beautiful white sandy, dirty floor! This is my dream, and I live it often. I travel to every Canadian Provincial and US National Park. I visit my family all over the country, and mostly, I have my own restroom and bed while I’m on the road! One day soon, I will post a picture here of me with my traveling companions… and I will tell the story of how my motorhome came into my life. Starting with the dream to which I have given every detail I can imagine, as often as it occurs to me to do so.

Of course, it is also a very good practice to write positive affirmation statements in the present tense (as if they already exist for you), and talking about your vision gives it life as well. But for the purposes of this post, I’ll stick to the vision, the dream, the mental picture of whatever it is that you have defined as something you want to have in your life.

With this I’ll leave you: dare to dream, dream big and dream often! And a quote (I do love to share the words of wise people):

“Here is the Divine Dichotomy… The way to ‘get there’ is to ‘be there’. Just be where you choose to get! It’s that simple.”
~ Neale Donald Walsch

With all the buzz out there lately about using your mind to tune your vibration toward what you want to create in your life, I feel that there may be some misconceptions about the role of action. I don’t mean to argue with contemporary authorities on the subject; I mean, who am I but another human being trying to find my way..? But the take home message that many people seem to be getting is that all you have to do is imagine and dream about what it is you want in your life, and then sit on the couch and watch movies.

I want to opine over this topic for one reason, and that is to impress upon my site visitors that I do not believe or suggest that affirmations (specifically, my audio recordings) are in and of themselves a cure or solution for what you feel is lacking from your life.

Affirmations are a supportive tool in managing your mind. They are a way to reprogram your automatic mind chatter into something positive and productive, something that will help you build yourself up rather than keep you stuck in old patterns of behavior. Using affirmations is a powerful way to turn negative self talk and habitual self berating into something more loving and.. well.. affirming. Yes.

That said, let’s take a look at the role of action. “Right action” as I use it here, means acting from a grounded place of clarity and insight. It means doing the things that are necessary to move you toward your dreams. It does not mean keeping yourself so busy and manic that your feet barely touch the ground. It does mean becoming focused, and doing the things that clearly present themselves as the next logical step toward manifesting your desires.

Here is a good affirmation on action: “Each day, I do everything that can be done that day.” This simple statement suggests that focused, productive movement toward your goals is necessary each day, and also that it is important to let the rest go. Tomorrow is another day for more focused action from a place of grounded clarity. Balance is a very important state to maintain, but that is a topic for another post.

It is paramount to be clear on your goals before you set about creating what you desire, so that your energy and time are not wasted with undirected activity. Quiet time spent pondering what you want will bring focus, and the steps will become more obvious. Take those steps you must! You have to put yourself out there in whatever appropriate way to get the momentum going for your dreams to become manifest in your life.

Affirmations all the while will help to train your mind to zoom in on the things you wish to create.  Right action combined with right thinking will cause you to truly believe in the possibilities, and, as they say, believing is seeing!

As always, please do share your stories with me. I’m very interested in what everyone else is busy manifesting, and I am also very open to your suggestions and information about methods and practices.

Thank you for being here!

I recall the first time I ever worked with affirmations to create a certain level of income. I was dirt poor, living in a 400 square foot rental house, depressed about a recent breakup, and trying everything I knew to feel better.

An absolute twist of fate brought into my life the work of Louise Hay (You Can Heal Your Life) and Shakti Gawain (Creative Visualization). I read and reread these works, and became determined to put this new knowledge to work in my life. I printed affirmations and hung them around my house. I read everything I could get my hands on. I burned candles, typed affirmations, hand wrote affirmations, and surrounded myself with like-minded people. I did everything I could think to do to support myself in getting out of that dark hole.

Within a relatively short time, where these sorts of matters are concerned, things started to change for me. I watched for opportunities to put myself out there, both socially and professionally. I attended events, made work related, scary self-promotion calls and followed through with the necessary steps to make connections. All the while, I kept on with the affirmation / visualization / meditation routine. Opportunities began to present themselves, seemingly without my direct efforts. The Universe is a mysterious and perfectly orchestrated thing!

Within a few months, I was really rolling. I was busy with new client work, new activities, a whole new life, it seemed. I felt powerful and important. The day I realized I had hit my income goal, you could’ve hung a hat on my goosebumps (to borrow a phrase from my Dad)! It worked! I had effectively used my mind to serve me. I was flooded with insight and understanding about my mind as a tool to create what I wanted in my life. I will never forget that moment… the shirt I was wearing, the orange sunset as I drove home from work, the angels singing.

I worked at that first business for a few years. My income level continued to rise, I bought a new car, moved to a giant house with an amazing view of the sunrise over the mountains, took lots of great vacations and showered my friends and family with gifts. To everyone around me, I appeared very successful. I was successful, in a way. I had soared from wondering how I was going to pay my $400 rent right past my income goal (in fact, doubled it) and managed to keep it going for a few years.

And then… the contrast.

I began to become aware that I was not all that interested in the work I was doing; it was just an existing skill set that I had chosen to build upon. I had recognized an opportunity to make lots of money doing something that I had come to do by default, not really by conscious choice. It was not my passion; it held no meaning for me. Not only was I living a pretty joyless life, I was beginning to drive people away with my dogged stress and bad mood. I had created an income level, but I had lost myself.

This was a big, difficult lesson for me. Money, in and of itself, doesn’t make you happy!?! My little empire began to crumble. Clients left, contracts dried up. Opportunities, as I had defined them, vanished. The door began to swing shut.

I had come to know two things from my first revelation in manifestation: first, it really can be done! There is nothing like personal experience to create a believer. And second, this part is really important: be certain that what you set out to create is something that you actually want! Go after something that will light your fire every day of your life.

So, I set out to discover my passions before working with creative visualization and affirmations to make them manifest in my life. As they say, if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. How true it is! It is of the utmost importance to be very clear about your goals and desires, and then use the perfect affirmations to help you create exactly what you want. Be specific! Find what it is that really makes you happy, that gives meaning to your days, and create that. Once you have found joy and meaning, the income part comes easy.

I would like to close with a quote that came in my email just a couple days ago. I have printed it and hung it on the wall. Pretty great affirmation, wouldn’t you say?

“I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
~Henry David Thoreau