Tag Archives | Positive Thinking

The Rat in my Garage – A Metaphysical Lesson

 


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You probably know that I had a rat in my garage a couple of weeks ago.  Not only did this rat teach me a very valuable marketing lesson, it also taught me a valuable metaphysical lesson.

 

 

These days, I know that when I see an unusual animal or something unusual in the nature world, it’s time to pay attention to what the message is.  And this was no exception.


 

I turned to Ted Andrews’s book, “Animal Speak,” to see what the message is from seeing a rat.  (Ted Andrews was a shaman and he shared his wisdom in a number of his books.  “Animal Speak” is one of my favorite ones.)

 

According to Ted, rats are intelligent and are, of course, one of the zodiac in Chinese astr ology.  Have you ever hear of the year of the rat?  Apparently, Buddha felt they were o f such importance t h at he assigned a whole year to them.


 

Rat is about survival, it’s about being intelligent, and about being successful.  It is about being shrewd in business.  And Ted asks the reader if it’s time to pursue success more aggressively, to be more shrewd in all of their dealings.


 

Oh, wow, that one hit home.   Because I hadn’t expected a rat to be about business!


 

Ted goes on to say that the energy of the rat is there to help support the reader, or me, in this case, in whatever steps I need to take next.


 

And, you see, that’s why I turn to Ted.  Because left to my own devices, I would have believed that rat meant things like I was unclean, and I was a pack rat, or something more negative, you know?  Ted made that rather shocking encounter into something quite positive – and even delightful!  (Although frankly, I would have much rather seen the rat outside, if you know what I mean!)


 

But nonetheless, I am willing to take the lessons where I find them and often I’ve discovered that the lessons get honed-in even more intensely when I’m shocked, and I was truly shocked with this encounter.  I paid attention.


 

So here’s the lesson for us all in this: what messages from the Divine are you being given that perhaps you aren’t seeing?  Today, open your eyes a little wider to take in all that you are being given. The messages are there; it’s up to us to pay attention and to receive them.


 

Hugs, Anne

 

 

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Did I Really Say THAT?

 


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“Jerk!” I said, annoyed. “I can’t believe he just pulled out in front of you like that!”

 

Francisco (my husband), said nothing, but his hands tightened on the wheel.  As we passed the other driver, I glared at him, wondering from what planet he just came.  Reckless drivers or thoughtless drivers are a bit of a pet peeve of mine – particularly after my sister died in a car accident in 2004.

 

As soon as I got some of my satisfaction glaring at the other driver, I knew I had to clean it up.  I got my tell-tale warning tightening in my gut. “Uh-oh,” I thought. “I just created more of the same.”

 

Sure enough, less than 20 minutes later, another car did the exact same thing.  This time, however, I told myself I wasn’t going to react.

 

I began to tap and made a conscious choice to think kinder thoughts toward this driver. “Well, maybe he didn’t see us.  Maybe he was just distracted by someone in the car.  Maybe his mind was completely elsewhere.”

 

(For those of you who work with me, you know that this is what the re-framing process looks like as we tap on an issue we’re triggered about.)

 

As you all well know, life happens and we react.  We get triggered.  We get annoyed.  We get frustrated.  We get ticked off.  We get angry.  And when we do, because of the intensity of our reaction, we then are creating not only our current moments, but also our future experiences, from that place.

This is why creating happy thoughts, happy feelings, happy experiences is so important.

 

But how do we get from triggered to happy?  It’s not usually a one-step process, is it?  (It isn’t for me, at least.)

 

First, recognize that your annoyance or irritation is because you are triggered.  This means you have some blocked energy.

 

Second, realize that if you are triggered, it is because you have an inner conversation about whatever you’re triggered by.  For example, my inner conversation about the other driver was “He was being thoughtless and careless and could have caused an accident by his actions.” Can you hear the fear in that?  When we’re triggered – even if we’re angry – there’s fear underneath the trigger, underneath the anger.

 

Third, make a conscious choice to shift the energy, to release the anger and fear.  Doing this will keep you from creating more of the same in your life.  And there are lots of ways to do this.  In my opinion, one of the most effective ways is tapping.  In the above example, I tapped on this thought: “Even though I think he was being thoughtless and careless and could have caused an accident by his actions, he didn’t.  We are okay.  We are fine.” I just took what I thought before and added a peaceful part to it.  (By the way, it’s not necessarily important to tap to a thought; it’s more important to tap on a negative feeling .)

 

But if you’re not tapping on it, or if you’re not in a place where you can tap on it, what can you do?  Find a way to feel better.  Think a better thought.  Just saying the statement above is a better-feeling thought, isn’t it?  And following that up with other reasons why the person might have acted the way they did, in this case, he might have been distracted, he might not have seen us, he might have thought he had more room, etc., also diffuses the energy of the trigger.

Find some way to feel better.

 

Last, decide you’re going to pay attention to how your feelings and your words are creating your experiences.  Once you really get this, you will absolutely decide that thinking better thoughts and feeling happier feelings is profoundly important and you’ll begin to create them consistently.  Because you’ll truly get how your words and your feelings are affecting your experiences in your life.

 

And that is worth paying attention to.

 

 

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Creating Abundance 101

 


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There was a time in my life when I had no money.  I was just out on my own, working in downtown DC, and living in Arlington, VA, and I didn’t have bus money, so I had to walk to work.  It was about 3 miles (each way).

 

I remember what that was like.

 

Then later in my life, when my daughter was born, her father and I made a decision that I would stay home with her to raise her.  And oh, how I loved being home with my baby!  But oh, wow, did we ever take a huge cut in our income – over 50% at that time.  Suddenly, I didn’t have money to put gas in my car at times.  It was really tough.  And I worried about it and complained to my friends about not having any money.

 

Interestingly, on a deep level, I could feel that I was doing something I shouldn’t be doing.  (Complaining, that is.)  But I didn’t have the mental understanding of how powerful my complaining was in creating my experience.


 

One day, when my daughter was about 2, I came across an author by the name of Francis Scovel Schinn.  Her book, “Your Word is Your Wand,” transformed my life.  She introduced me to the idea of affirmations, and how powerful our language is in creating our experiences.

 

Wow.

 

I began to see how much I complained, how much I worried, how much I whined about money.

 

Double wow.

 

I decided I would put ol’ Franny to the test.  I decided I would post affirmations around the house, focusing on what I wanted to create.  I went into my closet and decided I wanted nicer, better clothes.  So, I wrote up an affirmation on a 3″x5″ card and posted it in my closet.  The affirmation went something like this: “I am now clothed in the beauty and glory of God.”

 

Every day, when I went into my closet, I saw that affirmation.  Within a very short time (just a couple of months), I had gotten a whole bunch of new clothes.  My mother gave me some (a gift certificate from Land’s End, which I loved), and I found some clothes on sale at a department store.  Someone else gave me some.  Soon, I discovered that I was clothed in the beauty and glory of God!

 

I was sold.  My love affair with affirmations began there and hasn’t stopped yet.

 

Why?  Because our language is powerful.  Because our focus is incredible.  Because our emotions and our attention to things can and do create our reality.

 

Where are you creating your life to be the way you want it?  And where are you creating your life to be the way you do not want it to be?

 

It is essential for you to speak powerfully if you are to create powerfully. And it is essential that you become congruent (or aligned) with that which you intend to create.

 

Here’s how you do this:

  • You become congruent with what you want by clearing out the inner conversations and beliefs that say you cannot have what you want.
  • You become congruent by keeping your word – to yourself, and to others.  Integrity is essential if you wish to become a conscious, powerful co-creator.
  • You become congruent by maintaining an inner state of peacefulness – by not creating drama with those who share your life.
  • You become congruent by holding the vision (i.e., energy or belief) of what you want longer than you hold it for what you do not want.
  • You become congruent by speaking positively to yourself and to others, by being optimistic instead of pessimistic.
  • You become congruent by being compassionate and generous in your thoughts toward yourself and toward others.
  • You become congruent by holding the light for yourself and others, by believing in yourself and others, even when it is difficult to do so.

Each of us wants to create lives filled with love, abundance and joy.  And each of us deserves to have our lives be filled with love, abundance and joy.


 

By practicing these skills, you will create your life to be just what you desire.

 

 

Oh, yeah!  Wow!


 

 

 

Your Action Steps

 

Start today by speaking your vision into being.  Hold your thoughts on what you want, not what you do not want.  Be your word.  Honor your commitments.  Speak positively to others.  Give yourself (and others) a break.  Choose kindness and generosity.

 

And watch your life transform!


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Check Those Thoughts at the Door!

A new friend on Twitter asked me this week “How do you stay so positive and upbeat?” I told her that I’m not always like that, but that EFT has made a huge difference in my life in being able to be that way a lot of the time.

My mother tells me that I was an unhappy child. I remember being unhappy as a teenager (not so much as a child, although I do remember some difficult periods), and making a few life choices as a young adult that I wish I hadn’t (I actually call my 20s my “stupid 20s”). Then my daughter was born and there were rainbows and sunshine and lollipops in my world.

Still, I hadn’t learned how to control my thoughts. I focused a lot on what I didn’t have, and I focused on how life wasn’t fair and where I felt less than. I thought if I could control the world around me then life would be good.

Welllll, it doesn’t quite work that way. No, indeedy. And I was about to learn this – big time.

Trauma occurred. In a big way. Ouch. It wasn’t pretty and it definitely wasn’t fun. For two and a half years, I tried many different ways to get out of the emotional pain I was in. I trained in and became a Reiki Master. I trained in and became a hypnotherapist. I trained in and became an Angel Therapy Practitioner. I studied gardening and created one. I got help from numerous different therapists. I meditated, and studied book after book to learn how to heal. Still, I got triggered over and over and over again.

Then EFT entered my life. I trained in and became an EFT practitioner. And during the first training, the emotional pain I had been in for two and a half years released. It was gone. I was stunned at how effective this simple tool was. And thrilled that I had learned it.

That was in 2002. I’ve been using it ever since – on myself, on clients, on students, on family, on friends, on pets, even on strangers! It is effective. It truly works.

Still, I had to learn the next phase: to think better. We are powerful creators, and we create through our thoughts. While I understood this conceptually, living it – being it – was a different matter. Know what I mean?

Slowly, I began to understand the power of my own thoughts to create my life. Not just my thoughts, but the energy – or the intensity of the emotion – behind my thoughts. I learned how to think better.

Oddly enough, it seemed the more I practiced thinking better the more I could see all the areas in which I wasn’t thinking better. sigh… At times, it felt discouraging, which I finally realized was me creating more of the same. Round and round and round the circle I went, until I began to really get ahold of my thinking process.

Consciousness is a process. It doesn’t happen overnight. Pieces of “Ah-Ha!” happen and things fall into place. We forget and we remember. We remember and we forget. And always, we move forward – even though at times it seems as though we are moving backward.

This week, I am with my 22-year old daughter, my daughter’s fiance, my mother, and my former husband. We all get along great, for the most part. Until a bump in the road occurs. Then I get to take a look again at my own beliefs, my own expectations, my own fears, my own desires, and adjust them accordingly. Or not.

I get to choose my own level of happiness – regardless of what anyone else is doing, saying, thinking or being.

Is it hard? Yeah, you bet … sometimes. But I know what’s in it for me if I stay the course and maintain my own level of peacefulness.

Am I successful? Not always. More so than I used to be. But I still get triggered by something someone else says, or does. (This very morning, I heard myself having a conversation in my head with someone that wasn’t very nice. In that moment, I realized I was creating my future by having that conversation and I had to “Stop it!”) It is in those conscious moments that we hear ourselves and change our thoughts that we then choose the direction of our lives.

What are you thinking into being?

 

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