Have you ever felt yourself weeping at an opera? 

Does the theme from the movie, Jaws, strike fear in your heart? 

Have you ever thought about intentionally choosing music to help inspire you or energize you?

In June 2009, the feelings of fear, anxiety and grief weighed heavy on my heart.  My energy was being sucked away by those feelings.  All action on my coaching and massage practice stopped.  I was consumed. 

In July 2009, I decided to do something about it by creating a play list on iTunes called "Happy" with the intention of allowing the energy of the music to build my energy.  The list included songs like:

• We Will Rock You, Queen
• I'm Coming Out, Diana Ross
• Anticipation, Carly Simon
• Respect, Aretha Franklin
• I'm so Excited, The Pointer Sisters

Later I added:

• We Are All Connected, Symphony of Science
• Glorious Dawn, Colorpulse
• Live Like You Were Dying, Tim McGraw
  
• Coming Around Again, Carly Simon
  
• Never Been Gone, Carly Simon
• Reach, Gloria Estafan

For the first few months of 2010, my theme song was Have a Heart by Bonnie Raitt.  "Hey, shut up.  Don't lie to me . . . couldn't handle the little bit of love you took . . . . little by little you fade while I fall apart . . . . "

It just ran through my mind without my conscious intention.  Subconsciously it was planted like the unwanted jingle from the radio.

Then it changed.

It changed to Reach by Gloria Estafan.  "Some dreams live on in time forever. Those dreams we want with all our heart . . . . "  It changed to We Are All Connected by Symphony of Science.  "We're all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the Universe . . . the Cosmos is within in us.  We are made of star stuff!"

Did the music change because I changed or did I change because the music changed?

So I invite you to intentionally use music.  If you want to feel sad, listen to sad music.  If you want to feel angry, listen to angry music.  If you want to feel broken hearted . . . Get the idea?

Photo by Denise A. Wells on Flickr.com.

Do you have great expectations?  Or have you heard that expectations are premeditated resentments?  Do you have high hopes?  Or are you afraid to get your hopes up too high?

Too many times I've listened to someone start sharing her vision of a dream with me and say, "I don't want to get my hopes up."  Or that same person says, "I don't want to jinx it by talking about it."  Then I heard, "expectations are just premeditated resentments."

Would it be nice to be free of all those fearful cliches?

It's not the hopes or talking about our dreams that jinx us; it is the lack of self-awareness and trusting our conscious brain (the one that says 300-1000 words to us a minute) that leads to our disappointment.  It is whatever you believe in your heart that calls your life to you.

Do you have great expectations in your heart?  Are high hopes radiating from your highest mind?

I am at that age where my eyes have changed.  I've been stalling on getting bifocals for years by wearing one contact.  If something is too close.  I can't see it.  If something is too far away.  I can't see it.

I think that's the way it is with my perception of the truth.
 

Poor and content is rich, and rich enough.  ~William Shakespeare

Two days ago, I sat in Bellevue Square Mall doing the math on my weekly budget after spending a large part of it on a power cord for my MacBook.  As someone used to say, "It doesn't work on paper."   How would it work?  When did the internet become a higher priority than eating?

I wasn't worried.  I didn't feel panicked.  I actually felt pretty good and greatly relieved that the problem with my computer was the power cord and not the laptop itself.

"Ironic," I thought.  "I'm in one of the most affluent areas in the country, in one of the nicest shopping malls in Seattle and I have no money to shop. " 

The Dalai Lama said he loves to go supermarkets and appreciate the abundance.  Everything that I read says to see and appreciate the prosperity around me and take the focus off dollars & cents.  Two days ago that appreciation came easily.  I glanced at the gleaming watches in the display case and thought, "That's for me!"  Mont Blanc pens - "That's for me!"  Eileen Fisher - "That's for me!"
 
From there I went to a local coffee shop to hang out for a couple of hours.  The thought of money vanished from my mind.  And here's what happened.

1. Someone called me about a massage therapy position to which I applied the day before.  Would I be interested in interviewing for a position tomorrow?
2. My last customer of the day at my part-time job learned that I was an LMP and shared a position that was open.
3. My friend in Denver called and said there was a check in the mail.
   

Do you see where I'm going with this?  Synchronicity?  Manifestations?  What's your take on this?  Have you had any similar experiences?

Anything you do to overcome or prevent, causes a spotlight on the very thing you are wanting to overcome and prevent. You cannot take enough action to compensate for the Energy that you're flowing.

--- Abraham

So the deal is and always been that fighting against something keeps our attention on it.  turning our attention to something else is always the key.  It's not about ignoring the person, place of thing that feels bad; it's about turning your attention to what feels good right here, right now.  It could be anything.  What makes you feel good?  Chocolate ice cream?  A beautiful sunrise? 

One day I was sitting in a grocery store snack bar talking on the phone.  I was alone yet still I was filled with anxiety and despair from the running conversation in my mind.  As I was whining on the phone, someone grabbed me around the waist.  Startled I looked down and found the 4 year old daughter of a friend hugging me tightly.  I laughed and immediately hung up the phone. 

"Where's your mommy?"  I asked.  The little girl pointed a few feet away where her mother stood grinning at me.  I rose and went over to hug the mother.  Another friend soon approached and another round of hugs ensued.  We chatted briefly and then I went on about my day.

Half an hour later I left the store.  The negative discourse in my mind began again threatening to trigger negative feelings about someone and something I could not change. What was my defense?  I began reciting the names of the people in the grocery store, "Kayla, Allison, Angela.  Kayla, Allison, Angela.  Kayla . . . "  I spent the rest of the day reciting their names every time despair or sadness about my "reality" arose.

Did the reality of my situation change?  No.  But for that day, I felt better.

What can you think about or remember today that feels good? 

Note:  This usually doesn't work with people or things to which we have emotional attachment because we seem to think that emotional attachment gives us some right to strong opinions about how they should live their lives.  It must be something that is free of all negative emotion.  Thinking of a child, grandchild or spouse whom you would eventually worry about or miss or feel guilt about will not work.  I know we've talked about this before but I forget, don't you?

If your desire is strong enough, it doesn't matter what your beliefs are. If you have a desire that is strong enough, that desire will be the dominant vibration, and it will over-ride any other vibration that you have.

--- Abraham

Excerpted from the workshop in Atlanta, GA on Saturday, September 13th, 1997 #387

Our Love,
Jerry and Esther

Every time you praise something, every time you appreciate something, every time you feel good about something, you are telling the Universe, "More of this, please. More of this, please." You need never again make another verbal statement of this intent, and if you were allowing your cork to float -- all good things would flow to you.

--- Abraham

In her recent post, Give Others the Opportunity to Help You on Women on Business, Bonnie Marcus writes about giving a workshop on Promoting Your Brand to Rhode Island Networking to Open Doors to Jobs.  Bonnie relates how everyone was interactive and helpful with the women who were focused on their target market; however, there was one woman there who was in "limbo" and didn't know what she wanted going forward.  Her needs were met with silence.  At the end of the articles, Bonnie advises, "If you are looking for new employment, be clear about what type of company you want to work for and what kind of position you are seeking."

Who needs help more than the woman in limbo?  The woman who feels confused?  Lost?  Unsure?  My reaction is from my own sensitivity to feeling in limbo and it's from my experience in being helped and helping others find clarity.

I need help when I don't feel confident; when I don't know what I want; when I feel confused.  The questions is, "can I be honest about where I'm at and what I'm feeling?"  I've been in that state for months.  Even now clarity is elusive so I've asked for help from professional coaches and consultants.

At first, I felt full of financial fear and desperate to find a job.  I began applying for every position that I thought I could do.  After a couple of weeks of anxious activity, I slowed down.  The key was that I was looking for a "job", not a "career".  I didn't need a huge salary; just enough to live.  I needed something to do for my mental health while I waited for my massage therapy license to be transferred from state-to-state and stabilized enough to refocus on my life coaching business.  I wanted structure and an opportunity to connect with other people so I could reconnect with myself.  The solution was to apply only to companies whose products I loved:  Starbucks, Whole Foods, Panera Bread and White House Black Market.

I look at this time of "limbo" in my life as research for finding focus and clarity once again.  Rather than looking for the answer to the "big problems" before me, I looked for the next step in that process.  What do I need right here, right now?  What's next?

What do you think? What do you do when you feel like you're in "limbo"? How do you help someone who feels that way?

It doesn't matter what anybody else is doing with their vibration, it only matters what you are doing. You cannot desire something—and notice that it isn't coming—without offering two contradictory vibrations that won't let it come.

--- Abraham

Excerpted from the workshop in Boca Raton, FL on Saturday, January 15th, 2005 #359

People say, "The joy is in the journey," but they rarely understand what they are saying. You are in this focused time/space reality with goals and objectives that call you because as you identify a desire it literally summons life through you. Life summoning through you is what it's all about --it's not the completion of anything.

--- Abraham

Excerpted from the workshop in Chicago, IL on Sunday, November 1st, 1998 #323

Our Love,
Jerry and Esther