Wednesday, April 15, 2009

TRUST- The Trickiest Puzzle Piece in Manifestation

Trust has to be one of the trickiest puzzle pieces in the art of manifestation and well, life in general, so it is a very important topic that I want to delve into in this blog. I plan to also touch on the topic of Inner/Divine guidance. And at the end of the blog, I will post a few exercises to help you with your ability to trust AND on hearing Inner/Divine Guidance. I genuinely hope you guys find this blog helpful.

I’d like to start with one of my favorite quotes on Trust that really drives the point home of how important trusting is to the art of manifestation (it’s from “Creating Money: Attracting Abundance” by Sanaya Roman & Duane Packer. A book I’ll quote extensively in this blog):

“TRUST IS THE LINK BETWEEN THE MENTAL WORLD AND THE PHYSICAL WORLD. IT PROVIDES CONTINUITY DURING THE TIME THAT ELAPSES BETWEEN THE CONCEPTION OF AN IDEA AND ITS MANIFESTATION.”

In other words, trust is what actually carries the things you are working on attracting into your life from your mind to your actual life! It is what drives your dreams into reality. So obviously trust is an important element for anyone who is working with the Law of Attraction. And trust tends to be one of the most challenging elements to master. Especially if you are coming from a place of little or no faith, like many people (myself included at the start of my journey). Many of us have a tendency to be control freaks…. A tendency that exists due to a lack of trust. So surrendering and trusting is often one of the most challenging spiritual lessons people face on their spiritual path. At least, my former Type A, control-freak, self found it to be.

And that’s actually what triggered this blog. This morning, I found myself thanking God over and over in my journal for my growth and the amount of trust and faith I have developed in the last year. It’s pretty amazing to me. I wasn’t raised in a religious or spiritual household. And I used to really really want to believe and have faith in God…. But I found it so hard despite my efforts. I used to tell people that I really wanted faith, but that I felt like in order to have faith in something like God, you had to be raised in that faith because it’s like learning to believe in something there is no proof of.

But I couldn’t have been more wrong. There is more proof of God in this world than I could have imagined. The good news is that you DON’T have to have faith in God or believe in God in order to move forward. I didn't. As you move forward, proof will start appearing everywhere and before you know it, you not only believe, but KNOW that God is real and in every aspect of your life. I DON’T believe that our God is a jealous God (What is he jealous of?? Himself??) And he DOES understand. He's VERY willing to help you whether you believe in him or not. He knows that you will eventually get there and that's good enough for him.

I apologize if I’m turning anyone off with the talk of “God.” I’ve grown more and more comfortable using that term to convey my points, but like always, PLEASE feel free to use whatever word resonates with you (the Universe, Creator, Life Force Energy, etc.).

Anyhow, my gratefulness for the trust and faith that have steadily grown in me, inspired me to write a blog on trust, which I do deem to be one of the trickiest puzzle pieces for myself and find that many others also struggle with this topic.


So, What is Trust?

The same book I quoted above defines trust as, “Expecting the best to happen, believing in your ability to create what you want, and knowing you deserve it…..There is a difference between trust and hope. Trusting is believing and knowing that what you want will come; hoping is wanting something but not really believing it will come.”

In the manifestation process, it’s REALLY believing that what you are trying to attract is already yours and acting accordingly (i.e. not worrying about it anymore). When you say, “Thank you God for the wonderful million dollars you gave me this week,” it’s really believing that those million dollars are ALREADY yours. It’s believing your prayers have already been answered. And now you get to just chill. Well not exactly. You get to follow Divine Guidance. But you do get to relax and be guided. For a society that doesn’t really value the feminine power of Receptivity, this can be particularly challenging. This is also known as “Trusting and Surrendering” and something that I found to be one of my greatest challenges (please excuse my overuse of the word “challenging” but it’s energetically so much better than the words I would normally interchange with like “hard” or “difficult”).

There are two important components at work here: 1) Believing what you are saying is true; 2) Demonstrating this belief with action.



SO HOW DO YOU BELIEVE SOMETHING IS ALREADY YOURS IF IT’S NOT ACTUALLY IN YOUR LIFE?


This is where some of the basic Metaphysics beliefs that aren’t really covered in books like “The Secret” come in. It’s all based on the premise that you are One with God, and that everyone is One with God so then everything is really One and therefore what you want is actually already yours because it’s One with you (if you want an easy-to-understand book on these concepts, “The Moses Code” breaks it down really nicely and it also gives a GREAT manifestation tool).

LOL, now if the explanation above sounds a little too complicated, for now roll with the one I like to give new clients: Most religions agree God is everywhere. If God is everywhere, then logically God ALSO has to be inside you. So we have the basic premise that God is inside you. We also have the premise that God created everything and owns everything (When my bratty Ivy League friends start talking about “Oh HER dad owns so and so. She is sooo filthy rich.” “Do you know who her father is??” I always have to suppress an urge to say, “Well do you know who MY Father is? He owns EVERYTHING in this whole Universe!)

But back to the point, if God is inside you and everything belongs to him and he is the Owner of everything, THEN when you are giving thanks for the things you have magnetized into your life (before you actually have the million dollars in your physical hands), you are actually saying the TRUTH and AREN’T lying. So you really have no choice but to believe it! You already own and have what you want.

A great affirmation for driving this point home AND to use when your bank account is telling you you’re kinda broke and you are having a hard time believing that you are prosperous:
“I affirm that in the Presence of God I am already prosperous, and this prosperity is materializing around me.”


So you have the belief part down now.


Here is a summary of how it all ideally ties together before we talk some more about the second part of Trust (#3 and 4 below):

1) You magnetize what you want (visualization, feeling the emotions, and all that stuff),
2) You BELIEVE it is already yours and so you give thanks for it already being yours,
3) You DETACH because you know it’s already yours (i.e. you know it’s yours so you don’t worry about it anymore),
4) Inner/Divine guidance comes through that tells you what action to take and then you TRUST that inner guidance by doing it.

And number 4 is the key for developing more Trust. By taking that risk. The more times you listen to your inner guidance and wonderful things happen, the more your trust grows. Which is what happened to me. I kept trusting my guidance and the signs sent to me more and more, and more and more wonderful things continued happening until one day I woke up and realized that I was full of trust and faith. I mean it’s always a work in progress, but my growth in this area has been huge.

And progress is all that really matters. Don’t ever be hard on yourself about spiritual progress/growth (that’s so counterproductive and defeats the whole purpose!). St. Therese, one of my favorite Saints (I love all that is Divine regardless of religion), is great at reminding us that it’s the small progress that counts and that perfection is not necessary. If you tend to be hard on yourself, she’s a great Saint to look up and work with (I have her on my night table).



Here are some Important Points on Developing Trust (from “Creating Money" which just happens happens to have a great chapter on Trust, but this applies to everything you want to attract into your life like joy and love, not just money):

****“EVERY TIME YOU ARE WILLING TO TAKE A RISK, YOU INCREASE YOUR ABILITY TO TRUST AND BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.” (one of my fave quotes).

-It is not enough to sit around and believe. Demonstrate trust by listening to your inner guidance and taking action on it. Since you live in a world of form and substance, action is the physical link to having what you want.

-You develop trust by putting your ideas into action, getting feedback, and seeing the results.

- Your feelings signal what actions to take. Your willingness to be spontaneous, follow inner urges and hunches, and listen to strong feelings and act upon them will lead you to your goals

Now would be a great time to address Inner/Divine Guidance.



INNER/DIVINE GUIDANCE-


Learning to listen to your inner guidance (which I use interchangeably with “Divine Guidance”) is CRUCIAL. After you have worked with the Law of Attraction to attract what you want, your inner guidance tends to lead you to the quickest, simplest way to bring about what you want. And yes, it can be tricky when you’re starting out. Divine Guidance requires a full blog, but I figured I should touch on it a little and give a few tips since it tends to be such a big part of Trusting.

To quote “Creating Money” some more, “Inner guidance comes from your Higher Self and speaks to you in the form of feelings, insights, and inner knowing. It brings you information from sources other than those that can be detected by your physical senses.. By getting quiet and listening to your thoughts and feelings, you can tap into a much larger spectrum of information than is ordinarily thought to be available.”

The general issue people tend to have is not knowing when something is coming from their Higher Self/God OR from their Ego (i.e. fear)….. Personally, I started out always consulting my Angel cards when I received guidance/an insight. This helped me immensely in the beginning (my intuition was really weak because I had spent years using only my left brain). Anyone can use Angel Cards. They come with an easy-to-use step by step instruction booklet and they are shockingly accurate. I developed trust in my cards before I developed trust in my ability to decipher my ego from my Higher Self (I had a super strong ego when I started). Here is a link to the deck I tend to recommend for beginners (and I still use these all the time though I have 4 decks): http://www.amazon.com/Messages-Angels-Cards-Large-Decks/dp/1561709069/ref=pd_bbs_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239842057&sr=8-5


Aside from the cards (which are definitely not necessary) as a general rule of thumb, when deciphering what is inner guidance, joy and ease tend to be great indicators.



Here are some pointers on Inner Guidance
(from “Creating Money” if in quotes and everything else is from my Metaphysics lessons):

-Ease: “You know when you are on the right path; doors open, people appear, coincidences happen. When you are not on your path or pursuing your higher purpose, it may seem as if you are walking through glue and nothing is working.”

-“Trust that your feelings of joy, delight, and self-love are always leading you toward your higher good….. If an urge feels joyful or delightful to follow, it’s probably coming from your inner guidance.”

- Your soul rarely says, “You must do this; you should do that.” Your soul says, “Isn’t this delightful? Wouldn’t you love to do more of it?”

-"Emotional Reasoning" tends to be your Ego, not your Higher Self. Reverend Michael Beckwith was telling us last night that Emotional Reasoning sounds a lot like “I didn’t do it because I just didn’t feel like it.” “Hmm… I’m not going to do it because I don’t feel like it….” And he said emotional reasoning is a disease of the mind. It’s a disease that keeps people at mediocrity.

-Work on knowing the difference between intuitive response and emotional response. Emotional response is more the influence of your personal ego or the influence of other people thinking for you.

-If the course of action influencing you in some way lacks ethics, it is not from your Higher Mind, but from your personal ego. We are all one and the Higher Mind would not in any way give a sense of direction to harm another manifestation of Itself.

-If you find yourself over-analyzing a course of action, your thoughts probably aren’t coming from your Higher Mind. There is a sense of knowing when the direction has come from your Higher Mind.

- You can experiment with inner guidance by thinking of something you want and then ask yourself if there are any actions that come to mind that you could take to get what you want? It can be something very simple that comes to mind, but do follow it and observe what happens. If nothing comes to mind, then you can just follow your joy from moment to moment and let things unfold on their own (a strategy I love and has lead to a life full of joy while I pursue my path and goals).

-“Sometimes you get sudden and unexpected insights into your life while you are engaged in repetitive activities (like sewing), athletic, or creative activity. When you receive such insights or guidance, take action. If you constantly avoid acting on the guidance you get, it will become harder and harder for you to hear or recognize future guidance.”

-And I’ll add an exercise for getting in touch with inner guidance at the end of the blog.


I was going to have a section on Detaching and Surrendering, but the blog is already longer than I planned, so I’ll save the “Detachment” topic for a later blog.



IN CLOSING/INSPIRATION:

Before getting to the exercises, I wanted to close with a couple of quotes from a book I just read yesterday, “The Man Who Talks with the Flowers,” that happens to relate to the topic of Trusting and Inner Guidance. The book is about Dr. George Washington Carver, an absolutely AMAZING man who was born into slavery and then tackled poverty issues in the post-Civil War South. He taught farmers to plant peanuts and sweet potatoes instead of cotton. And when the poverty-stricken farmers began producing more peanuts and sweet potatoes than the market could absorb, he developed 300 new uses for the peanut and 150 new uses for the sweet potato. This man was truly amazing and a genius. If you haven’t read the book, it’s really inspiring and a really short read (about an hour). I definitely recommend it.

Here are a couple of passages I felt like sharing:

1)

In the book when Dr. Carver is asked to describe the methods he uses when he meets a problem he says, “I never grope for methods. The method is revealed the moment I am inspired to create something new. I live in the woods. I gather specimens and listen to what God has to say to me. After my morning talk with God I go into my laboratory and begin to carry out His wishes for the day.” (Complete trust and demonstration through action).

2)

When he was asked how he felt about the people calling Thomas Edison an atheist, he responds, “Edison was one of the most religious of all men. I have correspondence with Edison that I prize, as I also have with Gandhi, and I don’t know which is the greater believer- for both KNOW that what they do comes not from them, but from the Creator.

The author goes on to say, “Mrs. Edison had told me that Mr. Edison’s methods in scientific research were exactly like mine in spiritual research. ‘He is always natural and relaxed,’ she said, ‘but he believes that his inventions come through him from the infringed forces in the universe- and never so well as when he is relaxed.’ As oil comes thru the highest hills, Edison believed that the 1500 inventions under his name could have come through someone else had he not been ‘there’ when the need called.”

3)

Someone asks Dr. Carver, “Why is it that so few people can have this power?” (Edison’s power and his own)

“They can… They can, if they only believe…. The secret lies all in here (he was pointing to the Bible). Right in the promises of God. Those promises are real, but so few people believe that they are…. If you would only believe, O ye of little faith.”


As an aside, for those that are turned off by the Bible, I personally don’t think you have to believe in a religion to note some of the wisdom in the Bible that addresses the topic of Inner/Divine Guidance. Ex:

“It is not I, but the Father within me that doeth these works…..” Christ
“Let the Mind be in you, that was in Christ.”
“Give not thought what you shall say before you are brought before the judges; for verily I say unto you, at that very moment, the words shall be on your lips.”



EXERCISES FOR DEVELOPING TRUST (the first 4 are from “Creating Money”):

1) In 3 minutes or less, list as many items as you can that you wanted, imagined, or fantasized about having and then received.

2) For several of the items you listed, recall the level of trust you had that you would get them. Describe how this trust felt, how you felt as you waited for these things to come, or what you did that affirmed your trust that they would come.

3) List as many items as you can that you want now. Which do you trust that you will create?

4) Pick one thing from your list. What action could you take to demonstrate that you trust you will get it?

5) While working on building my faith/trust, every night in bed, I would ask my Guardian Angel to please remove any fears or blocks keeping my faith from fully developing and to fill me with faith. You can ALWAYS ask angels to work on you while you sleep and it tends to bring about pretty miraculous results.

6)I tested out this whole concept of "surrendering" that everyone around me was talking about (and I was super skeptical about since it was such a foreign concept to me), by experimenting with surrendering different AREAS of my life and observing the results. So instead of just completely surrendering everything to the Divine and trusting, I was like, "Aight.... I'll surrender... my love life to the Divine. God, here you go. Do whatever you want with it and whatever you think is proper. From this day forth, I no longer worry about it. I trust that God is handling it and I no longer need to concern myself with it." And then sat back to observe the results. :-D So you can start practicing surrendering with parts of your life. Just testing it out little by little until you get more and more comfortable with it.

7) I also keep a "Surrender Box." I took a box and decorated it myself. Then whenever a problem or situation rises that is really overwhelming or something that I just don't want to worry about (because worrying does not solve anything and only makes things worse), I write it down and put it in my Surrender Box, surrendering the situation to Heaven like, "Aight, this is a bit much for me right now, so you deal with this for me please. Thank you!" And when you surrender the situation completely, the point is to no longer worry about it and let God handle it. So this works for all your worries. You can put all your worries in a Surrender/Worry box. :-) This practice has also been responsible for the increase in trust and faith in my life.



SACRED HEART EXERCISE FOR HEARING INNER-GUIDANCE (from “Everyday Abundance” by Karen Hood-Caddy):

1) Take your hand and put it on your chest in that open space just below your throat. This is the home of your Sacred Heart. Pat it gently for a minute to activate it.

2) After you are done patting it, lay your hand over your Sacred Heart and ask your heart a question. For example, try asking what it would like to do for the next 20 minutes.

3) And listen for an answer or a sign.

-Remember: if you’re not used to tuning in and listening to your heart, the relationship is going to need time to develop and grow! Start with smaller simpler conversations rather than starting out by asking life-changing decisions.

-Was your heart able to communicate with you? If not, don’t be discouraged. Some people have relegated their hearts to such remote places, they may have to wait while new communication lines are installed.

4) If your heart wasn’t able to communicate with you, try presenting it with some possibilities. Imagine you are talking to a mute child and watch for even a miniscule response. You might notice a slightly warm feeling after you make a certain suggestion, or a feeling of expansiveness or lightheartedness.


Something extra that will help start off those that can’t hear their hearts (I was in that category myself). This extra part will help you decipher your hearts language while you are starting out:

5) Remember a time when you were truly deeply happy. Let the details of the memory be vivid and recreate the feelings in your senses. When you have done this, tune into the feelings in your sacred heart. The feelings may be strong or subtle. You may experience any of the following: warmth, airiness, a flooding sensation, a radiating feeling, an opening feeling, joy, exuberance, deep gratefulness, core-filled inner peace.


6) Now take a moment to remember a time when you felt off course. This doesn’t have to be a time when you were in pain or miserable, just a time when you didn’t feel you were in the pulse of your heart’s truth. Remember it vividly and then put your hand on your heart again. Again, the feelings may be strong or subtle. You may experience: an emptiness, a deadness, boredom, resignation, a closed feeling, a distressed feeling, a feeling of weakness.

-I accidentally found a good gauge for my own heart. I always wear a rose quartz around my neck that drops right over my heart (it's meant to keep my heart open and full of love. And you'll see why in my "Miracles" blog). Anyhow, when my heart is happy the pendant is burning hot, when my heart isn't happy, it's ice cold (it amazes my friends). So generally, I can just reach down to my pendant and know whether my heart/inner self/soul is feeling a situation or not. :-) It's pretty cool.


**And of course you can check out my blog on Meditation since meditation is a great way of opening up the channels to Divine Guidance.


I apologize for the length of this blog, but I felt the all the info was important enough to include and actually ended up taking out sections on Miracles and on Detaching (which I will turn into 2 different blogs at a later date). I hope some of you find the info above useful!

Love and Light,
J


5 comments:

  1. Nice Blog! I have a little plaque that's been kicking around for years that says 'faith is not believing that God can; it's knowing that he will' :) You're always such a blessing; thanks for sharing!

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  2. "Work on knowing the difference between intuitive response and emotional response." There is the finest of lines between the two. Crucial observation.

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  3. This has come at such an interesting time. I also have trouble with trust. What I trust in the least and consequently, worry about constantly, is being delivered from this space of financial lack. Never attaining enough money to be above dangerous monetary limitations or money standing between my ability to pursue less financially rewarding pursuits (ie dance, academia, nonprofit/social enterprises). I even have some direct financial concerns that I just stress about ridiculously.

    I'm going to try the surrender box for my summer class and my summer pursuits. I hope my ability to trust grows over time.

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  4. Thank you for the nice words Andrea!

    @Lady K- One of the funny things about Metaphysics is that when you start out, you are taught how to take your power back and learn how to take control your life and the things around you. Then as you start mastering manipulating energy and you progress further, you are asked to start surrendering and stop being a control freak. It's a pretty cool and interesting transition that flows together nicely if you let it. My love life was the easiest thing for me to surrender because I didn't feel like that was on a timetable. Finances were a little more challenging for me, but as I keep following guidance, my prosperity increases.

    For finances, the prosperity game is really good and the "Creating Money" book I mentioned in my blog is also good. Also, I always recommend "You Can Heal Your Life" as the basic foundational book for starting down the Metaphysics road and taking back control of your life. Along with "The Secret" of course. LOL, it's so funny that "taking back control" of your life includes surrendering control of your life. :-)

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  5. Also another thing I've found useful is that instead of thinking/asking, "How much money do I need to make?" when you wake up in the morning (or whenever you are thinking about money), instead ask, "How can I serve today? How can I create today?" or "How can I create money today? How can I create beauty today?" That shifts the energy from coming from a place of need and scarcity to coming from a place of power and creation. And the sort of guidance that comes through often leads to prosperity. :-)

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