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!

“I feel like I did something wrong,” my client, Sarah, said. “I tried and tried to think myself healthy, but somehow I ended up back in the hospital!  I don’t understand!”

She had recently come home from the hospital, after being seriously ill.  She wanted to feel better, and was trying to will herself to be better.  But one evening, she knew beyond a doubt she had to go back.  And so she did.

As her story unfolded, she shared that one evening her husband left, she was feeling a bit sorry for herself.  Flipping through the channels on her TV, she came across Joel Osteen, a well-known minister, giving a sermon.

“Bloom where you are planted, “ he said. “Appreciate what is going on around you right here, right now.  Trust that you are exactly where you need to be.  Be happy about it.  Give thanks for everything you can see.  Offer your faith to God that your life is just what – and where – God needs it to be.”

She said she felt he was speaking directly to her.  In that moment, she relaxed.  She stopped trying to will something into being.  She just decided she’d appreciate what was going on in her life.  She decided to bloom where she was planted.

And so she began, “I’m grateful for the drugs I’m getting.  I’m grateful for the nurses.  I’m grateful they are figuring out what’s wrong with me.  I’m grateful for the care here in this wonderful hospital.  I’m grateful for how clean it is here.  I’m grateful that I don’t have to worry about taking care of anything.  I’m grateful that my husband and my sons have come to see me.  I’m grateful that I’m so loved.”

And in her relaxing and just “being,” she began to heal.  She began to get better very quickly.  Within a few short days, she was well enough to be released.

When we talked later, she shared this story with me.  She wanted to understand why she hadn’t been able to will herself into being better.  And even more, she wanted to understand why she hadn’t been able to avoid it to begin with.

She told me how she had been upset with herself for getting so sick.  She couldn’t understand why she had done this to herself.  She was healthy, she had a good relationship with her husband and her sons, she had sufficient abundance.  What was going on?

I suggested that maybe she didn’t need to know right now about the “why” of it.  That, perhaps more than anything, her job was to do just what she learned in the hospital … to simply appreciate what she had right here, right now, and let go of her desire to know why it all came about.  And to trust that the “why” would be revealed in time.

Hearing this softened her.  She was able to return to a soft state of allowing and trusting, and let go of needing to understand all of the bigger reasons, which often don’t show up in our lives until time has passed.

The irony here is that in the appreciating of those around us, and appreciating the things that are going right and well in our lives actually gets us more of what we want.  It acts as a magnet for us to see more – more wonderfulness, more health, more joy, more love, more abundance.  But we have to do the work of appreciating. We have to do the work of being grateful.

Our work is to get out of our heads and into our hearts, to stop trying to figure things out and to stop worrying about them.  Our work is to just simply be.

Be gratitude.  Be appreciation.  Be love.  Be joy.  Be humor.  Be peace.  Be kindness.  Be compassion.  Be grace.  Be abundance.

Because it is in the being that we then are in the space to manifest what we want.  More health, more joy, more peace, more love, more abundance, more ideas, more happiness.

And that is what we all want.

Your Action Steps

1. Look at your life and answer these questions:

a.      Where are you spending time and energy?

b.      What are you worrying about?

c.      What are you making yourself wrong for?

d.      What can you appreciate right here, right now?

2. Decide you will start appreciating your life – even the little things that believe me, if you didn’t have, aren’t so little … like your feet carrying you around, or your fingers picking things up, or your teeth for chewing.

3.      Say “Thank you!” to everything you can see and to everyone you see (even if you say it in your heart and not out loud).

4.     Choose today to be grateful.  This moment, right here, right now.  Be grateful even for something that you are struggling with.  Be grateful for the parties involved.  Be grateful for the challenge to learn and grow (because you are learning and growing through it!).  Just say “Thank you!”

5.       Have fun with it!

After someone has “done you wrong” and profoundly hurt you, why should you forgive them?  Why should you spend all the time and effort letting it go?  And should you let it go?  And if you forgive them, what does this mean?  Does it mean you go back for more?

I have gotten these questions a lot from clients through the years and I believe I have some answers not only because of my own experiences (yes, I’ve had to forgive big-time!), but also because I’ve spent years studying what forgiveness does for you.  (Did you hear that?  What it does for you.)

Jerry, a client of mine, is a favorite example I have of how what opens up in your life when you to forgive someone else. In 2003, Jerry came to my office in Charlottesville, VA, to work through some challenges he was having at work.  As we worked together, a very traumatic story came out.

Fifteen years earlier, Jerry and his then-wife had triplets.  One day, when the babies were several months old, Jerry came home at lunch to surprise his wife.  He was the one surprised.  He discovered his wife in bed with his best friend.

No surprise here – they divorced.  Then his former wife married the former best friend.  Then she asked Jerry to allow the new step-dad to adopt the babies. “You can stay involved in their lives, but it will be better for them to be part of a whole family.” After much consideration, Jerry acquiesced.

Somewhere soon after Jerry signed the papers relinquishing his parental rights, they got into an argument and his former wife said, “Go away.  You have no rights here.”

Through the next 12 years, even though Jerry sent his children gifts at Christmas and on their birthday to stay in contact, he was not allowed to be a part of their lives.  He hadn’t seen his kids in all that time, and he had a whole lot of (very understandable) anger toward his former wife.

We began to work on the feelings he had about this experience, one by one, tapping through his feelings.  When we softened the anger a bit, I offered a statement to him, just to check in with how he was feeling. “I forgive her for taking my kids away from me.”

Nope. Not happenin’.

We then tried “I’m willing to consider forgiving her for taking my kids away from me.” There was much less resistance to this, and as we tapped through it, I could feel his anger really releasing.

We tried again. “I forgive her for taking my kids away from me.” This time, the resistance was gone and we were successful.

Then, we worked on forgiving his former best friend.  This took some time, as you can imagine.  As we walked all around his anger at this man, Jerry found places he could really begin to let it go.  And as he let it go, he forgave.

Last, we tackled his anger at himself for letting his children go.  As we released shifted it, his whole being softened, and he was at peace.

He had forgiven himself.

Several weeks later, he called me. “You won’t believe what happened!” he told me, breathless with excitement. “My daughter, Susanne, contacted me and she wants to meet!  We’re meeting next week for the first time!”

“You know how this happened, don’t you?” I asked him.

“How?” he said.

“You forgave.  You changed your energy.  You changed how you feel about what happened.  You raised your vibration to love and compassion instead of anger and blame.  And when you did, she responded.  She heard you.”

Susanne was 14 years old when she saw her daddy for the first time.  It was a tearful reinion.  That was 2003.

Since then, she and her two siblings all got re-connected with their dad.  Their mother also reconnected with him, and they had the first of many profound conversations.  When she welcomed Jerry back into their lives, he got to be his kids’ dad.  It was a dream he’d longed for for so many years.

Last December, I heard from Jerry.  Two of the triplets are living with him while going to college and he was sharing how challenging it was at times!  I laughed as I heard how they are living and loving one another as any normal family.

So… why forgive?  What’s in it for you?  You forgive because your life will show up in a whole new way when you do.  In a way you cannot even imagine right now.

You don’t know what’s possible when you let go of your anger and your blame.  You don’t know what’s available when you lighten your being.  You don’t know who’s waiting to meet you, to dance with you, to love you, to give to you, to share with you, to play with you, when you release that blocked energy.

You just don’t know. And you don’t know what you don’t know. And because the freedom and the love and the abundance and the opportunities and the joy are all in the realm of you-don’t-know-what-you-don’t-know, your job is to step out in faith and Let It Go.

Always.

By the way, Jerry still had to work through some issues – and we did, through the course of several months.  But his original anger and bitterness and deep shame never, ever returned.  (That’s the power of EFT, my friends.)

Your Action Steps:

1. Decide right here, right now, that you are willing to forgive.

2. Decide which steps you need to take to forgive, then take them. (I highly recommend the book “Radical Forgiveness,” by Colin Tipping.  This book will have you look at forgiveness in a whole new – and very beautiful – light.)  By the way, choosing to forgive doesn’t mean you have to forget.  It just means you’re going to let the past go so that you are free now.

3. Get help if you cannot figure out how to forgive. Get help.  Get help.  Get help.  (Did you get that? Get help. There are many good therapists who can help you, but I highly recommend you find a good EFT therapist. By doing so, you will be releasing the blocked energy in your body and it is the blocked energy that causes all of the anger, shame, guilt, fear, and other negative emotions.)

4. Watch and see how your life changes. It will change.  It will become unrecognizeable.  And that’s a very good thing.

Last week, the Divine (or Spirit or God or the Universe) showed me something that validated this journey we are all on together: when you put your intention out there, when you speak it to others, it shows up in your life. Now this isn’t something new; I’ve been talking about this for years, as have others.

And yet, I discovered again how true it is.  Let me tell you what happened…

On Thursday, Feb. 25, I wrote the blog for Saturday, Feb. 27.  I sent it to Christina (my assistant).  I left it in her capable hands to get out to you guys, and to get posted onto www.QueenAnneProductions.com, which she did.

Here’s what that blog said:

February 27, 2010 – Today’s Affirmation: I tune into the magic of my soul!

Today, I am clear about how magical I am.

I realize that I have the ability to create my life to be just what I desire most.  And while I am aware I must learn how to do this better and better, today, I spend time being present to that magic that I already am.  I spend time being present to the power I already have.  I spend time being present to the wonder that I already have created.

Today, I see my alchemist abilities grow and grow. I love feeling magical and charmed!

I connect with these abilities, and I realize that I AM these abilities!

I AM Magical!  I AM Charmed!

And so it is.

That Saturday night (the night the blog was published), as I was getting out of the shower and blowing out the candles (I had taken a shower by candlelight which was oh, so nice!), I thought “Aaaahhh, magic!”

And then I remembered a number of other magical experiences of the day:  a lovely nap, a yummy foot rub given to me by Francisco (my husband), a candlelight dinner with him, errands run that were fun and completely delightful, a cuddling time with Pixie, my sweet kitty, a delicious fruit salad meal with my favorite fruits, my Valentine’s Day roses that were now in full bloom, a beautiful full moon that I could see from my window as I was taking my wonderful shower, a phone call with someone dear to me, and so on.

You see, when we state our intention not only to ourselves, but to the world around us – and we pay attention - we begin to notice how our lives show up and how the Divine supports our intention.  Now here’s the thing: if we are in alignment with our statement, then life just flows it to us, and we flow to it. If, however, we are not in alignment with our statement, well, then … uh-oh.  Watch how the Universe will show you the areas where you are not in alignment.  It is then your work to move yourself into alignment with your intention.  (That’s always our work, by the way.)

It’s obvious that I was in alignment with feeling magical and charmed.  I had no resistance to it.  And yes, for those of you who are asking, there are statements I write that I’m not fully in alignment with… of course.  However, having said that, I am always moving into alignment with them and paying attention to what the Divine is showing me AND doing the work.  Why?  Because I want my life to be one that works for me in all ways, one that is so completely in alignment with my conscious intention that I have no resistance to being at one with the Divine.  It’s worth doing the work.

So, here are the lessons from this:

1. State your intention for what it is you want. Do you want a beautiful day?  State it.  Do you want a productive meeting?  State it.  Do you want to feel abundant?  State it.  Do you want to have abundance?  State it.  The Universe hears and brings to you want you have stated.

2. State your intention to others. Here’s where it can get a little tricky.  When you state your intention to others, be very clear that you may have those who will not support you.  But guess what?  These naysayers are your best teachers.  Why?  Because they are letting you know that a part of you believes (or is fearful about) what they are saying.  Your work then becomes a work of clearing:  clearing the resistance out so that you move into alignment with your intention.

3. Pay attention to how the Divine delivers your intention. Because it will.  It might be in small doses.  So what? Pay attention to them and fill yourself with gratitude for those doses. By doing this, you are strengthening your belief in yourself and your ability to co-create with the Divine.  And before long, those small doses will be big doses!

Your Action Steps:

To start playing with this in a conscious co-creative way, it’s time to take some steps.

1.  Get clear about what you want right here, right now. (By the way, be gentle with yourself here.  Choose non-resistant things that will help you build the energy of your belief in yourself and in your abilities.)

2.   Begin to state what it is you want to yourself and to the Divine.

3.   If you are ready, begin to state what it is you want to others.

4.   Pay attention to how it shows up in your life – in large or in small doses.

5.   Acknowledge the areas that show up. (This will increase your own believability in yourself.)

6.   Be grateful. (You will begin to manifest more and more, faster and faster with this one simple tool: gratitude.)

7.   Have fun with it!

“Here are two twenty-fives,” Francisco said to me as we drove up to the toll booth.  “Is that what you need?”

“No, I need $2.50,” I said and I looked at the money in my hand.  “Oh, but you gave it to me.”

I handed the money to the lady in the toll booth, got my receipt, and drove off.

“Did you think you only gave me $2.25?” I asked him.

“No,” he replied.  “I gave you two twenty-fives.”

“No, you didn’t,” I said.  “You gave me $2.50.”

“Yes, I know,” he said. “I gave you two twenty-fives.”

“No. You. Didn’t!” I said, emphatically.  “You gave me $2.50!  And it was enough.  See?  We got through the toll booth!”

“Yes,” he said.  “I gave you two twenty-five pieces.”

Huh?  Now, in all fairness to me, I never heard the “s” on the end of his “twenty-fives.”  And … I’ve never heard quarters being referred to as a “twenty-five.”

We laughed when we realized we’d been saying the same thing.

Being married to someone for whom English is a second language can be interesting at times.  Communicating is fraught with possibly crazy-making (and sometimes delightfully funny) scenarios.   Like the time he told me I’d “washed his brain” (“brainwashed”). Or the time he said he was a “rullfuler.” HUH???  (I’ll tell you later what that one meant.)

There are many times when we are saying the same thing, but we aren’t getting it because we are so adamant that our view is the correct one.

Anybody relate to that?

I started to think about how this is such a great metaphor for not only communication in general, but for how we receive information from the Divine.

I can see the Divine telling me that it gave me the answer, but because I am thinking of a specific way in which I want my answer to look, I’m just not “getting” it.

For example, have you ever asked for something only to realize later that you got exactly what you asked for – just not the way you thought it “should be”?

When we first moved to Florida, I was very clear that I wanted a house with a pool.  It’s hot here and I love to swim.  Yet, we didn’t find a house we really liked that had a pool.

What we did find was a house that was on a lake.  And the moment I saw the back yard with that lake, I knew that this was the house I wanted to live in.  (I mean I could always put in a pool, but I can’t put in a lake!)

(Here’s a picture of Francisco feeding the ducks, the Ibis and (my favorites) the Woodstorks.)

A year and a half went by and I wistfully thought of the pool I wanted so much.  I wasn’t swimming, and I really missed it.

Then, one day, I decided to go to the community pool (about 3/10 mile from our house).  It doesn’t have lanes (it’s shaped rather like an elongated flower with rounded petals and a huge waterfall feature plunked in the middle), but it is large and I could swim.

What I discovered was this: in the winter I have the entire pool to myself.  Floridians don’t like to swim in the winter (and anything below 70 degrees is winter to them! lol), so I got to play in my very own huge pool.  And I don’t have to do maintenance on it, either!  And, in the summer, when I go early (7:30-10 am), I have the pool to myself.

Suddenly, I realized that I HAD gotten a house with a pool.  I just had to expand my vision of what “having a pool” looked like.

So, where are you limiting your own vision of what you have received from the Divine?  Where are you not seeing that you have already received the answer to your prayer?  Where are you not acknowledging the magnificence that already exists in your life?

Because it’s there, I promise.  You just have to hear or see it!

(By the way, for those of you still pondering the “rullfuler” question?  He says he’s a “rule follower.”)

Your Action Steps:

1.       Look into your life at what you have been asking from the Divine.

2.       Look to see how the Divine has already given you what you have been asking for.

a.       If it’s love, then look to see where you have love already expressed in your life.

b.       If it’s abundance, look to see how abundant you already are.  (By the way, this one is easy: imagine you are in another, much poorer country living your life there.  You’ll really get how abundant you truly are.)

c.       If it’s clarity about what to do next, notice how clear you are about what to do next in other areas of your life.  You’ll get that you have clarity.

d.      If it’s friendships, begin to count how many friends you have – online and off.  (You’ll be amazed at how many there are.)

e.      If it’s the ability to touch someone else’s life, notice how you are already doing this, just by being yourself.  Do not underestimate the power of a smile or a simple “Hi!”

3.       Write them down.  The more you notice, the clearer you are about your own ability to receive answers to your prayers, to co-create with the Divine that which you desire in your life.

When you get this?  Aaahhh, then you begin to understand your power, your strength, your love, your abilities, in a whole new way.

Today, I rejoice!

As I look at my life, I see my how dreams are coming true.  I see the steps I have taken and those I am readying myself to take, and I know that they are moving me in the direction of my dreams.  And I rejoice in this movement!

Today, I see my visions being manifested in my life.  I see my intentions coming into being.  I know that I am being shown the way by Spirit.

And I rejoice!

Today, I rejoice in all that I see.  I rejoice in all that I do.  I rejoice in all that I am!

Today, I rejoice!

(Thank You!)

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© 2010 Rev. Anne Presuel.  All rights reserved worldwide.