Being, doing, and having….

“We can think of life having three dimensions: being, doing, and having. Often we attempt to live our lives backwards. We try to have more money in order to feel we can do more of what we want, so we can be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. We must first be who we really are, then do what we feel guided to do, in order to have what we want.”

Shakti Gawain

~ I allow myself to be; I do what feels right; I have everything I truly want. ~

In yesterday’s Reiki Master Teacher workshop, the theme of the day seemed to be about “manifestation.” It kicked off the day in a pre-discussion to our training, came up again during our training, and again later during our dinner outing.

Discussions about Reiki will often lead into discussions on how to live a magickal, empowered, and abundant life, since the practice of embodying the essence of Reiki and consistently practicing it will naturally create more of this in our lives.

But this is not just a topic from yesterday, but one that so very often comes up (more and more) every time I hear people voicing frustration about things like money, not living the life they want, and not being able to do things they want to do because of lack of abundance, etc.

People have shared over and over that they are challenged with manifesting things, especially when it comes to money and fully being abundant.

Some of this I believe stems from our having gone so far mentally and spiritually, that we forgot to integrate things and bring things back into the body for EMBODIMENT rather than ascending into the ethers and floating off on a cloud. After all, remember we are humans with physical bodies. If you want to manifest things, they can’t just stay in your mind or as a concept you talk about. You’ll need to actually integrate that knowledge and conscious awareness into actualization. Work with your feelings, core beliefs, and what’s trapped in the body.

Abundant doesn’t mean you have to be a millionaire, but it does mean that you are living in a giving AND receiving flow of abundance that always supports your needs and the desires that will benefit your well being for the highest good.

This often comes up when people tell me how much they truly desire and know they need to go on one of the sacred journeys/retreats I and others offer, and yet year after year it will not happen because of not having the “money” for it.

Or, they won’t take that course, won’t go talk to someone like a life coach to get them through the blocks, won’t make time to read an important book, can’t find the time to be in nature or do something nurturing for themselves because they are too busy working hard at attaining money, stressing about it, and filling their lives up with a vicious cycle of things that aren’t balancing them and adding supportive benefit…etc.

I have done as much possible to support people, especially when I see their potential and deep desire, and assist with these kinds of things. I’ve offered huge discounts, payment plans, even in special cirumstances – personal loans to repay.

But as they say, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.

Unless you hand something over to someone for free (and even then it STILL doesn’t always happen due to fear in general) it is easier for most to live with the familiar discomfort than to branch out into the unknown discomfort that will free them.

On some level, the challenges we experience serve us, even if it doesn’t consciously make sense. And the answer isn’t in enabling people, but in empowering them, as EVERY single person innately is abundant. In order to access that abundance, we each need to make personal, accountable, responsible choices to consciously embody that.

I’ve seen people on both ends of the spectrum. Those that let fear take over, or allow their beliefs to dictate their every action with excuse after excuse. And I’ve seen people who have looked the “impossible” in the eye, didn’t have a clue how it would take place, replaced fear with committed drive, and created the possible out of nowhere. But these people acted “as if” what they wanted was happening and took the steps with trust.

This really becomes clear to observe in terms of things like retreats where larger sums of money are concerned, and self nurturing, self value, and life-changing potentials are part of the equation.

These are bigger risks and greater challenges that really bring out our deepest and core beliefs and fears.

And yet, over and over I’ve seen magick take place with people who have come on retreats that had no means to do it and suddenly created it because of following that inner calling and now they are on their path in ways they had always hoped. They wouldn’t be where they are now, had they not taken those huge leaps.

This is just one type of example, but comes up over and over in emails, messages, and exchanges I receive sometimes daily. And while I feel for these people, truly understanding what they are experiencing from personal experience, I also ask them the question, “why can’t you do such and such?” This is met most times without a response (silence) or the list of patterned declarations that still aren’t touching the real reason at hand start rolling out robotically.

Yesterday, one of my students shared with us his magickal story of how he manifested a trip he knew he needed to take spiritually, and then went on to share all the little synchronous things that made it possible when there was no way in sight for him to do it.

I shared similar stories of others I know, including myself.

There are just some things that hold a value far past what you can comprehend. We talked later that evening on how some things, like “experiences” are simply invaluable and are much more powerful than any single item you can buy yourself. The intrinsic value of trips, for example, contributes to a higher quality of life, along with providing benefits that will long continue after you’ve returned home in terms of memories, energetic shifts and activations, inspiration and self nurturing, connecting you with parts of yourself and with others you wouldn’t otherwise, invites more new and expansive experiences, etc.

Personally, I’m far from rich, by any societal standard, but I believe myself to be abundant. To me abundant means there is a flow in and out of energy on all levels. I know that my needs are always met, and I know that the things that are really important for me, will always be supported. But I then live my life with the knowing this is true, as if it already is, despite it not being at the moment in my outer environment. My internal environment is living otherwise.

That’s not to mean I don’t run up against stress now and then, but it only lasts briefly once I remind myself of all of the similar circumstances where I have always created a way and it all always worked out for the highest good.

We may all have different ideas and definitions on what abundance means…but to me it is this and it is living a magickal life where all these little and large synchronous alignments just come together at each turn. That even when challenges arise, this is simply opportunity to rise to the occasion and stretch our abilities a little bit more.

I live an abundant life and believe in myself as an abundant being. I never see something as impossible even if I haven’t a clue how it could happen based on what I have or don’t have now – this is all just external illusions, as I have everything I need within me awaiting my choice to unleash that powerful realization. I simply know that if something is important for me, there will always be a way and doors will open, as I move forward with trust.

It’s the same way I manifested my upcoming trip to Iceland and any other personal trips I have taken for my own well being (which ultimately trickles to how I can be of benefit to the collective) and path. I knew I needed to go on a deep level, and the way presented itself magickally.

Stresses over money are usually a lot of the reasoning why people feel they can’t do something, but what is the true culprit to this challenge?

Every time someone tells me they don’t have the money, I’m not hearing that….what I actually DO hear is many other things/beliefs that are running the show at the root of it all, which may include one or more of the following:

• It’s really not that important to me, as I say it is
• My needs can wait or such and such needs to be in place and happen before I can do that (creating controls and unrealistic conditions/ideas of perfection that will never be met until the person shifts their values)
• I really don’t want the responsibility that comes along with the life-enhancements, empowerment and changes I will experience
• I am scared to embrace my personal power and gifts
• I’m afraid to overextend myself momentarily, for what I can’t SEE possible and even though the abundance is just on the other side of that fear ready to flow when I make the decision to move forward and choose what I want
• I don’t value myself enough/I’m not deserving and others will think I’m being selfish if I invest in my own well-being
• There’s no way I can manifest that amount of money. I am not that powerful. I’ve always been told how incapable I am of anything
• Money doesn’t grow on trees, is something you have to work hard for, is the root of all evil, should not be used on so-called “frivolous” things (someone else’s definition of what that is)
• If I spend the money for what’s important to me, what then? Money won’t keep on flowing in my life even if I am able to manifest it this time
• I fear the unknown and what comes next when I realize truths about myself after the opening experience
• I’d rather spend money on “things” that satisfy my immediate needs rather than focusing on long-term benefit
• And the list goes on….we all have at one time or another had one or more of these belief voices running our show, and then some

There’s nothing wrong with this, as it all has its purpose in our personal growth. But if we want to express the REAL truth about why we feel we can’t do something, it will be much more productive and empowering to get to the heart of the matter and be willing to look deeper at what’s behind our beliefs. Once we do this, we may just find the culprit/s holding us back from our natural abundance.

So yesterday I shared that if you have a challenge with money, it’s important to look at your relationship to it. And this goes for anything.

Your relationship to something involves your beliefs, which include all of the conditioned beliefs both from childhood, parent figures, society, collective patterning and conditioning, which are operating even if in your mind you don’t think that way.

These core beliefs will show you exactly where the challenge is.

It doesn’t matter what we think…it matters what we feel, believe, and are holding in our bodies, as core acquired truths.

Your inability to manifest stems from fears, beliefs, personal limitations, and blocked energy flows.

If you truly want to do something, I believe you CAN do it. The question is, how much do you really want it, and what are you willing to do to support that desire? The Universe will support you only if YOU take the actions in partnership with it. You will need to show how serious you are by doing something to demonstrate your wanting/believing/trusting. THEN you will start to see things shift. And in the meantime, you can work on your core beliefs and relationship to them to support swifter changes and larger and more frequent manifestations.

But these days there are SOOOO many ways to support you with what you want like in the example of needing to manifest money for something you want to do – be it a trip, starting a business, taking a class, seminar, workshop, course, buying equipment needed for your project or business idea, taking college courses to help with your path, funding a dream, etc. The more willing and open you are to think, feel, imagine, and act creatively, the more possibilities will come to you on ways to do it. I’ve seen and heard from many on how they have manifested what they wanted by being vulnerable and asking for help, along with shifting their beliefs and actions.

Some have turned to family and friends that believed in and supported them, providing loans, partial or full financial support, sharing of airline mileage, etc. Some have been willing to ask or take others up on offers of payment plans, asking if there are partial or full trade opportunities, discounts, etc.

And others have found collective ways to find that support through different funding options that are now out there like these:

Peer to Peer Lending‏: