Rice Update

I know, you're probably sick of rice updates. But this still blows my mind.

This is what the rice jars looked like a couple weeks ago:

And this is what they look like today:

They're not changing very quickly anymore--they seem to have just settled in like this. This project is almost two months old... it'll be fun to see how long the rice stays like this.

More stuff coming soon...

Magic Anklet - #12

Format: Experiment. I figured I'd give it a week.
Goal: Have more and better social interactions, using a cord set with intentions.
Goal met? Holy effective, Batman.
Terms you should know: 
Intention: Pretty much what it sounds like. An intention is an intention. In energy/spiritual work, the idea of the intention is more concrete and there's a general idea of spiritual power behind it.

So here's what happened:
After the third solid week in a row of feeling like a friendless loser (because I am generally anti-social, at least when I'm at school, and have been spending a lot of time in my room instead of the rest of the apartment in order to avoid my roommate and her awkward relationships with her four awkward almost-boyfriends), I decided enough was enough. I wasn't exactly ready to go out and Meet People (so not my thing), but figured the least I could do was to start changing the way I was looking at this whole playing-nicely-with-others deal. 


Which is to say, I wanted to use a ritual or other physical action that had a chance of tangibly changing my thoughts. The goal was to move from a general attitude of "Why are you looking at me, @*&@#?? Back off before I punch your #*%&#(* teeth in, *#&%*;@!" to, I dunno, something less confrontational and antagonistic. Like "Hi," maybe.


I remember reading something in a novel (probably by Juliet Marillier) about working magic into cords. I thought that was a poetic idea, and I was in a crafty mood, so I dug out some embroidery floss. I used sparkly red to symbolize my root chakra (which relates to security, feeling grounded, and having basic needs met), orange for my sacral chakra (which relates to creativity, sexuality, and romantic relationships), and sparkly green for my heart chakra (which relates to universal love and general relationships). Put on a TV show that made me happy and started braiding.


The whole time I kept in mind the intention that I wanted to have more positive relationships, romantic and platonic, with everyone around me, and wanted to go back to operating from the place of love that I bring to my relationships back home. I wanted to have friends because I liked them and they liked me, not because I was lonely and needed someone to fix my loneliness. And I wanted to become interested in people again, because I'd hit this place where everyone I didn't already know seemed insufferably boring. I knew that was off but I hadn't been able to make my mind change courses.


I happened to do this the night before the full moon (see Supermoon/Equinox video), and set the intentions about wanting positive, enriching relationships/interactions. The night of the full moon I did it again, and again the next day, which happened to be the spring equinox. Then I let the little charm do its thing.


Now, I don't know that the anklet itself had any special energy voodoo going on. Maybe it did -- I'm certainly not ruling the possibility out -- but maybe it was the intention and reminder of having a cord tied around my ankle that helped me change courses, like having a reminder string tied around your finger or a purple anti-complaining bracelet. I fall into the camp of "if it works, use it," and boy, did it work.


Three days later, I had gone from being tired, antisocial, and unable to make small talk to:

• chatting for four hours with girls from my class during lab; they turned out to be completely awesome and exactly the kind of people I like being around;
• somehow or other magically getting on the good side of a teacher who hadn't seemed particularly interested in me most of the semester;
• getting hired on the spot for my job next semester, despite a mix-up with applications and someone already having been hired for my position;
• being flirted with by a guy from a class who is super-interesting and cute (and literate while texting, which is one of my holy grails);
• having a fantastic conversation about religion, totalitarian states, and Rocky Horror Picture Show with two awesome people, completely out of the blue; 
• having acquaintances and casual friends approach me and strike up interesting, below-the-surface conversations;
• being helped way above and beyond the call of duty by a charming woman at the post office;
• being involved in an awesome theatrical/musical production in town; and
• being chatted up by a rather interesting stranger who ended up asking for my number (which hasn't happened in way more than I'd like to admit).

I mean, how cool is that? Something about having that intention wrapped around my ankle as a reminder appears to have done something to my mojo and made me attractive to all sorts of people and interested in them back. I suspect it's switched around a bunch of my subconscious beliefs and habits and in turn switched around all those subconscious body language/tone of voice signals I didn't realize I was giving off, and people respond to that.


Pretty sweet. Also, my anklet's cute.

Try this:
Make an anklet. Or find some other craft or project that feels good. Think about your intentions while you're working on it -- and make sure they feel 100% good to you -- and then wear whatever you make or put it somewhere you'll see it often. 


I can't emphasize the "make sure they feel good to you" thing enough. I originally had this idea in my head that the reason I was being so touchy was because I wasn't being feminine enough or something, and I was convinced that I needed to make a pink bracelet and embrace my inner girl. But my subconscious knew better and gave me a loud "Nope!" feeling, so I eventually ended up going with the chakras and focusing on openness to interactions with people and operating from a place of love, which was a way better decision. 


If your subconscious beliefs and emotional responses can't get behind the intentions you're setting, you're only going to sabotage yourself. I believe you always get what you really want, so make sure you know for sure what that is and find a way to bring it to the surface and work with, not against, it.

Coming Soon...
It was going to be a plants experiment but my nasturtiums aren't agreeing. Suggestions, post 'em in the comments.

Update! Rice Experiment

Check 'em out! It's been, what, three weeks? The Love rice has started to deflate a little, but there is still a major difference between them.

 

This still weirds me out a little. In a good way.

Happy rice.

Sad rice.

Mildly artsy rice shot, by which I mean, "Depth and wood grain, ooh shiny!"
Seriously, though. This is cool stuff.

Truth or (is) Dare

My favorite PostSecret this week:

Such a good idea. And so, so, so intimidating. It's tempting to say all that significant stuff anonymously -- I think that was one of those fads that went around Myspace back when people used Myspace -- but that also defeats the purpose, which is connection, not merely catharsis.

There's also the issue of forcing this on people. The idea of taking connections to a deeper level sounds great in theory, but in practice, you may end up seriously stepping on some toes. (It's sort of like how not everybody likes hugs. Heck, I don't like hugs from the wrong people, and I'm a hugger. You don't want to force this kind of thing where it'll be unwelcome.)

So am I going to do this? Maybe. Not today. But if and when I do, I'll keep you posted. Till then... it's something to think about.

Supermoon/Equinox Weirdness

Last week was the full moon and spring equinox. My body noticed.

Also, I look insane in the placeholder image for this video. I'm a fan.

Rice Intention Experiment

Attempting to use my webcam... Update on the rice experiment and what's coming up next!

Rice Intention Experiment - #11

Format: Week-long experiment with option of extending.
Goal: Do Masaru Emoto's rice intention experiment. See if it works.
Goal met? THIS IS SO COOL. (That's a yes.)

So here's what happened:
I was nosing around on various unschooling blogs and happened upon The Sparkling Martins. One of the posts was on the rice intention experiment. I was fascinated and decided that, while the blog was spiffy and all, I really wanted to try this one for myself. Soooooo... I did.

The idea with the rice experiment is that you can change the state of cooked rice by sending it emotions. If you send it love, it'll stay nice; if you send it hate, it'll get moldly and gross.

• Step 1: I cooked some rice and, meanwhile, found identical containers to put it in. I got two glass jars that had recently held pasta sauce, washed them out thoroughly (like, three times thoroughly) and let them dry completely. 
• Step 2: Once the jars were dry, I wrote words on them. One jar was the Hate Jar, and I wrote the suggested words on The Sparkling Martins blog ("I hate you, you fool") on it, in addition to a bunch of my own. All negative words, like "bad," "stupid," "you suck," "derision," etc. On the inside of the Bad Jar lid I wrote "HATE." On the Love Jar, I wrote "Thank you. I love you" as well as positive words like "gratitude," "kindness," "precious," and so forth. On the inside of that jar's lid I wrote "LOVE." 
• Step 3: I put equal amounts of rice in the jars. I'd read about how sometimes the rice lower in the cooker has trapped in more heat and moisture, which can mess with your results, so I made a point of getting the rice from the same levels and alternating spoonfuls. One into Love Jar, one into Hate Jar, one into Love Jar, one into Hate Jar, and so forth. I screwed the lids on really tight (trapping plenty of steam and moisture in there). 
• Step 4: The theory is that every day you treat each jar to its emotion for 30 seconds by picking it up, feeling as much hate/love as you can, and channeling that emotion toward the jar. I do not have that sort of self-discipline. In truth, I felt a lot of hate to the Hate Jar and a lot of love to the Love Jar on the first day, then put it in a high dark cupboard and forgot about it for a few days. On about day 3, I remembered and did it again, trying to make the emotions as intense as possible. I didn't see a whole lot of results at that point. Forgot about the jars again. Then, around day 7, I remembered the jars and went to go check on them. 

I was expecting to not have any results (or, rather, for both jars to have gone moldy, as that's what moist rice is prone to do over the course of a week), particularly as I'd done a very halfway job of this experiment. Instead...

Well, check it out:



Can you see that?! The Love Jar's rice is still in good shape. It's white, it's fluffy, it's beautiful. You can see water gathering at the bottom of the jar but it's clean water. The jar looks like I put rice in there an hour ago.

The rice in the Hate Jar, on the other hand, has deflated to about half its original size. The rice on the top has turned yellow and putrid, the rice on the bottom has gotten mushy, and on the whole it looks gross.

Here are some closer-ups.

Good rice:

Bad rice:



And that's after a week with inconsistent emotioning (that's a brand-new word, in case you were wondering). I think you can draw your own conclusions about this one. But seriously... How cool is that?!

Try this:
Do what I did, or google "rice intention experiment" for tips, articles, the efforts of people trying to debunk or prove the experiment, and all sorts of other goodies.

Coming Soon...
Dunno yet... But I'll keep you posted on the next week of the rice experiment for sure! Suggestions are, as always, welcome.