New Year's Resolutions

In 2010, I am going to begin a personal liberation. It'll be fantastic and empowering... kinda like Women's Lib only minus (most of) the bra burning and soapboxes.

The general idea of this liberation is that I will be me. Not some watered down, socially correct version, or the version I think my parents will approve of, or the version that's most likely to land me an amazing job when I get out of school. I'm going to be the version of me that feels right to me and trust that to provide me with all the good reputation and opportunities that being fake does.

"I gotta be free to be me," chant the voices of a thousand adolescents. Gag, how trite.

But I'm not going to be trite about it. This isn't about going against my parents for the heck of it or dying my hair blue or sticking it to The Man (though, for the record, that sounds really fun). The real idea here is that I'm going to get all the unwanted voices in my head out of my head. It's a heck of a challenge... but that's kinda the point.

This is going to be a process of constant refinement. A lot of it will probably fall neatly into my experiments/this blog, so you'll get to witness the journey. (Oy vey!) A lot of it is still fuzzy to me right now, but that's okay; I trust that it'll all come to light in good time.

For now, that's the idea. My voice. My choices. My opinions. Whatever they are.

Other resolutions not directly/obviously related to the liberation:

1. Become a self-sufficient adult. Increase income, enough to cover an apartment, a car, school fees and the necessities of life.

2. Introduce some variety into my diet. Man should not live on starch and sugar alone, though I've certainly been making a go at it.

3. Find a boyfriend. Get into a real relationship. Find some way to actually believe--to any degree--in romantic love.

4. Get at least 1,000 views on this blog before the end of winter semester.

5. Submit my novel to at least 25 agents.

6. Let things go. "Things" meaning possessions, relationships, desires, whatever. Holding onto things weighs you down.

7. Exercise in a fun way.

More will be added as I decide on it.

Manifesting - #2

[image by a_whisper_of_unremitting_demand]

MANIFESTING - Experiment #2

Format: 1-week experiment (plus some)

Goal: Manifest most of the things on my nightly lists. Have some breakthroughs on the subject of the Law of Attraction, the way I think about the LoA or the practice of manifesting things in general.

Goal met? Yes… for now

Terms you should know:

Law of Attraction – The principle of “like attracts like.” It’s been around forever but has gained popularity in the past few years. Much of modern LoA understanding/application is based in large part on the teachings of Abraham Hicks, a non-physical entity channeled by inspirational speaker and author Esther Hicks.

Manifestation – The results of an intention consciously or unconsciously put out to the universe.

So here’s what happened:

First off, Merry Christmas! Mine’s been completely lovely so far and I hope you can say the same. J

And now, on to the subject at hand.

Confession: I’ve been playing around with this for ages.

Second confession: I’m still not very good at it.

I started a little over a month ago keeping a list of things that I wanted that shortly thereafter appeared in my life. The list includes things like a canvas bag (arrived in a package from a friend about a week later), Asian-looking fabric (found on Freecycle two days later) and chocolate-covered orange sticks (which my brother gave to me the next day—someone had given them to him and he doesn’t like them).

And about a week ago, I started keeping a nightly list of things I wanted to manifest the next day. Granted, the LoA is not always something you can stick on a timetable. Generally the principle is that things manifest in their own good time. However, I was looking for fast results.

The first list went as follows:

Paycheck [which I’d misplaced]

Apartment #53 private room

Adsense revenue

The next day, the paycheck appeared within an hour of my waking up and the Adsense revenue (all of a penny, but it counts!) followed shortly after.

Success, methinks.

Next night, I wanted a great idea for a musical, more Adsense revenue and the apartment. None of them showed up… but I did have an awesome experience! Within a minute, I kid you not, the woman who runs the apartment I’m trying to get into called. She told me that I could expect to hear back sometime after Christmas and that I’m at the top of her waiting list. Score! Didn’t win the game, but I definitely scored.

Next day, I wanted 10 blog page views by 2 p.m., a wonderful and unexpected surprise and a lucid dream. No lucid dream, but the other two showed up!

***Sidebar: “Wonderful and unexpected surprises” are the coolest thing to manifest ever. You never know what you’re going to get but you know it’s coming, so it keeps you on the lookout for good things, and something always turns up. It’s solid fantastic.***

And, thanks to my wonderful and unexpected surprise, I had the desired breakthrough regarding the LoA. I realized that I have no problem manifesting friends, inexpensive items, opportunities, etc., but I have a huge block when it comes to money, things that cost a lot of money, things that are worth a lot of money, etc. Then, voila, I read Carrie’s new blog and she had a post on this very subject recommending readers look into focus wheels. I made two, one for the apartment and one for my attitude toward money. Will definitely be updating on those.

The rest of the experiment went like that. Some things would manifest, others wouldn’t. I’ve had a lucid dream on the list for three days now and had nothing’s come of it, but other things I didn’t actually have a lot of faith in happened. Trying to figure this out… If you have any suggestions or thoughts, put ‘em in the comments or send me a message!

Try this:

1. Think positive. Do whatever this means for you. My manifestations always come in faster and stronger when I’m in a generally positive mindset. (Generally, I said. Having a sad few days but being generally positive does a lot more good than having a few good days as a hardened pessimist.)

2. Try focus wheels. I can’t say much about them yet but I’m loving the way they help me focus.

3. Keep your intentions focused. In my experience, wanting “a purple pillow with green stripes on it and down filling” is a lot more effective than wanting “a pillow.” It sharpens your mind and tells your subconscious what to look for.

4. Know what you want, then let go of the how. The things you want will show up in crazy, unexpected and awesome ways as soon as you let them.

Final notes:

I’m nowhere near done with this subject. Both manifestations and Law of Attraction are going to show up here again and probably often. If you have any comments, suggestions, recommendations, etc., please leave them in the comments—I’d love some discussion on this!

In the meantime, check out Carrie’s blog. It’s in large part about her experiences with the LoA and it’s great reading besides.

Next challenge: Dejunking

Happy Christmas Eve!

(image by LaserGuided)

Merry Christmas Eve, folks!

Here's your present. I've created a playlist dedicated to just happy-making songs. Feel free to join and add to it! The invite link is here and the playlist link is here (not sure if that one'll work). We're talking not just songs you like, but songs that make you happy, songs that make you want to dance, songs that actually do make you dance... you get the picture. The invite link's also on the side of this page under the links section.

Very Important Stuff

Everyone needs to go read this. Right now.

http://thefunnyandgoodsimplelife.blogspot.com/2009/12/if-you-dont-like-it-you-can-lump-it.html

Happy Solstice!

This has nothing to do with my manifestation goal. It's just awesome.

I was talking over e-mail with a friend and I mentioned that I wished I celebrated more winter holidays, like Chanukkah or Kwanzaa or Festivus or Yule or Advent or something, and she suggested I celebrate Solstice. As Solstice is a celebration of light (like Santka Lucia, which I do celebrate), her family creates snow lanterns and puts candles in them. I thought, naturally, "How freakin' cool is that?!" and decided I would follow suit.

Problem: the snow is almost gone. It's been warm, deliciously so, for the past few days, which left me with a conundrum. Solution: Ice lanterns.

They were really easy to make. I just poured water in a container (here, an old sour cream or cottage cheese one) and then put a smaller container (formerly for yogurt) into the middle to make a place for the candle. I then taped them so the yogurt cups would stay in the center... then later realized that rocks are equally efficient and much easier. They froze overnight, and voila!

Isn't it pretty? I poured hot water on the outside of the containers (and inside the yogurt cups to melt the ice there... it went faster if I rubbed the ice inside but I also kinda felt like I was rubbing to avoid a vampire episiotomy) and it cracked the ice. One of the luminaries broke apart completely and this one got a huge slice out of it. I kinda like it, though. J

What it looks like without the flash; excuse my crappy camera.

The front steps of the house.

And there you have it! Ice luminaries. Happy Solstice!

Lucid Dreaming - #1

Picture by molesarecoming


LUCID DREAMING


Format: 1 week experiment

Goal: Make some progress in the area of lucid dreams. Determine whether progress can really be made on this in a week.

Goal met? Yes!

Terms you should know:

Lucid – awake

Lucid dream – a dream in which the dreamer knows

s/he is dreaming. Sometimes the dreamer will be able to control what’s happening in the dream

Reality check – doing something that will determine whether or not you’re dreaming. In this case, turning on and off a light switch to see if the light changes and trying to put my hands through walls

Dream journal – a written record of dreams

REM cycle – a normal stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movement (Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REM_cycle )

Binaural beats – humming sounds; different tones in each ear combine to create a resonance that alters brainwave patterns

So here’s what happened:

I got started on this challenge quite by accident: I had a lucid dream. I’ve been interested in this for a while and have been doing occasional reality checks for the past month or so. (This particular one involved my turning off a light, saying “Am I dreaming?” out loud and then turning the light back on. The theory is that if you do this enough in waking life, eventually you’ll do it in a dream and it will wake your conscious mind up.) In this dream, I looked at the sun, said, “Am I dreaming?” and looked back. It had changed considerably. I went through a second of “Wait. That’s not normal. So I am dreaming. I’m dreaming? I’m dreaming. Holy crap, I’m DREAMING!” which was exciting. If you get really excited over discovering you’re lucid, you tend to wake up, so I did something I’ve heard keeps you in dreams, namely spinning and trying to change the surroundings. I spun around and thought “Ocean,” and it worked! When the world came back to rights I was near the ocean. Unfortunately I was also standing at the very edge of a cliff, which freaked me out. I lost lucidity at that point but woke up going, “Wow, so that was cool…”

Over the next couple of days I started keeping a dream journal. I’m horrible at keeping these usually, as it takes a long time to write down my dreams, but it does help dream recall so it was worth it. I also went crazy on the reality checks, which actually didn’t seem to help much, except to give me this weird anxious feeling while I was dreaming. I’d actually think, “Okay, now when I sleep, I need to focus on having a lucid dream” while I was dreaming, without ever putting the pieces together, haha.

On Day 4 I did have a lucid dream induced by binaural beats (see below). It was brief and hazy but I was aware I was dreaming and did manage to control the dream. I love flying in dreams so I decided to fly, and ended up teaching some other people how to as well. That was kinda cool! J

Day 5 introduced a problem, however, which screwed up the rest of the week. I came down with a horrible cough and it’s been interrupting my sleep. I couldn’t properly time when I’d be likely to be in REM sleep (which is when dreaming happens) so I didn’t know when to put on the binaural beats.

What I learned: You can totally make progress on this in a week! Less than that, even, and without using thought- and time- consuming techniques. I used intentions, reality checks and binaural beats alone and made a ton of progress. Two lucid dreams in a week and several more non-lucid but vivid dreams is a huge jump forward from the remembering-one-dream-per-week-if-I’m-lucky pace I normally crawl at.

Try this:

1. Keep a dream journal.

2. Visit http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com . It’s a fantastic resource and will tell you everything you need to get started, much more than I could cram into one blog post.

3. Download some binaural beats and put them on a CD or MP3 player. You will need headphones to use these. Simply put, binaural beats are sounds that make your brain start mimicking certain brainwave patterns. Listening to beta waves (which mimic your normal conscious functioning brain) will actually wake your consciousness up while you’re dreaming. You can find some great free ones at http://healingbeats.com and http://www.jetcityorange.com/meditation/binaural-beats.html .

4. Have a clear intention. The more excited you are about having lucid dreams the easier they’ll come to you… at least that’s how it worked for me.

Once you’ve started having lucid dreams you’ll also be able to start playing around with them. You can learn to control your surroundings, do things that aren’t possible in real life, and generally be Super(wo)man.

Next challenge: Simple Manifestations (and maybe some big ones)

Here's the plan

It has been said that some people’s only purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others. Well, I’m stepping up.

Personal development has always interested me, and now I’m going to get up to it in my elbows. I’m an INTJ. We like systems, action and physical results. Given that, what better way to approach my life than through experiments? They probably won’t totally ascribe to the scientific method, but at least my preliminary data will be here in case you want to run a few tests of your own.

My goal here is to live, to experiment and then pass on my findings to you. To jump into the thick of things so you don’t have to—or so you become inspired to. With that in mind, each entry will have a section that’s all about personal application on your end. It’ll contain hints, tips, tricks, insults, insider trading, the wisdom of the Prophets/aliens in the wormhole, spells from Hogwarts, etc. etc. all aimed to make my life a little more relevant to yours.

My goal is to update this blog 1-4 times a week, depending on what’s going on. If I slack off or you just feel like there should be more posts, I invite you to harass me via kjerwitt at gmail dot com. Same address if you’ve got other comments, questions, conversation, recommendations, resources, results, etc.