I was recently having a back and forth with a friend about manifesting.
Specifically, timing.
Time
One of my favorite concepts.
She reminded me that we are not necessarily in charge of the when of something.
Ironically, I was afraid what I was visualizing would manifest before I was ready!
She went on to share a method she employs when working on manifesting.
Show me a Sign
After telling me she is a fan of using signs as a way of validating whether or not she is on the right path she shared a personal take on the method.
From a recent email
“I have always looked for signs. My favorite saying is…If God’s willing! Meaning if my thoughts are to manifest He will have a hand in it!”
The other points she brought up left me feeling better about going forward with a bit of visualization without worrying my life would be turned to chaos because it manifested before I was ready.
All in Good Time
I’m aware many in the manifestation/visualization business have philosophies on the timing of things including phrases that help assure it happens in the best time for all involved. In spite of this I have reason to be cautious.
Past experience!
I was still thinking on it the day after getting the email when I was presented with a decision. Though I knew how I felt about the decision I wanted a bit of cosmic insight, so, I borrowed my friend’s phrase.
“God, if this would be good for our family…please give me a sign”
He did, followed by several subsequent signs, each leading forward until by the end of the day everything was resolved and all involved were happy.
In the days since I’ve thought over the concept of signs and how useful they can be, provided we don’t overly rely on them.
I had a friend long ago who used to see a sign in every shooting star and every coincidence. This led her to make some poor life choices, then justifying it by saying “I asked God to show me a sign and right after I saw a shooting star.” That is not what signs are about.
Someone’s Trying to Tell Me Something
Several years ago I had a rather interesting run-in with signs. It started when I saw a bumper sticker in the parking lot of a store near our home. It read Well behaved women rarely make history. While I thought it catchy I didin’t do anything other than mention it to Aaron.
Told him I thought it amusing.
By the end of the week I had seen that same phrase in several places on a variety of items including t-shirts, plaques, and other bumper stickers. The locations were not near each other so there was no obvious connection.
Other than thinking the universe must want me to see it.
A short while after we met up with my mom and stepdad in San Diego. My stepfather and I were in a tourist shop. Sitting on a shelf near the door was a plaque that read Well behaved women rarely make history.
I laughed and told him the phrase was haunting me.
Over the next six months I kept running into that sign no matter where I went, including other trips to other states!
What Does it All Mean?
Honestly, not much more than an amusing story.
However…
From time to time when feeling anxious about a career decision that phrase will pop into my mind.
I can’t say I always use it as a Go! sign but I do weight the decision through that filter.
Skeptics Invited
When I was in high school I was friends with a guy who was pretty skeptical when it came to anything science couldn’t prove without a doubt.
He was a skeptic but he was also open-minded to the possibility there was more than what could be proved in a lab.
His mom and I used to have some great discussions about the coincidences and signs that had guided us along life’s path.
Neither of us was a skeptic though her husband, an atheist, was.
I was visiting him at college once when he told me a story
His mom, who’d passed away, had given him a gem as a talisman. He was inspired one day to pick it up and state “If this stuff is real have J walk through my door.”
Less than a minute later she did.
He’d been thinking about his mom, about the gem she’d given him, wondering if it was possible what she’d been telling him about the mysteries and wonders of the universe were real.
Statistics
I recognize there are those who will maintain such an event is no more than a coincidence. I don’t agree but it doesn’t matter because it’s about the impact it had on my friend at that moment.
Did it turn him into a believer? I don’t know that so much as he told me it made him feel his mom was close in spirit, looking after him.
If I want to consider whether something is more likely a coincidence than a sign I talk it over with Aaron, who is a math genius.
He and I have had wonderful discussions about statistics and how easily they are manipulated to suggest something exists when it doesn’t.
I lay out data points then ask the statistical likelihood of a specific outcome. It’s a good method to employ
Some may feel it takes the magic out of life but it doesn’t.
Am I On the Path?
Jose Silva developed a method I’ve found to be effective when trying to verify if I’m on the right path.
Or not.
This is different than wondering if I should do something.
I’m in the process of doing it and want to know if I should keep going.
His method, called Mental Video Technique, instructs students to go to level then think over what they are working on.
Go to level means put your mind at the alpha level which is the daydream state.
Mentally review any actions taken in line with what you are trying to accomplish then upload the video confident it has been received and that within 3 days you will receive feedback.
Upload is the idea of turning the images reviewed mentally over to
- Your Higher Power
- Your Guardian Angel
- God
- Universe
for review
He maintained that within 3 days there will be feedback.
- If we are going in the right direction we will get positive feedback
i.e., things become smoother, someone/something that can help will appear
- If we are going in the wrong direction we will get negative feedback
i.e., things become more difficult, roadblocks begin appearing
I used this method in 2000 when Aaron and I were trying to relocate from Michigan.
The previous winter we had 17 consecutive days with no sun and an incredible amount of snow. So much that he and I were standing on our relatively flat roof hip-deep in snow, trying to get it off so it didn’t crash through skylights and/or leak in near the chimney and cause damage the way it was all over the Metro area.
I broke 2 brooms and a shovel because the snow was so heavy.
At one point I looked over to where he was shoveling snow off his side of the roof and said “We live here why?”
Initial efforts suggested God didn’t want us moving from Michigan. Turns out it was where we were looking to move to that was the problem.
At the time we were focused on Arizona since both of us had almost transferred there prior to meeting each other though the idea was to eventually transfer to California.
After getting feedback via the Mental Video Technique – roadblocks galore – I suggested to Aaron maybe we should focus on our first choice, California.
We didn’t think we could afford it so we’d focused on Arizona.
Within two days both of us had job offers.
Two months later we moved to the Bay Area.
While I ended up getting more than I bargained for I don’t regret the transfer.
Many good things happened while we were living there.
Be well!
For more on signs I suggest Robert Moss’ The Three Only Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence, and Imagination.
Post Note: Listening to Reel Around the Sun from Riverdance and realizing that in writing this article I answered a dilemma I’d been dealing with for several months. What sealed it? The Mental Video Method.
Only in my case I wasn’t uploading anything. It was simply a matter of “You know, it’s awfully interesting my life got so difficult after …”
Elizabeth Maxim 