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Tuesday Tips is a weekly collection of ideas that make me feel better about being alive. There are things to do, thoughts to think, emotions to feel and people to be. Whatever you believe is true, and these tips are designed to help convince your mind what your soul already knows.
1. Watch Rainbow Brite and love being alive.
“Everybody’s got a part to play to start each day in a beautiful way.”
2. Bulk delete photos from your iPhone!
Speed up your lifestreaming and help your phone run faster by trashing all your saved pix. No more importing to iPhoto necessary!
3. Don’t care about what anyone else thinks.
Whenever I find myself feeling bad around other people, I ask myself if it’s because I’m caring about what they think. Usually it’s a yes.
4. Rewrite your About page.
Define who you want to be and it’s a lot easier to get what you want. Check out the School of Life Design Lesson 1: Introduction to Life Design if you want help getting started.
5. Don’t feel scared.
Bashar says, “The only thing any of you will ever discover in the unknown is more of you, so what’s to fear?” The Now can feel scary, like an emergency, because often the only time we allow ourselves to experience the Now is during an emergency.
6. Practice the feeling of how you would feel when you weigh what you want.
Do you have some weightloss goal? Why? What is the reason you want to lose weight? Usually it’s because you want to feel light, flexible, free, playful, or confident. Practice feeling those feelings now and your weight will reflect that. Be it, see it!
7. Pretend you’re waking up in someone else’s body.
“Being in the Now” is a mysterious topic, but every day I find new ways to do it. One trick is to look around as if inhabiting your body for the first time. It’s alien as hell!
8. Be home, so the things you want can find you.
Another Bashar gem: “If you’re not living in the present by being who you are, then how can anything that is representative of the vibrations of the things you prefer find you if you’re not home?”
9. Trust the Now.
Trust that it’s perfect, that it’s what you wanted, and that it contains exactly what you need. This moment is a gift, handcrafted specifically for you. Don’t take it for granted.
10. Savor.
The best Twitter advice I read all week was “Savor whatever is in your Now Moment, and you will experience the Flow State.” If I remind myself in each moment to look for something to savor, I find so much that it’s overwhelming. So many of us fear the Now because if we were to all sit around appreciating the beauty of life all day, we’d pretty much all be crying tears of joy and hugging each other. It’s scary to feel such strong love for life, because what happens when the moment is gone? If you’re afraid to savor because it’ll hurt when it’s over, just remember that the next moment will be even better.
Welcome to this week’s edition of Tuesday Tips, a collection of the best-feeling ideas in the world. You don’t have to actually do anything to apply these suggestions to your own life, you only have to consider them with an open mind. Then whenever you need a little nudge in the right direction, the most resonant thoughts will be there to help you.
1. Sit up straight.
Push your shoulders back, tighten your core and be the boss that you are. The flow can’t get through very easily when you’re hunched over.
2. Fill your tank.
Pay attention. When you start noticing your vibration drop, you’ll notice it reflected in all of your reality. Your gas tank will be low. You’ll need to go grocery shopping. Your home will be messy. You’ll be tired. Even if you don’t want to deal with all the lack, even if you start getting nervous about how to pay for everything, just FILL YOUR TANK. Buy the groceries. Clean the house. Keep the momentum going. Don’t wait to run out of gas before you tend to your mood.
3. Stop trying too hard.
Let it come to you. Give up. Let go. If there is something you want to happen in this moment, stop thinking about it by counting in your head.
4. Tell a different story.
Listen to what you’re saying, in your thoughts or out loud. Are you telling it how it is, or how you want it to be?
5. Say yes.
Then look for evidence that saying yes will pay off. Try it as a game. Say yes to something you wouldn’t normally say yes to, then be on the lookout for surprisingly awesome situations. For more inspiration, watch Yes Man!
6. Get life design tips from other people.
Emma Wilson asks the SoLD group, “what is the most valuable lesson you have learned this week?”
7. Program your thoughts.
Make it easier to think the thoughts you want to think by taking time each day to write down the thoughts you want to be thinking. I like to think of lifestreaming as my programming language. It’s my source code—the code I use to talk to source energy.
8. Think of the best praise and highest compliment you’ve ever received.
Alyssa reminds us in the School of Life Design group that praise is especially important when we have trouble believing in ourselves.
9. What’s the most memorable piece of advice you’ve ever received?
If it’s still with you, it’s probably still relevant. I always remember my dad telling me “pay attention!” which I now realize to be integral to maintaining my mood. And every time I get stressed out, I hear him saying “relax!” What words have always stayed with you?
10. Aim to count to 10,000 every day.
Your ability to focus on counting is a litmus test of how much your thoughts are controlling you. If you can count to 10,000 in a day, I promise it will be the best day of your life! Apparently the founder of Second Life tries to count to 10,000 every day too.
11. Don’t make a decision if you’re feeling bad.
Often people will ask you to do things when you aren’t in the best mood. Instead of answering “no” on the spot, just tell them you’ll think about it. Then go get in a good mood and the right decision will come to you.
12. Don’t feel bad for wanting what you want.
Let yourself have it. Don’t deny your Self. Even if you don’t think you should have it, go for it. Saying yes to your most exciting desires is how to walk your optimal path.
13. Project certainty and others will listen.
When you know what you want with 100% certainty, don’t ask someone if it’s a good idea or if they want to do it. TELL THEM what you are doing and they’ll be more likely to join. When you ask someone “do you want to do this?” you’re saying, “am I sure I want to do this?”
14. Stop feeling paranoid by understanding that you can change the past.
You never have to worry if you blew out the candle or turned off the stove if you can change the past by changing your present.
15. Be impulsive.
Take risks and trust your gut. If you’re nervous or scared, remember anxiety is excitement with the brakes on! As Bashar says, “If you always act on the thing that contains the most excitement at every given moment to the best of your ability with zero expectation as to what the outcome ought to be, you will be walking the optimal path no matter how it looks.”
16. Lighten up.
None of this is serious. We’re just here to have fun. Smile, take a deep breath and say “fuck it!”
17. Know that everything is working out for everyone.
Love actually is all around!
I love remembering that the meaning of life as I currently know it is simple: ask and it is given. We’re here to enjoy being alive, not struggle with endless, painful, secret desires and overwhelming, nagging, illogical worries. Life experience causes us to have desires, and when those desires are launched, source energy creates them. Anything you can imagine is not only possible, but already exists. Have the desire, and the desire becomes real.
Accessing the manifestation of those desires is a learning process. Finding the formula for living the lives we want to live is the eternal task of the living. Through the filter of “ask and it is given,” the formula is simple. Think about what you want, and then believe it will be given to you.
What does it mean to believe it will be given to you? It means to have 100% certainty that your desired manifestation is on the way, so you act like you already have it. For example, you may have 100% certainty that you’ll get a paycheck every two weeks, so you behave accordingly. You might not have the money to spend right this instant, but you can still spend the money you already have, because you trust there is more coming.
How do we act “as if” when we don’t yet have 100% certainty? We figure out how it feels, otherwise known as “practicing the feeling.” If you don’t know the feeling of riding a bike, you keep practicing riding until you get it. Learning to ride a bike is the same exact thing as learning to practice the feeling of having what you want.
An exercise I love to do every few weeks is to redefine my desires. I ask myself, “what do I truly want?” And then I ponder the desires behind the physical manifestations I want. I want money, but why? I want success, but why? I want those things because they will produce a specific feeling.
Exercise: What Do I Truly Want?
To practice the feeling of having what you want, try this simple exercise. Write about what you want in each major life category, and then ponder the feeling you want behind the physical manifestation. Afterwards, collect the “feelings” and turn them into affirmations. Focus all of your energy on feeling those feelings, day and night. Forget about the physical manifestations, and don’t take action to try to make them happen. Just feel the way you think you’ll feel when you get them, and you’ll have what you want without the manifestation. This is how you “act as if” or train yourself into believing what you ask for is already yours.
My example is below.
What Do I Truly Want?
Body/health
To be thin and svelte and look smokin in a bikini while playing at the Springs. I want to feel free and light and playful.
Money
To never worry about money. To have enough to buy anything I want. To trust I will always have what I need. To feel secure and like I’m taken care of. Like I’m loved. I want to be a millionaire because I want to feel loved.
Relationships
To be part of a family in a deep, sensual and thrilling way. I want to feel invested in and committed to my reality. I want to feel like I’m part of something bigger. I want to feel like every day is filled with excitement and thrills. Going boldly where no one has gone before. Exploring. Taking risks. Taking the risk of being vulnerable and reaching out with love. Taking the risk of giving love. Feeling the flow with multiple people at once. Like playing on a team.
Work
To be the best lifestreamer in the world and to lead by example. I want to feel with 100% certainty that the work I do is the work I came to this reality to do. I want to feel 100% confidence in myself.
Love
To love and support my partner in every way possible. To give my all to those closest to me. To find new ways to show my love. To open up more and more. To see the perfection in my partner. To see the best in my partner. To create new worlds with my partner. To be one with my partner and yet retain my uniqueness and independence. To let my partner give to me. To let myself receive. To help my partner receive the gifts I give her. I want to feel supportive and supported. I want to feel generous and receptive.
Affirm that you feel the way you want to feel already.
- I feel free and light and playful.
- I feel loved.
- I feel the flow with everyone around me.
- I feel like I’m on the same team as everyone else, part of something bigger than myself.
- I feel excited and thrilled.
- I feel bold, confident and spontaneous.
- I feel 100% certainty about every decision.
- I feel love and generosity towards those around me.
- I feel open, receptive, and uplifting.
Welcome to Tuesday Tips, the most fabulous collection of conscious ideas in all of Internetlandia. I have a stellar lineup of thoughts to provoke, inspire and move you to the next level. Align your actions, thoughts, emotions and being with the vibration of your true Self and enjoy the current of ecstatic energy flowing through you!
1. Collect every compliment you receive on the work that matters to you most.
I started printing out the positive feedback I get on my lifestream and taping it to my desk, right at eye level. The more I allow myself to accept compliments, the more I receive. It’s becoming easy to visualize my whole work area covered in kind words! Every day it gets easier to have faith in my work. I am so grateful for the support. Thank you.
2. Check out the School of Life Design Facebook group.
With 117 dazzling members, the SoLD group is bustling with love, advice, and fun! Get feedback on your web presence, discuss the place of drugs in your life, ask questions about specific problems, or just sit back and let the positive vibrations soak in.
3. Give your work away for free!
Then when you need something for free, you’ll get it! I always label my photos on Flickr as “Attribution Creative Commons” on my licensing preference page so anyone can use them. Now my photos are used all the time to illustrate various articles and blogs around the web. I not only get to see my photos actually IN USE, but I get tons of traffic from them too.
4. Make money off your music, movie and iPhone app recommendations.
I signed up with Linkshare to become an Apple affiliate. With Linkshare, I can generate links to apps, music, movies and more through the iTunes store, and every time someone makes a purchase using my link, I get a 5% cut. You can also generate links for other products and advertisers. Passive income FTW!
5. Focus your attention with lifestreaming.
Guide your life experience by publishing your photos, videos, music, writing, everything! Your attention is a constantly flowing stream of creative power. Lifestreaming is a way to consciously direct that power. It doesn’t matter one bit what you’re focusing on, all that matters is how you feel when you’re doing it. If you’re focusing your attention on negative thoughts, you’re creating more negative thoughts for your future self to deal with. If you’re focusing your attention on all the great things going on around you (even if they seem boring because you take them for granted), at LEAST you’re creating more great things to go on around you in the future!
6. Focus your attention with writing.
Writing is a particularly powerful form of lifestreaming, especially at night when you’re tired and losing focus. Just write. The more you practice, especially when you’re not tired, the faster and easier it becomes to get your focus back. It’s like a cure for insomnia and every other disorder in the world. Just direct your thoughts. Just smile, breathe, relax your shoulders and write about what you’re grateful for. If you’re in the habit of feeling good when you write, eventually the association becomes stronger and you start feeling good faster. (Want to start your lifestream today?!)
7. Write your job description.
You can have any job you want. But do you know what you want? Start creating the position of your dreams by filling out the following: Company, Location, Field, Job Functions, Job Level, Job Description, Specific Skills, and Rate.
8. Write your commandments.
Make up your own rules to life. Write your personal commandments, your creative commandments, and your relationship commandments.
9. Stop feeling guilty about buying media and not consuming all of it.
When you buy books, movies or music, don’t feel bad if you don’t read, watch or listen to the whole thing. You’ll still get whatever you need out of it—perhaps an idea, a new direction, or a pivot thought. It only takes a single moment to become inspired!
10. Take a placebo trip.
Practice the feeling of enlightenment. Block off 8-12 hours where you don’t have any responsibilities, your phone is in airplane mode, and you’re extremely comfortable. Consume something symbolic—a vitamin, a special brew of tea, or even a sugar cube. Then sit down and wait patiently for 30-45 minutes, looking for signs of altered consciousness. You will amaze yourself.
11. Feel better instantly with silent counting.
I’ve talked about it many times before, and I bring it up again because it always works. If you feel trapped in a negative thought pattern, just start counting in your head. Focus all of your attention on the numbers. You’ll feel better long before reaching 100.
12. Meditate every day.
Meditation is how I manage anxiety and racing thoughts. Even if I keep thinking during it, my thoughts still slow and 15 minutes of stillness always gives me a new perspective. It stops me from feeling rushed and always gives me more time. If you don’t feel like doing it one day, try doing it lying down in bed. 15 minutes of quiet a day is a small price to pay for peace in the rest of your life.
13. Be open and have faith.
The flow is always trying to get through. Just say yes to whatever your current reality is. Just say yes. Be open to the gifts the universe is trying to give you. It won’t come in a form you expect! You’ll be feeling bad, and you won’t want anything to do with the opportunity just presented. Maybe your friend will ask you to do something, or your partner will suggest going somewhere. Say yes! That’s the flow trying to give you a gift, trying to help you feel better! Trust that whatever just showed up, showed up at the perfect time, just when you needed it.
Traditionally, Tuesday Tips is a collection of ideas that make living life easier and more fun. But that makes a pretty silly assumption—that we need to think or work at all to make life easy and fun. Let’s go straight to the truth: life already is easy and fun. Now what? What do Tuesday Tips look like when we’re already enjoying our lives to the hilt? We celebrate them!
1. Celebrate yourself.
You’re already perfect. You’re already doing everything right. You’re right on time. You’re so loved. You are connected to everyone and you have infinite power. You’re a glorious individual perspective who won the lottery the day you were born. Put that shit online! Take pictures of yourself! Go hard! Express yourself! Let it all out! Be loud and be proud! Start a lifestream! Write a book! Make some art! Show the world your perfection. It flows out of you effortlessly!
2. Give yourself positive feedback.
Write yourself a love letter. Give yourself the positive feedback you crave. Once you do, it will start pouring from everywhere.
3. Pay yourself.
Don’t feel like thinking? Make money in your head. Practice silently counting as high as you can go, and then imagine you just effortlessly made that much money. How does that change your day? Do you approach your job and errands the same way, knowing you made that much money so easily? It really can come that easily with a little practice. Be it, see it!
4. Feel the way you want to feel.
Danielle Laporte’s post on “how do you want it all to feel?” really made an impact on me last week. It’s the most effective way I’ve found to attract experiences that make me feel the way I want to feel. I want today to feel like a sunny camping trip in southern Illinois with all my best friends!
5. Breathe.
If you ever get caught up in thoughts and forget about your inherent perfection, you can instantly tether yourself back into the Now by breathing consciously. (Try practicing with Pranayama.) Observe the flow of your breath and allow yourself to return to the present moment. Life really is easy. Let go of everything and let life love you. We all love you! Happy Valentine’s Day!
Tuesday Tips is a weekly strategy guide to the game of life. Strengthen your character by doing things that make you feel good, gain manifestation powers by directing your thoughts, attract the experiences you want by projecting the emotions you want to feel, and level up by just being you. Let’s play!
1. Support art and your art will support you.
If you want people to patronize your work, patronize theirs. Look for the value in what everyone’s creating around you. When you invest in someone else’s work, you encourage them to make more and do better, which in turn will inspire you to do the same.
2. Lifestream.
Documenting my experiences as often as I can has become the easiest access point to the Now that I’ve found this week. I release my thoughts and experiences as they come and don’t think about them much, because I’m always in the Now looking for new things to stream. It’s like literally streaming my head off—my mind is something I continually shed. Weird, and awesome.
3. Get what you want in real time.
Think about what you want, then stop thinking until you get it or forget it. Try it. It works. 100% guaranteed.
4. Win an argument.
If you want to win an argument, stop talking and stop thinking until you either win or forget. Also 100% guaranteed.
5. Stop reminiscing.
Even if memories of an experience make you feel good, they’re still pulling you outside of the Now. If you make a decision to stop thinking about the past, when you’re in the moment you’ll make a lot more effort to enjoy it because you know you won’t be thinking about it later.
6. Feel inspired.
When you can’t feel inspiration, meet it halfway. Take any sort of deliberate action to shake things up. Go for a walk, buy a book, or start a new hobby. As soon as you get caught up in the moment long enough to forget you’re not inspired, you’ll be inspired.
7. Go to bed feeling good.
You’ll have good dreams and you’ll wake up feeling as good as you did when you went to sleep. It makes it so much easier to get in an increasingly better mood every day, instead of having to start over every morning.
8. Trust your gut.
It’s always right. If you can’t make a decision, quiet your mind by counting or breathing and ask for the answer. You’ll hear it every time.
9. Feel the way you want to feel.
Danielle Laporte wrote this amazing article about choosing how you want your experiences to feel. Take the time to think about each segment of your day, then set an emotional intention. It WORKS! Here are some of her examples:
I want my money-making to feel like walking though a vineyard, surveying ripeness, a production of sun and earth for craft and pleasure.
I want my word to feel like gold bullion.
I want my laughter to feel like electric pineapple children.
I want the end of the day to feel like a happy quiet baby.
10. Effortlessly lift your mood.
Combine this mantra with deep breathing: “Breathe in and raise your vibration. Breathe out and release your resistance.”
11. Look pretty and be pretty.
Get a photo-timer app for your phone (I use this one) and photograph yourself doing mundane tasks. Smile while you do it. You’ll be instantly transported to the Now, where you’ll enjoy your task and create lifestream content while you’re at it.
12. Let life take the driver’s seat.
The more you let go, the more it flows. Make feeling good your only job and let life take care of the rest! It’s easy if you allow it to be.
Tuesday Tips is a weekly collection of ideas that make living life more fun. Explore ways to channel your energy, gain power over your mind, feel like a million trillion bucks, and be the perfect badass you know you are.
1. Look for evidence of your power.
If you haven’t had a lot of practice with manifestation, now’s the time to start! The easiest way to begin noticing the power of your focus is by looking for synchronous times on clocks. Look for 11:11, 12:34, 3:33, etc, then watch as every glance at the clock becomes synchronous. Then try cars! Pick a few of your favorite cars and intend to see them on the road. (I love seeing Hummers!) As soon as you start looking for them, your favorite cars will show up at the most serendipitous times.
2. Write!
On page 50 of Design Writing Research by Ellen Lupton and Abbott Miller, there’s an essay on the idea that writing is an extension of the body. “It is a physical by-product, a material trace of human activity [...] It is also akin to hair, finger nails, and the surface of the skin—each is a part of the body that is continually regenerated yet biologically dead, detachable, disposable.” In essence, writing is another form of bodily excrement, like blood, sweat, semen, and saliva. Get it out of you!
3. I made it!
Try using the mantra “I made it.” Think about what that implies. On one hand, it means succeeding at a goal or endeavor. On the other, it means “I created this.” Same thing, right?
4. See your mind and body as one.
If your body is tense, it’s a physical manifestation of your mind resisting. Margo in the School of Life Design group helped me understand that “since the mind and body are one, you can always tell how you are mentally by how you feel physically.” If you’re tense, you’re resisting. If you’re relaxed, you’re allowing. Margo also reminded me that silent counting is an immediate way to go from resisting to allowing.
5. Stop resisting.
There were lots of other great ideas on releasing resistance in the above thread. Jenny’s is spot on!
Sometimes when I am walking or in the car and I am getting worked up and resisting and not in the present… I stop and pretend that the whole world is a movie set just for me. I look for all the awesome details like the quirky old guy walking with huge headphones on and the precious little purple flower sticking up from a crack in the concrete. I think to myself ‘Yes!! This is awesome! This I all here for ME! This world is full of beautiful things for me to enjoy!’
6. Find the best feeling you can feel.
Danielle Laporte has a great advice-tweet: “What would feel really, really, good to feel? Intend to feel that way.” Essentially, picture feeling the best you can feel, and choose that feeling now.
7. Practice the feeling of freedom on your bike.
Kelly and I started commuting to work via bicycle last week. The 16-mile round trip joy ride through Austin reminds me of how much freedom I have. I can go anywhere, see anything, do whatever I want! And on a bicycle, I get to luxuriate in the scenery and people-watching, and I feel so much more willing to make stops along the adventure because I don’t have to worry about parking. Six months later, I am so happy to call myself a cyclist again!
8. What does 100% certainty feel like?
In a lucid dream, you can only “make things happen” if you have 100% certainty that you can. The same goes for waking life. Practice that feeling of knowing and you’ll find yourself feeling that same certainty about more and more things you want to manifest.
9. Listen to Halcyon’s morning blessing as soon as you wake up.
I find it hardest to direct my thoughts first thing in the morning. Often, I’ve forgotten all the good-feeling thoughts I collected the day before. Halcyon’s 12-minute morning blessing meditation has made my mornings so much easier and more blissful, I can’t recommend it enough. Don’t judge it in the afternoon or evening, because it won’t have the same effect. Just try it one morning when you’re not feeling as good as you want to, and listen the whole way through. By the end you’ll have tears of joy streaming down your face, I guarantee it!
10. Sleep more.
It’s ok. The world will wait. Everything feels better when you’re getting enough sleep, and nothing matters more than how you feel.
11. Surrender to the ability to receive.
In Halcyon’s morning blessing, he reminds us to “let go of the drive to achieve, and surrender to the ability to receive.” The things you want will come effortlessly if you allow them to. Let them come to you. Know that they’re all coming. Relax and bask in the Now. There is nothing you can do to get the things you want. It is an emotional journey every single time. Choose to feel good and enjoy this moment right now, and you will open yourself up to the gifts from the universe.
12. See your life through the eyes of god.
Tell yourself “I love you, you’re doing great.” And tell everyone around you the same thing.
Tuesday Tips: 15 Ways to Listen to What Life is Telling You
2012 January 17
Tuesday Tips is a weekly roundup of ideas that feel good. Each week, it gets a little easier to work with the flow of life instead of struggling against it. Give yourself a push downstream by realigning your actions, thoughts, feelings and being with the person you know you are.
1. If you don’t want to do it right now, don’t do it.
Listen to your Self. When you feel a strong aversion to doing things, it’s ok to not do them. Take the time to ponder what you would rather be doing instead, and if at all possible, do that!
2. When the option is to pay-what-you-can, genuinely PAY WHAT YOU CAN.
You will only receive the value you invest. If you think something is worth $1, you’ll get $1 of quality. If you think it’s worth $100, you’ll get that much quality. It’s whatever you want to perceive. So give big and receive big!
3. If you feel bad, exercise.
If you’re bored, exercise. If you want to get high, exercise. If you don’t know how to feel good, exercise. Often we simply have stagnant energy trapped in our bodies that a little movement can shake right out. For an easy but intense at-home workout, try jump rope. It’s just like a flow toy—you can see it illustrate your thoughts. When you stop thinking, the flow will do the jumping for you and it will seem effortless.
4. Set your universal alarm clock.
Set your alarm for the latest you can wake up, but then ask the universe to wake you early, feeling rested. Then you aren’t forcing yourself awake before you’re ready with an alarm, and the perfect timing of life gets a chance to wake you when you’re ready. Or, you’ll get up at the last possible moment, getting plenty of sleep.
5. The flow will lead you to the substance, don’t look to the substance for the flow.
Learn how to feel good without external help. Then when you’re feeling really good and you have the opportunity to partake, you’ll know it’s the right time. You’ll be doing it for fun, not to make yourself feel better.
6. When writing for an audience, write as little as possible.
Condense, distill and clarify your ideas. People want to hear what you have to say, but they simply don’t have time to read five pages of text in one blog post. Good design is what you take away, not what you add.
7. That being said, rewrite your About page!
Crafting an About page for the person you want to be is one of the best ways to become that person. You don’t have to be certain what you want there, you just have to start. Write anything. It will help you know what you want better. Write things the best you can imagine them and then keep going deeper. It can be a total lie in terms of your current reality. Just write it for fun, as if you had what you wanted. “I’m a famous Hollywood actress and I spend my time traveling the world to promote contact juggling” or whatever comes to you. See this article or this one for more details and examples.
8. Say yes.
When you say yes to the things bothering you, you allow them to pass by in the flow. For example: feeling like you ate too much. You can say “No, I ate too much,” essentially focusing on the food in you, making a big deal of it, keeping it in one place, holding onto it like a tree branch while you’re in a raft on a raging river. When you say “Yes, I love food. Yes, I wanted that. Yes, I’m happy to be fed and nourished,” the food can move along in the flow, and say “Well, my job here is done.” It doesn’t bother you, it doesn’t stagnate in your body, it isn’t trapped by your resistant “no.” Just say yes. To everything. It’s all a gift. All of it.
9. Practice the feeling of being recognized.
If you want to be recognized for your work, recognize yourself. Recognize all that you do every day. Recognize the miracle of your life. Recognize the miracle of breath. Recognize all you’ve done so far, how far you’ve come. Recognize what you know: that you are already perfect and you don’t have to do anything to become more whole.
10. Tell yourself “I love you” in the mirror, over and over until you cry.
It’ll feel so good, I promise.
11. Appreciate your job.
If you didn’t have someone else telling you what to do and when to do it, you would have no desire to do anything else. The value of someone else giving you a timeline and schedule is that it forces you to experience contrast, which causes you to have new desires. Use the pressure of time to keep your creative focus.
12. Focus on your breathing.
Like Astrojax, your breath is a flow toy. It is an active illustration of your thoughts. When you focus on your breathing, you are stopping thought, and your breath will make you feel good. When you focus on negativity, your breath will illustrate this by becoming short, rapid, or uncomfortable. You can either change your thoughts (difficult to do!) and watch your breath follow, or you can change your breath (easy to do!) and your thoughts will follow.
13. Let go of your expectations.
Your expectations are what you think is going to happen. But when you let go of your expectations and allow the universe to surprise you, much bigger things than you could ever imagine will occur. Give up the need to know the outcome, and enjoy the Now. Danielle Laporte has a useful prayer for expectation addicts, and a later post wherein she confirms the strategy with “This ‘giving up expectations’ shit really works.” She’s 100% right. Success will come when you least expect it, because it means you’ve released the thought pattern of “I am not successful.”
14. When you are in pain, or overwhelmed with negative thoughts, ask your Self for guidance.
If you are attempting to make a decision to try to feel better (“Will coffee make me feel better? A drink? A smoke? A nap?”), just ask your Self. If you can actually listen to the answer (you will hear it), just say yes. Do whatever your Self says. Your Self always knows what you should do. Just listen and you’ll be on the ride to feeling good again. Whatever your Self tells you to do, your mind will resist. Say yes anyway. Keep saying yes.
15. You can have whatever you want, just listen.
What you project into the world (thoughts, feelings, words and actions) is your vibration, and what you experience as your reality is a physical interpretation of your vibration. When you change the vibration you project, your reality will change to reflect that. Listen to what your reality is telling you. Your reality is reflecting the signal you are projecting, and when you pay attention, you can access the clues life is giving you. Once you learn to read your own vibration by observing your thoughts, emotions and physical world, you can change your vibration, and change your reality. Eventually you’ll be able to play your vibration like a musical instrument, creating your reality in flow just like playing a solo on the guitar.
Tuesday Tips: 13 Ways to Stay Caught Up in the Flow of 2012
2012 January 3
Tuesday Tips is a weekly collection of shortcuts to feeling good. Explore ways to harness your creative power by taking action, directing your thoughts, practicing feeling the way you want to feel, and stopping thought altogether to let your natural state of well being shine.
1. Rearrange the energy in your home for major manifestations.
Bring about big change by optimizing your living area. Donate or sell as many possessions as you can, clean up all the dust bunnies, and clear out big spaces to move in. Kelly and I finally cleared out our living room to be a gallery space and play room, which at long last gave us an excuse to record another Astrojax video.
2. Take as many photos as possible to find the gems.
Great photographers aren’t great because they take the perfect shot every time; they succeed because they take so many photos. Next time you take your digital camera out for a stroll, resolve to fill your memory card. The more photos you take, the more diamonds you find. On Christmas Kelly and I took 378 photos but only 16 made the cut.
3. Just start saying things are how you want them to be.
Eventually, I promise you, they will be. But you have to start telling the story now. If you want something, just say you have it already. Your mind is easily fooled.
4. Does anything else in your life feel like…?
I’ve mentioned this before, and it’s worth discussing again. Whenever you hear someone complaining of a malady or circumstance, ask her if anything else in her life feels the same way. She may be surprised at your question, but it will definitely get her thinking. Whatever emotion we feel is reflected back to us in every area of our lives, so when you feel irritation, you are likely thinking irritating thoughts about other things.
5. Don’t second guess your decisions.
After you make a decision (for example, a Facebook status update), don’t overthink it. Instead of thinking “should I have posted that?” think “I am so happy I did that.” Put your mind at ease!
6. Write a bucket list.
I made a list of things I want to do before I die. It really helped me figure out exactly what I want. You can only get what you want if you know what you want!
7. Create your Master Mind Group.
In Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill suggests creating a Master Mind Group, a committee of advisors to consult on business and life decisions. The group can be people you already know, celebrities, or dead people. Whenever you make a business decision, picture asking your committee their opinion. What would your mentors, muses and inspirations tell you to do? It can often help you gain confidence in decision-making. My committee? Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, and Drake!
8. Practice the feeling of strength.
We have one of those pull up bars that goes over a door frame, and Kelly started adding one pull up each day to her routine. She must be on 10 or so right now, and it inspired me to try pull ups myself. I’m still working on managing one, but I try to do one more “attempt” every day. The feeling of aching muscles reminds your mind of your strength, which carries over into other areas of your life.
9. Be your own #1 fan.
When I was feeling rather critical of myself, I asked Kelly what I should do. She suggested “being my own #1 fan.” She said to picture all the people who love and admire me, and imagine what they would say. No one else would ever be so harsh on me! Keep your perspective of the bigger picture by remembering that you truly are perfect the way you are. You can’t scrutinize every brush stroke in a painting as it’s being painted; often the strokes that look the most awkward turn out to be the happiest accidents. Try not to criticize tiny details, because the bigger picture of you is already perfect. You’re doing the best you can, and that’s all you can do.
10. Send your thank you cards!
Feel the feeling of getting the gift again, practice the feeling of gratitude, ensure future gifts!
11. Pretend you’re in Vegas.
When Kelly and I visited Vegas, we allowed ourselves to completely follow our intuition. We abandoned all plans and notions of what we should do, and let our feelings guide us. Every decision had to be a “fuck yeah!!” or it was a “hell no!” I want to live my whole life that way!
12. Meditate, don’t medicate.
The other day, I had a freaky asthma flare up that had me in a bit of a panic. I had no inhaler or other medication, and it was the middle of the night. Kelly had us meditate and after a few minutes of focused breathing, my symptoms began to subside. I know in my heart the breathing difficulties are just me feeling like I can’t catch my breath in general—2012 is moving so fast! The more I let my mind rest, the easier it is to stay in the flow.
13. Allow.
Stop resisting and begin allowing. At any point say “I’m allowing this,” or “I allow myself to feel good.” Anything you want, just say you allow it. I allow well being. I allow myself to feel the way I want to feel. I allow myself to nap. I allow myself to rest. I allow myself to feel good anyway. I allow that person to live their life the way they want. I allow myself to relax. I allow this moment to feel good. I allow myself to receive the gifts the universe is trying to give me. I allow myself to have what I want. It feels so much better to allow than resist, and when you say yes to the life around you, the life around you says yes to you.
Tuesday Tips is a weekly compilation of new perspectives in conscious living. The “Thinking” section explores methods for thinking about what you want, the “Feeling” section provides suggestions for practicing the feeling of having what you want, and the “Being” section is about stopping thought altogether and allowing yourself to embrace the Now.
1. Define your morning ritual.
Flow through your day by deciding what you want first thing in the morning. Check out this thread in the School of Life Design Facebook group for ideas.
2. Tell a silly story
Life Story is a one page PDF that helps you write the story of your life. Figure out what you want, then create new thought patterns that affirm your desire. First you write what you want in past tense, so you can start talking as if you already have it. Then you write three milestones that occur on the way to your manifestation, to help make it believable that you’ll reach your goal. The sillier, more surreal or absurd the milestones are, the less resistance you may have to reaching them. Try writing a story about how you manifested a bunch of money, and use milestones like “the first sign the trick was working was when I saw a money tree.” You may have less resistance to such a whimsical indicator.
3. Set intentions as often as you can
Often I’ll consume something and wonder how it will affect me. My new method is to decide how I want it to affect me first. For example, I used to make coffee and think “I wonder if this will feel good.” Now as I make coffee I set an intention: “I want this to give me a smooth burst of energy.” Think about what you want before doing anything and you’ll be much more likely to get it.
4. Practice the feeling of abundance by supporting local artists
If you’re an artist or designer of any kind, you probably have things you want to sell. Give what you want to receive by patronizing artists you love, and the universe will return the favor down the road. Looking for work to support? My brother and his girlfriend just launched the greeting card company Balena Prints, which makes exquisite linoleum-stamped art. They gave us two gorgeous sets of cards for Christmas, pictured at the top.
5. Practice feeling good about your body
If the holidays have you feeling a little critical of your body, check out this thread in the School of Life Design Facebook group. Practice loving your body and it will show you more things to love.
6. Practice being transparent to irritations
When something annoying is occurring, like a dog barking, imagine that you are transparent and the sound passes right through you. Use this visualization with minor annoyances and when bigger things happen you’ll be much better at rolling with the punches.
7. Be kind no matter what
Your kindness will always be reflected back to you, even if it seems like people aren’t being receptive. Be kind to the driver who cuts you off. Be kind to your partner who is being mean. Be kind to the impatient person in line at the store. All of these people want the same thing you do—to be loved. Even though it may drive you crazy to be kind to someone who isn’t, that kindness will make the recipient want to be kind. Be the leader and the one to show kindness first.
8. Pretend you’re at a lock-in
If you have trouble staying put in the Now, pretend that you’re stuck wherever you are for the night, like at a lock-in. It’s like being trapped in a snow storm or tornado warning—there isn’t much you can do other than make the best of it. Make believe you’re trapped wherever you are and then look for ways to enjoy it.
9. Play Sorry!
I’ve been practicing my silent counting, which is pretty much the most effective method for pivoting away from negative thoughts I’ve found. The other day Kelly and I played the board game Sorry! with my sister and her boyfriend, which involves a lot of counting and little else. It was super relaxing and a way to enjoy counting with other people.
10. Get in a board game flow
That game of Sorry! was the first board game I’ve played since discovering the concept of flow. I realized that board games are an easy, low-pressure way to get in the flow with other people. Board games are actually fun when you decide to be in the moment and feel the rhythm of life behind the play.
11. Make peace with what is
If you find yourself impatient to leave where you are, try to stop resisting and enjoy it. Smokers often joke that the only way to get a bus to come is to light a cigarette, because when you light that cigarette you’re deciding to enjoy where you are instead of anxiously looking for ways to escape. Wherever you are, look for things to enjoy about it, and then what you really want can come.
12. Realize everything in your reality is there just for you
Everything around you is a gift. Every status update your crush makes, every song you hear on the radio, every word in a conversation that you hear is crafted specifically for you. When you see a performance, that moment was created for you. When you watch a tv show, know that it was made just for you. You won the lottery when you born, and every minute detail in your experience is part of your prize. Say thank you and accept what the universe is trying to give you. Enjoy the show!
