Power-up Appreciation
My newest novel goes on sale today, and I’ve shifted from four months of writing, rewriting, polishing and proofing, to thoughts of selling. Force of habit.
I’d been planning to hold off releasing it until Tuesday September 4th, because everybody knows a Tuesday release has the best chance of hitting a big list. And because that’s the first Tuesday the astrologers say is okay. And because all the experts agree that a monthlong or longer pre-order period will maximize velocity of sales during opening week.
But then I grabbed hold of myself, recognizing that I was thinking in terms of making things happen rather than allowing them to happen.
I went outside to meditate. To silence my mind, and open my connection to Source to update my inner software with the latest downloads. In other words, to get aligned.
At first I thought: I’ll meditate with my eyes open, because appreciation is even better than meditation and I can appreciate better with my eyes open.
So I sat by the pond, and gazed at the green-blue water, and the lily pads, and the koi swimming lazily, sunning themselves. I looked up at the waterfall, and listened to the stream babble, and said, to myself, this is good.
And it’ll be even better when I yank those weeds up there.
I think I want fruit trees all along the borders of the driveway. And that nasty looking ditch filled in.
And all that crap in front of hubby’s garage needs to be moved out of sight. I mean honestly, why is so much stuff over there?
Oh, wait. I’m not aligned at all, am I?
Soooo, I decided to meditate with my eyes closed instead, realizing now why it’s the recommended method. We don’t tend to look at things without judging, and a judging mind is never silent. Pretty or ugly? Perfect or in need of improvements? Desired or undesired?
So I closed my eyes, and counted my breaths in time with a repetitive tune that indicates when to breathe in and when to breathe out just by a chord change. I turned the volume very low, because I wanted to hear the babbling of the nearby water.
Instantly, I sank into bliss. It usually takes a while, but not today. Within seconds, I was in perfect alignment with my higher self, in a state of calm and deep gratitude and absolute presence, with a quiet, open mind. I heard the stream, babbling where it tumbled into the pond. And father up, the sounds of each successive mini waterfall all the way upstream, to the big waterfall at the top.
And suddenly, a warm tidal wave of emotion swept over me. This is just what I’ve always wanted.
I could open my eyes then, I knew I’d stay aligned. So I did, and I gazed at the perfect, tropical looking teal water, and the koi, and how content and satisfied they always seem, how much they love it there. I looked up the stream to my Thai Princess statue and all the flowers and shrubs I’ve been planting. I looked at my perfect half circle of lemon thyme, that smells like heaven, surrounding a seated Teppanom sculpture. I looked up at my waterfall.
Suddenly I thought, what if I’d never seen this before? What if my back yard was what it used to be—big, wide, and weedy, with a little mud-hole at the bottom where the dogs liked to chase froggies?
What if it was still that, and what if one day, someone said, “Surprise!” and waved a magic wand, and it was suddenly this.
What if I was the one who waved the magic wand?
The feeling that washed over me then was an appreciation so deep and so strong that tears flowed and my chest clutched up. Look what I made, I thought. Look what I did. Me. I did this.
I did this with my stories, with my words, but mainly, with my alignment. I sat out there in that state of bliss beyond bliss, loving my back yard in a whole new way, a more powerful way. Loving it as if I was seeing it for the first time. It was an intense experience.
After a while my tears of joy dried. I had a new understanding of the meaning of appreciation. It was, or at least it could be, far more powerful than simply basking in all we have. It can be seeing our blessings as if for the first time. It can be feeling as if they appeared, full blown in a puff of purple smoke and glitter, so that we can experience the magic they truly represent.
We didn’t have them, and we wanted them, and now we have them. That’s magic. That’s creating reality. That’s god-power right there. You want to conjure a feeling THAT GOOD, about something other than the goal. This good.
A state of appreciation that intense is the perfect vibrational match to everything else that will bring us the same feelings. Things like, I don’t know, winning an Oscar, falling in love, hitting the lottery. THAT kind of thrilling appreciation. THAT level of omygodIcan’tbelievethis-ness. THAT can be induced now, on any topic.
That feeling of it’s just what I always wanted! This is a dream come true!
We don’t need to visualize the goal or write affirmations about the goal or meditate on the goal. We don’t even need to think about the goal.
All we need to do is focus on something that gives us the same feelings of joy and wonder and empowerment we’ll have when we achieve the goal.
For me, today, that something is my back yard.
In two weeks or less, it’ll be a brand new granddaughter. Again, my state will be one of extreme appreciation and bliss.
As a result of this meditation…
I decided to release the new novel as soon as it was ready, regardless of what day of the week it was, or what planets are retrograde, and without fussing about a pre-order. So I did. It’s hitting shelves today.
Feeling like I do today, there could be no better time.
Sitting here, writing this in my little lawn chair, looking at the small hunk of paradise where my mud-hole used to be, I just keep thinking, I made this, and it’s just what I always wanted.
It’s not everything I ever wanted, or ever will want. It’s not even everything I want now, but it IS something I always wanted that has manifested here in my physical experience.
Let’s nutshell this bit of wisdom I picked up today.
You don’t need to focus on that elusive goal of yours.
Just find something you already have that makes you feel really really amazing. Something that, if you didn’t have it and some stranger handed it to you tomorrow, you would weep with gratitude about.
Your kids? Grandkids? Your true love? Your car? Your house? Your favorite gadget? Your dog?
Imagine life without it, and then imagine it just showing up, being handed to you by a stranger or gifted to you by magic. Imagine that feeling. FEEL that feeling.
And then take it another level higher. Do this by understand that no stranger gave these gifts to you, and they didn’t arrive all by themselves. You created them by desiring them and feeling so good that your vibration matched up.
All you ever have to do is match the vibration of how having the goal will make you feel.
Feel that way now about something else. And it’s done. Just like magic.
Purple smoke and glitter, optional.
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