USER’S MANUAL
You are now the proud owner of the realization that you were born with this extremely powerful Tool within you. It is crucial for you (the proud owner) to read and understand the following Disclaimers before taking another step in life (besides, it keeps the lawyers in business). Enjoy your Tool and have a nice life!
DISCLAIMERS
1. This Tool is intended to be used only for the use for which it was designed.
2. Do not use this Tool while driving a motorized vehicle.
3. Do not attempt to change other people (or light bulbs, for that matter) with this Tool.
4. Do not attempt to use this Tool with any form of malicious intent toward others (unless you hope to one day say “Luke, I am your father.”).
5. Failure to read this entire Instruction Manual completely could result in the improper use of the Tool resulting in unforeseen results.
6. Failure to not realize that you are ALWAYS using this Tool could result in unforeseen results.
So what wonderful and powerful Tool are you the proud owner of? The Tool is the ability to create. We are all creators and our thoughts are ALWAYS creating our new reality. This is not a new concept. Buddha said, "The mind is everything. What we think we become." The book and movie The Secret brought The Law of Attraction to the cultural mainstream of the early 20th century zeitgeist. In between the time of Buddha and today, the application of this concept has been taught and applied in different forms under different names innumerable times the world over. Affirmations, prayers, mantras, manifesting, the power of positive thinking, and creative visualization have helped many people achieve all varieties of personal goals and desires. For the sake of clarity here, I will distill all of the above terms down to one - creating. The ability to create has helped people achieve financial success, behavioral changes, finding the perfect partner, healing, spiritual growth, and many more things.
Clearly, creating is a very powerful Tool. Like most powerful Tools, it is important to not only learn how to use it properly, but to also understand the potential negative ramifications of not completely understanding the tool or not using the tool properly. There are many thousands of teachers, books, CDs, DVDs that provide a multitude of methods on how to create effectively. They teach many methods, but there are generally some common “do’s” to keep in mind when creating, for example – phrasing your thoughts in the present instead of future tense, the use of “I am” instead of “I want” or “I wish”, and being specific. As far as Disclaimers go, usually only number two in the list above is ever mentioned. The focus here will be on Disclaimer number six.
Energy – in all of it's different forms - is the “stuff” that is the basic building material of everything in the universe. Matter is made up of energy, which gives us atoms, and molecules, and cells, and the periodic table of elements, and the planets, and grass clippings, and dog poop in the backyard. In school, we learn about some of the non-physical forms of energy, like light and sound. And, “energy flows where our thoughts go”. We are literally using energy to convert energy from one form to another. It is this process that, today, has many quantum physicists very excited. Put very simply, what we do with our minds is akin to what happens when one observes the behavior of very small particles. The observer has an influence on the behavior of the particles and becomes an active participant instead of just an observer.
Our thoughts are ALWAYS creating our reality, not just when we want them to. Our thoughts, our emotions, and our actions are all energy. That means that not just our intentional positive thoughts, emotions, and actions create our reality, but also our unintentional negative ones like complaining, lying, fear, worry, and guilt. The universe does not know that you were “just joking”. When life is working out the way we want it to, we whole heartedly embrace the idea of “what we think we become”. Just as importantly, when things go badly we can’t, won’t, or don’t want to admit the possibility that we may have created that situation, too. What tends to happen when we don’t like the new reality that we have created? We look “externally” for scapegoats. We blame fate, bad luck, God’s will, somebody else, divine intervention, or whatever is quick and relieves us of any accountability. In actuality we should be looking “internally” and trying to understand the reasons for our less than desirable creations.
Imagine that you awaken one morning and you really don't want to go to work that day. You're not sick. Maybe you just need of an "emotional health" day. The problem is that you feel guilty about lying to your boss or calling in sick again. After a short wrestling match in your mind, you call your employer (hoping to get voice mail) and provide some “story” as to why you can’t make it into work that day. Perhaps you say that you’re sick, or your child is sick and/or needs to go to the doctor, or maybe you have to take your car into the shop. The excuse really doesn’t matter, but every time that you think it, say it, or do it you are reinforcing the creative process. You may very much dislike your job. How many times have you said or thought, “I hate my job.”? Once again, you are creating. Are you surprised when one day you find that your job has been phased out? Or, perhaps the next day you really are sick, or your child is sick, or your car really does have to go to the shop. Even worse, the next day you are driving to work and you get blind sided by another car. You end up in the Emergency Room, your car goes to the shop and you lose your job. This scenario may sound “far fetched”, but read about the author Neale Donald Walsch and you may reconsider.
Some variation on this theme is taking place more often than most people believe. Do you every say to yourself, out loud or in your head, “How could I be so stupid?” or “I’m such an idiot!”? It is somewhat ironic that one of the most common forms of camaraderie is two or more people sitting around having a “bitch session”. Have you ever said “Come on, we’re going to be late!” when trying to load your family into the car? You look at your watch every 30 seconds all of the way to your destination. Upon finally arriving, you can’t believe that you hit every red light. Sadly, there are many more examples of this type of creating.
Here’s the problem. We are born with the ability to create and we are ALWAYS creating whether we want to or not and whether we know it or not. Many people live there entire life – many times over - without ever knowing that they have this tool inside of them. It’s almost like someone tosses the User’s Manual into the circular file in the Delivery room the day we are born. That would be the same Manual that covers relationships, parenting and a number of other important topics that we later in life have to figure out by ourselves with a good bit of trial and error. Every day we see the downside results of that reality – in person, in the media, everywhere.
With all of this in mind, let me provide some possible ideas for how to avoid the misuse and pitfalls of this wonderful, powerful tool. You will notice that the common thread throughout the list below is “think” i.e. look inside and pay attention to yourself. Also, changing our perspective or the way we think, often requires us to make changes in our behavior or habits. I'm talking about taking action. Action helps to solidify changes to our thought processes. I’m sure that you can come up with other – better – ideas. The key is to make them personal to you so that you can best internalize and embrace these ideas.
1. Know that you are ALWAYS creating.
2. Know that every single moment, your thoughts, emotions and actions are defining who you are and are constantly creating your new reality.
3. This may be an oldie but consider the very appropriate saying “Be sure to put brain in gear before engaging mouth”.
4. Remember that emotions are extremely powerful forms of thought and hence, have very powerful creative energy.
5. Think about the words you use, whether in your head or spoken. Do you "hate" coconut or do you "dislike" it? Do you "hate" a certain person or would you "prefer" not to have them in your life?
6. Slow down – think about what you are doing and saying. Think about what the ramifications could be. Are you creating? If you have to ask, the answer is probably “yes”. At first, you may find yourself mostly “reviewing” what you already thought or did. Over time you will start to catch yourself before you think, say, or do something. I know that it may be fun to say “SSDD”, but is it really worth it? What are the long-term ramifications? It’s your choice, not unlike that last slice of blueberry pie sitting there calling your name.
7. Come up with one or (at most) two affirmations that you can use all of the time. One example would be “there are no problems, only opportunities”. Personally, mine is “Green lights all the way!” In reality, this is a creating statement. It started as a way to get from point A to point B with out getting stressed out, but has turned into an umbrella statement for just about everything.
8. Stop worrying. It won’t do any good anyway.
9. Combine #6 with intentionally stopping or changing certain detrimental habits. If I’m going somewhere like the airport or a meeting, or under any other sort of time constraint, I no longer look at my watch. If I'm on my way and it's "Green lights all the way.", looking at the time will not change anything for the better. It won’t make things happen faster. It will only create stress for me an those around me.
So now that you have read and understand the Disclaimers, you are should be better prepared to truely enjoy a life time of creating your new reality with your new Tool. Plus, as an added bonus, there is no cardboard box to recycle and no batteries required. Customer Support: Please submit all complaints about your Tool directly to God.
Dave Dorgan
Author Bio
Dave Dorgan has worked on the IT side of the Investment/Securities Industry for 20 plus years. He has been published in Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities magazine.Dave's first book Time and Space Stand Still will be released in January of 2008 by Chalani Resources. This Spiritual book is a collection of anecdotes, short stories, essays and poems from a crazy year in his life. More information on the book along with excerpts can be found at Chalani Resources. Also check out Dave's Blogs: Be The Guru and Random Acts of Pondering.
