So I’ve been wanting to write in the comments since you started writing about abundance, but I got really busy and haven’t had a chance until now. And now there’s so much I want to write and respond to that I don’t know where to begin. But I guess I’ll just start with an observation about visualization.
I have aphantasia and cannot visualize anything. So all the self-help instructions that ask you to visualize something go right over my head. Nope, nada, doesn’t work. It’s like asking a blind person to describe the landscape in front of them. But I did feel a connection with a smiley face in your list of things to try to “materialize” in life, if that’s an accurate way to say that? But I also felt uneasy, not with a small experiment like that, but with the whole “think positive and positive things will come to you” thing, but I couldn’t say why exactly. Until a few days ago, when it came to me in a flash of understanding. Choosing something to pursue, and pursuing something are two entirely different things. What concerned me about bringing positive energy into a pursuit of something, was not if it will work, but should it be pursued?
Michael Singer says if you ask people want they want, they will give you a whole long list of things. Love, money, a better car, a bigger house, a fulfilling job, etc. But he says that’s really not what they want. What everyone really wants is to be ok up here, he says, tapping his head. We want peace, and joy and happiness, and think these outward things we pursue will give us that. But they don’t, not for long, anyway. So to pursue love, money, material things, etc. whether through the physical or the mental realm, while not bad in and of itself, will not give us what we are really looking for. That’s what made me uneasy with the pursuit you were describing to bring positive things into our lives. I think it’s important to differentiate between what we do, and why we do it.
I’m not sure if I’m making any sense and explaining myself clearly so let me try to distill this. It’s what you’ve been saying over and over in your posts, in different ways and at different times, that nothing outside of ourselves will bring us happiness. It’s all within, and no one and no-thing can give us what we really want and long for. I think I’m probably getting hung up in semantics because I don’t think you’ve been describing a get-rich-quick scheme in talking about “abundance”. But words are slippery sometimes and it’s easy to misconstrue things if we aren’t careful. What you wrote in this post seemed much clearer to me, when you were talking about appreciation and gratitude and thankfulness, that these are the inner states of mind that will lead us where we really want to go, and make us who we really want to be.
So back to the smiley face. The first one I’ve seen, or at least noticed, since your challenge was the one on your t-shirt in this post. I guess that counts as one, right? But with my mental “blindness” I may not have the powers to make things “materialize” like someone who can vividly imagine things in their mind. Or maybe I just didn’t try hard enough since it’s so difficult for me. I’ll keep looking though and see what happens.
Thanks so much for all these posts, I really enjoy reading them and learning from them, and you. What a journey we are all on, eh? Please keep them coming as long as you are able!
I loved listening to this post (twice!) on my walk with my dog this afternoon. I looked around at all the spring blossoms and picked up a fallen rhododendron petal to hold in my hand as I thought about the things I was grateful for. Thank you again for all your help and inspiration on this path to abundance 💕
I totally agree with all that and I envy (if that’s the right word, maybe “aspire to” would be better) the experience you have had that led you to that place. So far my belief is intellectual, in my head, but not so much my heart. But I think it’s slowly starting to sink down there. We all take different paths, and some have epiphanies on the mountain top, and some have long, slow slogs through the mire. I think I’m more of the mire-y type. But we all get there in the end.
I’ve been meditating, or trying to meditate, off and on for years now. When I first started my goal was to still my mind and empty it, to create a blank slate. Ha! (to borrow one of your favorite interjections), yeah, that didn’t happen! Mostly fell asleep if I kept at it long enough because I sat in a chair with a back, and if I stayed awake it was with monkey mind swinging through the “Easily Distracted” forest. But Michael Singer suggests sitting quietly for 15 minutes every morning and evening, with your back straight, and he said eventually you will start to feel the energy running up and down your spine, or something like that, I can’t remember exactly what he said now. But he’s big on energy flow, he talks about it a good bit. I still have no idea what all that’s about, though.
But I thought it sounded doable so I tried it. I started with the typical meditating posture sitting cross-legged with my feet on the top of my thighs, and that was fine, but it felt “off” for me somehow. So I googled ‘meditating postures” and saw the one where you sit on your feet with your legs bent under you and that appealed to me. So I tried it and never looked back. I do that for 20 minutes or more every morning and evening and rarely miss a day because I enjoy it so much. But I set myself the goals of being relaxed and staying present, even if that meant just observing my monkey mind swinging around the treetops. And that works for me. I do not make mental lists of things I am grateful for during that time though. I think you said in one of your earlier posts that making written lists like that didn’t work well for you. You suggested (if I remember correctly) to be grateful for things as they occur when we stay present, and as you wrote about so eloquently in this post. Yes, doorknobs! Aren’t they a marvel of engineering and metallurgy? And how much embodied energy they represent! I often find myself filled with gratitude first thing in the morning watching the stovetop espresso maker come up to pressure and squirt out my first cup of coffee. So that suggestion has been very helpful for me, in fact, if I stay very present, it’s almost impossible NOT to be grateful for everything I am observing. But I do find it hard not to be constantly in the past/future mindset.
Well, I’ve been jabbering on for so long, I forgot what my point was about meditating, if I remember what it was, I’ll let you know later.
Thanks again, it’s nice to get to know some fellow travelers on this journey!
My Sarah Lane eats fruit and yogurt every night and has for the past 30 years and it is her absolute passion in life, well she tells me besides ME! We have been together so long that we start conversations about the same subjects at the same time. Our "Abundance of Love" has no celling and I am thankful for her more every minute that I breathe. I so enjoy reading your posts and reading the love that you have with YOUR partner for life. Keep the stories coming!
So I’ve been wanting to write in the comments since you started writing about abundance, but I got really busy and haven’t had a chance until now. And now there’s so much I want to write and respond to that I don’t know where to begin. But I guess I’ll just start with an observation about visualization.
I have aphantasia and cannot visualize anything. So all the self-help instructions that ask you to visualize something go right over my head. Nope, nada, doesn’t work. It’s like asking a blind person to describe the landscape in front of them. But I did feel a connection with a smiley face in your list of things to try to “materialize” in life, if that’s an accurate way to say that? But I also felt uneasy, not with a small experiment like that, but with the whole “think positive and positive things will come to you” thing, but I couldn’t say why exactly. Until a few days ago, when it came to me in a flash of understanding. Choosing something to pursue, and pursuing something are two entirely different things. What concerned me about bringing positive energy into a pursuit of something, was not if it will work, but should it be pursued?
Michael Singer says if you ask people want they want, they will give you a whole long list of things. Love, money, a better car, a bigger house, a fulfilling job, etc. But he says that’s really not what they want. What everyone really wants is to be ok up here, he says, tapping his head. We want peace, and joy and happiness, and think these outward things we pursue will give us that. But they don’t, not for long, anyway. So to pursue love, money, material things, etc. whether through the physical or the mental realm, while not bad in and of itself, will not give us what we are really looking for. That’s what made me uneasy with the pursuit you were describing to bring positive things into our lives. I think it’s important to differentiate between what we do, and why we do it.
I’m not sure if I’m making any sense and explaining myself clearly so let me try to distill this. It’s what you’ve been saying over and over in your posts, in different ways and at different times, that nothing outside of ourselves will bring us happiness. It’s all within, and no one and no-thing can give us what we really want and long for. I think I’m probably getting hung up in semantics because I don’t think you’ve been describing a get-rich-quick scheme in talking about “abundance”. But words are slippery sometimes and it’s easy to misconstrue things if we aren’t careful. What you wrote in this post seemed much clearer to me, when you were talking about appreciation and gratitude and thankfulness, that these are the inner states of mind that will lead us where we really want to go, and make us who we really want to be.
So back to the smiley face. The first one I’ve seen, or at least noticed, since your challenge was the one on your t-shirt in this post. I guess that counts as one, right? But with my mental “blindness” I may not have the powers to make things “materialize” like someone who can vividly imagine things in their mind. Or maybe I just didn’t try hard enough since it’s so difficult for me. I’ll keep looking though and see what happens.
Thanks so much for all these posts, I really enjoy reading them and learning from them, and you. What a journey we are all on, eh? Please keep them coming as long as you are able!
I loved listening to this post (twice!) on my walk with my dog this afternoon. I looked around at all the spring blossoms and picked up a fallen rhododendron petal to hold in my hand as I thought about the things I was grateful for. Thank you again for all your help and inspiration on this path to abundance 💕
I totally agree with all that and I envy (if that’s the right word, maybe “aspire to” would be better) the experience you have had that led you to that place. So far my belief is intellectual, in my head, but not so much my heart. But I think it’s slowly starting to sink down there. We all take different paths, and some have epiphanies on the mountain top, and some have long, slow slogs through the mire. I think I’m more of the mire-y type. But we all get there in the end.
I’ve been meditating, or trying to meditate, off and on for years now. When I first started my goal was to still my mind and empty it, to create a blank slate. Ha! (to borrow one of your favorite interjections), yeah, that didn’t happen! Mostly fell asleep if I kept at it long enough because I sat in a chair with a back, and if I stayed awake it was with monkey mind swinging through the “Easily Distracted” forest. But Michael Singer suggests sitting quietly for 15 minutes every morning and evening, with your back straight, and he said eventually you will start to feel the energy running up and down your spine, or something like that, I can’t remember exactly what he said now. But he’s big on energy flow, he talks about it a good bit. I still have no idea what all that’s about, though.
But I thought it sounded doable so I tried it. I started with the typical meditating posture sitting cross-legged with my feet on the top of my thighs, and that was fine, but it felt “off” for me somehow. So I googled ‘meditating postures” and saw the one where you sit on your feet with your legs bent under you and that appealed to me. So I tried it and never looked back. I do that for 20 minutes or more every morning and evening and rarely miss a day because I enjoy it so much. But I set myself the goals of being relaxed and staying present, even if that meant just observing my monkey mind swinging around the treetops. And that works for me. I do not make mental lists of things I am grateful for during that time though. I think you said in one of your earlier posts that making written lists like that didn’t work well for you. You suggested (if I remember correctly) to be grateful for things as they occur when we stay present, and as you wrote about so eloquently in this post. Yes, doorknobs! Aren’t they a marvel of engineering and metallurgy? And how much embodied energy they represent! I often find myself filled with gratitude first thing in the morning watching the stovetop espresso maker come up to pressure and squirt out my first cup of coffee. So that suggestion has been very helpful for me, in fact, if I stay very present, it’s almost impossible NOT to be grateful for everything I am observing. But I do find it hard not to be constantly in the past/future mindset.
Well, I’ve been jabbering on for so long, I forgot what my point was about meditating, if I remember what it was, I’ll let you know later.
Thanks again, it’s nice to get to know some fellow travelers on this journey!
I laughed when I saw your t-shirt!! I started seeing octopus references too… let’s see where my “foraging” takes me this week.
Also your “best sandwich” reminded me of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKVeXd0XJ0I
My Sarah Lane eats fruit and yogurt every night and has for the past 30 years and it is her absolute passion in life, well she tells me besides ME! We have been together so long that we start conversations about the same subjects at the same time. Our "Abundance of Love" has no celling and I am thankful for her more every minute that I breathe. I so enjoy reading your posts and reading the love that you have with YOUR partner for life. Keep the stories coming!
Michael and Sarah Lane Hinkston
Westport, Washington