Archive for January, 2009

I’ve been tagged a couple times now for this popular blog meme (thank you Iyabo & Ellie), which I’ve hesitated to respond to because I didn’t expect the topic would really interest readers or stimulate conversation.

But then I decided to change that expectation so I could participate and share link love with fellow bloggers! 

So here are 25 random things about me – LOA style. 

1. First book I ever read that introduced me to the law of attraction was How to Get Everything You Ever Wanted by Adrian Calabrese.

2. First manifesting project: getting a foster dog adopted.

3. That first success freaked me out so much I didn’t play with deliberate creation for an entire year.  (READ everything I could get my hands on about it, but didn’t actually practice it again for quite a while.)

4. Most challenging manifestation: involve animals I love dearly (attachment = resistance).

5. Easiest manifestations: new clients.  (I know that vibe better than the back of my hand!)

6. Manifesting skill I am most proud of: being able to change my story on a dime.  (Dismissing reality!)

7. Favorite topic to coach others on: Money!

8. Most unbelievable manifestations: Sadie returning to life.

9. Favorite deliberate creation resource: Ask and It Is Given.

10. Runner up to my favorite deliberate creation resource: Notes From The Universe

11. Three highest profile clients: hee hee – I can’t say, silly!

12. Favorite client ever: stumped on that one.  I love everyone!

13. A favorite LOA resource many might not recognize: Cesar Millan

14. Favorite old school LOA resources: Neville and Florence Scovel Shinn

15. Next manifesting project: my next mentor/guru.

16. What personal development skill I’m learning to stronger enhance manifesting abilities?  Meditation (fairly new to it)

17. What belief I would most like to opt out of: that duality is a fact of life.

18. What belief I would like to embrace even more: that bodies grow younger with time.

19. Most reliable method for allowing: remembering and reconnecting to (my version of) the big picture.

20. Who had the greatest impact on developing conscious creation skills?  Mentor Coach Jeanna Gabellini

21. If I could do anything, what would it be?  Already doing it – with clients, blog posts, ezines, articles, etc: sharing LOA knowledge!

22. Biggest manifesting handicap?  Still wanting love and approval from others.

23. What did I almost name my coaching practice? Lightworks Coaching

24. What would I have done if not vibration management coaching?  Professional dog walker

25. Who gives me my greatest gift of contrast?  People I am closest to.  Thank you, People. 

Next I’m supposed to tag 25 other bloggers to play this game as well: Melody, Tia, Col, Judy, Lyman, Deb, Ross, Pernille, Kevin, Alain, Vicki, Thauna, Tonya, Ann, Alex, Donncha, Ryan, Kate, Dawn, Stephanie, Zoe, Leslie, Carolyn, Jan, Martha and Shauna. 

And if anyone else wants to be tagged to join the game, leave a comment and I’ll add your link to the post!

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This excerpted story by Dan Wetzel comes from the Yahoo Sports page. 

I’ve shared it with clients this week because of the inspiration the last two sentences offer for being able to view a challenging or discouraging situation from a more empowering point of view. 

The bolded sections are my favorite parts (including finding a positive perspective, purposeful appreciation, and incorporating strong expectations). 

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

TAMPA, Fla. – Sean McHugh had just bought his family’s first house in suburban Detroit.

He’d just found out his wife, Ashlee, was pregnant with their second child, a daughter to go along with their then-18-month-son, Jack – though the excitement was tempered due to some early complications with the pregnancy.

The good news was McHugh had just survived final cut day with the Detroit Lions, meaning he was all but assured another year in professional football. He hoped to start at fullback and would play for the league minimum – about $520,000 for his experience level.

But just before the first practice in September, he was summoned to the office of team president Matt Millen. He knew the drill.

“When they come get you and Matt wants to talk to you, it’s never a good thing,” McHugh said. “You just have a sinking feeling. You walk through the locker room, up a flight of stairs and you just think, ‘What the heck is going on?’ ”

What was going on was that he got cut, fired, laid off by Detroit. The team had signed someone else and to make room, McHugh was out.

Just like that, Sean McHugh was deemed not good enough to play for the lowly Lions, who would go winless – the first 0-16 season in league history.

If you’re not good enough to play for the worst team ever, who exactly are you good enough to play for?

“What are we going to do?” he thought.

How about play in the Super Bowl?

Within days of Detroit cutting him, he unexpectedly signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Four months later he finds himself here preparing for a shot at an NFL championship against the Arizona Cardinals.

Cut by the worst team, McHugh may wind up part of the best.

“That’s the thing I’ll never understand,” he said. “They didn’t think I was good enough to be on the worst team in the history of the NFL, but the people here think I’m good enough to help the team out and play in the Super Bowl.

“I go from getting cut from the Detroit Lions and thinking life’s over and flash-forward and now you’re getting ready to play for a Super Bowl.”

There’s never been a story like McHugh’s in the NFL because there’s never been a team as bad as the Lions this season. This isn’t just worst to first, it’s worst-ever to first.

“You go from the lowest low to the highest high,” he smiled.

McHugh is a blue-collar guy from outside of Cleveland. He knows how fortunate he is to play a single down in the NFL, let alone parts of four seasons with his current salary. He’s hesitant to compare his situation to the estimated 2.6 million Americans who lost their jobs in 2008.

He wasn’t living check to check. He was pursuing a dream. He gets it.

Still, getting fired is getting fired. The fact he’s never had more than a one-year deal means he has more in common with the fan in the stands than many of his mega-millionaire teammates.

“It’s not like I have money set away so I can spend the rest of my life not working,” he said. “We’ve been smart and lived within our means and saved so we have a cushion. But it’s a very real possibility that that money is going to run out.

“One of the hardest things you have to deal with [is] failing and feeling that you’re not good enough,” he said. “It’s a whole series of emotions.

McHugh contemplated his future. Was his career over at 26? Or could he catch on somewhere else? He had a bad ankle so the prospects weren’t good. Besides, was bouncing all over best for a young family? McHugh had long thought about becoming a high school coach; was this reality forcing a decision?

Ashlee, he said, helped him look at it in a positive way. They had college degrees. They were healthy (the pregnancy has progressed fine). Something would work out.

That night the phone rang. It was McHugh’s agent.

“Hey, the Steelers want to bring you in and check you out,” the agent said.

Three days later he was signed for the season. He’s been mostly a reserve fullback, making the most of his chances, doing the dirty work of blocking. He’s marveled at the culture of success that the Steelers organization has established.

“There is an expectation when you become a Pittsburgh Steeler that you’re going to win,” he said. “And anything less than that is not acceptable. In Detroit it was like you were hoping to win.”

Only as the season played on, no matter how hard they hoped, Detroit didn’t win. Week after week as Pittsburgh experienced success, McHugh’s old team dealt with failure. He looked on with mixed emotions.

It’s a little bit of redemption, a little bit of success in the face of distress; a little bit about remembering that what appears to be the worst thing can turn out to be the best.

“A door closed,” McHugh said, “and a world opened.”

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The other day my sweetie let me have it for something he did not approve of: I let my ex-beau pick up the dogs at our house for a dog walk (which Russ has repeatedly asked me not to do). 

My guy was upset for a variety of reasons so we were talking it out.  Among other things, he looked for reassurance that I wouldn’t ever have a physically intimate relationship with my ex again.

“I really don’t see that happening,” I said.  (I know not to say “never,” since that word often involves resistance, and flowing resistance is a fabulous way to invite it in.)  

As I gave serious consideration to Russ’ inquiry and thought about the unlikelihood of a future sexual rendezvous with my ex, I realized that now the two of us were thinking about said rendezvous – and we all know what thoughts lead to. 

Especially thoughts driven by strong emotion!

What popped out next did NOT help: ”Well, I don’t see it happening … unless you keep focusing on it.”

Oh, boy. 

Even if Russ doesn’t completely believe in the law of attraction, he knows I do.  And he did not like where I was going with it.

Which meant I was now in the hot seat for justifying my (theoretical) “bad behavior” on Russ’ vibration.  He was exasperated at the thought that I would have an affair and blame it on him because his fears brought it about.

If he understood energy the way deliberate creators do, he would know that makes perfect sense.  Wouldn’t he?

But his argument got me thinking …

I wondered how many law of attraction-savvy folks let themselves off certain hooks by saying something like “Well, if you weren’t vibrating it, it wouldn’t have happened.”

Like the couple times I’ve been stiffed by clients.  My ego wants to blame them for not following through on promises to pay, while the more rational part of me knows I can’t experience something I’m not vibrationally lined up with.  I’m not a victim of “non-payers.”  Rather, I’m responsible for what happens in my world.  Including not getting paid. 

One of my girlfriends who is familiar with the law of attraction basics has been known to tell family members that she is not responsible for their happiness and well-being.  (She usually reminds them of that after she’s late for Thanksgiving dinner or insulted the intelligence of her sister’s kids.) 

Her family has come to think of the law of attraction as a big excuse for someone to shirk what they are really responsible for.

When I hear about her exchanges, it sounds a little harsh that my friend says and does things she knows upsets her family, and then tells them it’s their own fault for being upset.  She reasons that because they can choose how they feel, why don’t they choose something that feels better than “upset”?

I get the logic, but something about that doesn’t sit quite right.

And yet there I was ready to blame Russ for a potential affair I might have with my best friend.  (Although, it’s not an affair if you’re not married, right?  Anyway …)

All of this has made me question … what are we responsible for?

In sorting this out, my conclusion is yes, we are indeed responsible for what happens in our world.  And we are continually CO-CREATING with others. 

So Russ can’t manifest my steamy hot night with an ex unless I (and my ex) are lined up with that.  I can’t manifest longstanding receivables unless clients are dialed into not paying.  Family members don’t get irreverent daughters showing up late for dinner unless everyone’s flowing a common vibe on it.

It’s the beauty of how Universe syncs up like vibrations. 

When we’re happy, we attract people and circumstances that reinforce that feeling.  When we’re disappointed, we attract the people and circumstances who are capable of reinforcing our disappointment. 

Rather than vibrating me into bed with an ex (ooh, kinky) it’s probably more likely that if I’m vibrating fidelity while my sweetie is vibrating worry about my infidelity, then our dissimilar vibrations wouldn’t allow us to stay in close proximity. 

Either we’d fall away from each other, or one of us is going to learn the other’s vibration.

You know which option I’m going with, right? 

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic.  How have you noticed others’ vibrations affecting you?  And where do you place the responsibility for what that leads to?

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