Feng Shui & Beyond Blog

What I really think of the Release Technique!

Well friends, it’s been waaaayyyyy  too long since I’ve written. I apologize, I’ve been reflecting on what I’ve learned, practiced and experience the past few years. 

I've been meaning to update my blog in regards to the Release Technique in particular. The gains I experienced were all from the Release Technique and feng shui. Because I had such terrific gains, I decided to delve deep. I set aside months to "dig in the dirt" so to speak because this is what Larry Crane of the Release Technique teaches. WHAT A MISTAKE! My dad and I both discovered that if you keep digging in the dirt, then you will not only find dirt but start manifesting negative situations in your life. Plus, I felt depressed and lethargic. The Release Technique (RT) is absolutely wonderful if you are feeling resistance or negativity, however, I would not use RT to go digging around for emotions and feelings that aren't easily coming to the surface. In my opinion, Larry really missed the mark on Lester's teachings here. My longtime spiritual teacher (who I have the utmost respect for and who has a very high level of integrity) confirmed that one should not be dwelling on negative things.

I think the biggest thing missing from the Release Technique is the focus on love and appreciation. Those big gains I experienced were a result of something I was doing intuitively. I would release on a specific thought, and then send a strong feeling of love out into the universe. Most people who have had extraordinary gains were focusing on feelings of love.  One of the RT teachers received a $45 million dollar gain simply by releasing and sending love to everyone in her life starting from childhood.

I would recommend using the RT if you have any negativity or resistance present. Otherwise, I would completely focus on feelings of love and appreciation. It feels much better too! After I started practicing this again, I've started to experience big gains again. Shakti Gawain's book "Creative Visualization" has many of the exercises that I was doing intuitively that brought BIG results.

I wish you well on your journey!

Jessica

 

And I always thought luck had to do with… well… luck. Not true!

Yahoo.com recently posted this fantastic article on what it takes to be lucky.

How to Get Lucky - By Richard Wiseman

For centuries, people have recognized the power of luck and have done whatever they could to try seizing it. Take knocking on wood, thought to date back to pagan rituals aimed at eliciting help from powerful tree gods. We still do it today, though few, if any, of us worship tree gods. So why do we pass this and other superstitions down from generation to generation? The answer lies in the power of luck.

Live a Charmed Life

To investigate scientifically why some people are consistently lucky and others aren't, I advertised in national periodicals for volunteers of both varieties. Four hundred men and women from all walks of life -- ages 18 to 84 -- responded.

Over a ten-year period, I interviewed these volunteers, asked them to complete diaries, personality questionnaires and IQ tests, and invited them to my laboratory for experiments. Lucky people, I found, get that way via some basic principles -- seizing chance opportunities; creating self-fulfilling prophecies through positive expectations; and adopting a resilient attitude that turns bad luck around.

Open Your Mind

Consider chance opportunities: Lucky people regularly have them; unlucky people don't. To determine why, I gave lucky and unlucky people a newspaper, and asked them to tell me how many photos were inside. On average, unlucky people spent about two minutes on this exercise; lucky people spent seconds. Why? Because on the paper's second page -- in big type -- was the message "Stop counting: There are 43 photographs in this newspaper." Lucky people tended to spot the message. Unlucky ones didn't. I put a second one halfway through the paper: "Stop counting, tell the experimenter you have seen this and win $250." Again, the unlucky people missed it.

The lesson: Unlucky people miss chance opportunities because they're too busy looking for something else. Lucky people see what is there rather than just what they're looking for.

This is only part of the story. Many of my lucky participants tried hard to add variety to their lives. Before making important decisions, one altered his route to work. Another described a way of meeting people. He noticed that at parties he usually talked to the same type of person. To change this, he thought of a color and then spoke only to guests wearing that color -- women in red, say, or men in black.

Does this technique work? Well, imagine living in the center of an apple orchard. Each day you must collect a basket of apples. At first, it won't matter where you look. The entire orchard will have apples. Gradually, it becomes harder to find apples in places you've visited before. If you go to new parts of the orchard each time, the odds of finding apples will increase dramatically. It is exactly the same with luck.

Relish the Upside

Another important principle revolved around the way in which lucky and unlucky people deal with misfortune. Imagine representing your country in the Olympics. You compete, do well, and win a bronze medal. Now imagine a second Olympics. This time you do even better and win a silver medal. How happy do you think you'd feel? Most of us think we'd be happier after winning the silver medal.

But research suggests athletes who win bronze medals are actually happier. This is because silver medalists think that if they'd performed slightly better, they might have won a gold medal. In contrast, bronze medalists focus on how if they'd performed slightly worse, they wouldn't have won anything. Psychologists call this ability to imagine what might have happened, rather than what actually happened, "counter-factual" thinking.

To find out if lucky people use counter-factual thinking to ease the impact of misfortune, I asked my subjects to imagine being in a bank. Suddenly, an armed robber enters and fires a shot that hits them in the arms. Unlucky people tended to say this would be their bad luck to be in the bank during the robbery. Lucky people said it could have been worse: "You could have been shot in the head." This kind of thinking makes people feel better about themselves, keeps expectations high, and increases the likelihood of continuing to live a lucky life.

Learn to Be Lucky

Finally, I created a series of experiments examining whether thought and behavior can enhance good fortune.

First came one-on-one meetings, during which participants completed questionnaires that measured their luck and their satisfaction with six key areas of their lives. I then outlined the main principles of luck, and described techniques designed to help participants react like lucky people. For instance, they were taught how to be more open to opportunities around them, how to break routines, and how to deal with bad luck by imagining things being worse. They were asked to carry out specific exercises for a month and then report back to me.

The results were dramatic: 80 percent were happier and more satisfied with their lives -- and luckier. One unlucky subject said that after adjusting her attitude -- expecting good fortune, not dwelling on the negative -- her bad luck had vanished. One day, she went shopping and found a dress she liked. But she didn't buy it, and when she returned to the store in a week, it was gone. Instead of slinking away disappointed, she looked around and found a better dress -- for less. Events like this made her a much happier person.

Her experience shows how thoughts and behavior affect the good and bad fortune we encounter. It proves that the most elusive of holy grails -- an effective way of taking advantage of the power of luck -- is available to us all.

Read the orginal post here: How to Get Lucky

 

How to create a vision board to harness the power of intention.

Mind is the forerunner of all things.

—Buddha

Spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions (from Buddha, to Aristotle, to William James, founder of modern psychology) agree that what we intend is what we create.

If you start to consciously focus your intention, you will get what you want.

A “vision board” is an excellent way to utilize the power of intention.

1. A vision board helps you get clear, really clear, on what you like.
2. If done properly, a vision board will get to the very essence of your intention.
3. When you create a vision board, you are literally sending energy into the object and into the universe for manifestation.

Usually a vision board is a collage or piece of art that you create representing your “vision” of what you wish to manifest. It is a personal expression of what you are seeking.

Most of them look something like this:

Many people choose inspirational images out of magazine clippings, photos, internet images, etc. Add a few inspiration quotes and positive affirmations, and — voilà! — you have yourself a vision board.

If you really want to ramp up the power of intention, I would recommend taking a more abstract and symbolic approach when creating your vision board. Get to the essence of what you want to manifest. When you get to the essence of what you want, the impact is much more powerful. Kinda like getting to the center of a tootsie roll pop—the end result is much different than initial appearances.

Take a moment to think about what you want. Maybe it’s money. Now, sit quietly and ask yourself, “What is it about money that I like? Why do I really want this money?” Usually the answer is something like, “I want to be happy,” or “I want to feel safe and secure.”

Now, can you depict that feeling of being happy? If you had to, how would you represent a feeling of safety and security?

I think this person did a lovely job of depicting a feeling. When I look at this collage I feel uplifted, happy, energized and inspired. It absolutely reeks of abundance and joy.  This person obviously had a lot of fun when they made this vision board.

**One special note, this is not the time to become an art critic! If your ego steps in and offers some “constructive” criticism tell it to “shut the h@ll up!” Who cares if you didn’t stay in the lines, draw that face to proportion, or your colors got a little over-the-top-psychedelic. This is your vision and your vision board. **

It doesn’t matter what it looks like. What matters is the intention you put into your new masterpiece. That’s where you will discover the real power of intention.

When I create any new vision board, or intentional collage as I like to call them, I use symbols and colors that are appropriate for the intention and have special meaning to me.

When I created this collage with a goal of personal transformation in mind, I was inspired by the Hawaiian Goddess Pele—the goddess of fire and transformation. I used fiery colors, symbols of transformation and rebirth, and added many rich layers of texture and detail. This collage took a lot of energy and I have had some terrific gains as a result.

Let’s just say I am not the same person I was before this collage.

You can either make a vision board that expresses all areas of your life—money, relationships, career, health, etc.—or you can create a unique collage for a specific intention like “focus and clarity” like I did:

Just remember, intention is everything.

I’ll let you in on a little secret—if you want to discover your subconscious dreams, fears, and beliefs, look around your home.

Your home is a mirror of yourself. Really.

Clare Cooper Marcus, a former professor at UC Berkeley and author of “House as a Mirror of Self” says, “what is not yet conscious is normally experienced ‘out there,’ in a projection on the outer world.”

So guess what? You can’t hide from your subconscious crap.

You may not want to acknowledge that you feel completely out of control of your life, but those obsessive-compulsive tendencies to keep your house in perfect order are revealing your dirty little secret.

Maybe you’ve been preserving your son’s childhood room in its original condition as if it is some precious relic. I’m sorry to say that it’s probably not because of its great monetary value or historical merit (unless, of course, your son is Michael Jackson or Elvis). The real reason may be that you are mourning the loss of parenthood and don’t know what to do with your life now.

What’s even more interesting is that according to Ms. Marcus, we learn about ourselves through the molding of our physical environment. That is to say your home and the way you create your space actually stimulates what she calls an “expression-feedback-integration.”

It works like this — you create your immediate environment and then are worked on by it. You find yourself mirrored in it, see what had not been visible, and then you integrate that reflection back into your sense of self.

The personalization of space represents your journey to wholeness.

Amazing, huh?

That is because every object in your home has an influence on you. Carl Jung called this numinosity.

Now that you know this, you can use your home as a reflection of what you want in your life. You can use your external surroundings and the physical objects within to reflect the transformation you desire.

This is especially true for artwork or other special objects that you create—they become a profound expression of what you are seeking. There is a connection between yourself and your environment. When you create a special object, it is as if the energy moves from you — the creator — to the object, back to self. Your personal creations play a central role in the development of your self-identity and your life.

So go get some craft supplies and make yourself a vision board! Cover that tired old lounge chair with a slip-cover made for love! Turn your wall into a healing ritual!

This image is from Kelee Katillac's wonderful book "House of Belief." To create a visual affirmation, this woman heat-transferred black-and-white photos of great Hollywood lovers onto a slipcover.

Also from "House of Belief," this cancer-survivor created a healing ritual of belief by forming an inspiring collage directly onto the wall.

The secret to why the law of attraction doesn’t work.

You probably learned about the law of attraction from the movie “The Secret” or Abraham Hicks. Both define the law of attraction as what you hold in mind is what manifests in your reality — like attracts like. If you hold good thoughts in mind, then only good people, experiences, and situations will come into your life.

This is all true. The mind is creative.

The problem is that about 90% of the mind is subconscious — meaning we aren’t even aware of it! 90% of what you are creating in your life isn’t even conscious or intentional. Sure, you may be visualizing, gratitude journaling, and thinking positive thoughts but if you have some serious garbage in your subconscious mind, then you won’t have the power to manifest what you desire.

You must release the garbage from your subconscious mind so that you can manifest what you truly love. (By the way, all garbage emanates from feelings of want and lack.)

Using the Release Technique or the Sedona Method helps put you in the driver seat. It helps you to pull up all subconscious programs so that you can easily let them go — forever. When you are free and clear of all subconscious programming, then you can be, do, or have anything you want.

Don’t believe me? Read some of my gains from applying the Release Technique.

The Cosmic Universe — Super Genius: how feng shui got my butt off the couch.

So this funny thing happened once I learned to surrender to higher levels of energy — I became acutely aware of my surroundings.

Like Fox Mulder sniffing out imperceptible signs of the paranormal, I could tell exactly what kind of feng shui adjustments would be necessary to my new apartment in Philadelphia. I also started space clearing in earnestness and got some seriously eerie messages from my home. For instance, when we moved into our apartment I noticed the relationships and love corner was missing from our floor plan. When I space cleared the first time, I got a very unmistakable feeling that the couple that lived there before had a very unpleasant break-up and she had cheated on him. Years later, my neighbor living below us confirmed this hunch by telling me she caught the previous tenant making out with some mysterious guy outside the apartment building and it had caused a brutal separation between the couple. No kidding! Da da daaa dummmm...

While I continued to surrender, I added feng shui enhancements and space cleared my home on a consistent basis. At which point (and pardon the language)… shit happened!

Because the relationships and love corner was missing from our apartment, I paid special attention to that area of the feng shui bagua. I used feng shui cures like mirrors, plants, rose quartz crystals and lots of lights and candles to enhance the area. I also focused on the abundance and prosperity, creativity, career and journey, and fame and reputation areas of the bagua. My intent was to improve my romantic relationship, gain clarity, achieve a more fulfilling and creative career, and attract more abundance into my life.

And then I waited for my prayers to be answered.

One thing I have learned for certain is that the universe always, always, always answers your prayers, but it is never how you expect. Why is this? Is it because the universe is some wily trickster akin to the Mad Hatter out to perpetually confound you? Nope. No way.

Actually, the universe is infinitely wiser and much more resourceful than any mere human mind. The universe always knows what you really desire — the true essence of what will make you happy and allow you to reach your full potential. If you stand back and let the universe work its magic, it will bring everything to your doorstep so that you may become who you truly are.

Originally my intent was to reinvigorate my 13-year relationship with my partner. Instead, the relationship ended, I moved out, and now I am engaged to be married. (Wanna know how I attracted love and my divine partner?)

I also set out to find a job that would be fulfilling and prosperous. Instead, I quit my job, moved back to Colorado and haven’t held a full-time job in 3 years. I also had several experiences that fortified my commitment to go completely free.

When you take one step towards freedom and happiness, freedom and happiness take 10 steps towards you. I would not tell you this if I wasn’t 100% sure this was the truth. I have experienced all the knowledge I share and I give it to you without reservation so that you may go free too.

I am grateful to be able to share my experiences with you.

Be well,
Jessica

Fine… I surrender.

Remember how I told you that the law of attraction and gratitude journaling started bringing new experiences, people, teachers, etc. into my life? Well this funny little “inconsequential decision” effectively changed my life and romantic relationship forever.

While in the process of moving to Philadelphia, my dad invited me to Maui to take a new workshop that my spiritual mentor was teaching. It was an advanced form of Ancient Hawaiian healing. I didn’t think I could go because I would have to fly out the day I moved into my apartment in Philadelphia. I wasn’t even going to consider it until my partner convinced me that it could work. So I took his advice and went to Maui.

My teacher, Laurie Grant, is nothing short of amazing — she is intuitive, loving, awe-inspiring, and has a real knack for making you feel completely empowered. She is a mother, spiritual guru, psychic, best friend, and school counselor wrapped up in one neat little package. She can channel and control energy with the same deftness as Spiderman swinging over the streets of Manhattan.

Combine Laurie, the spiritual superhero, with a darling little man in the class named Arthur who taught me about Dr. David Hawkins and “surrender” and you get a peak spiritual experience unmatched by any other.

When I “surrendered” completely while Laurie attuned us to higher levels of energy, I went into a state of complete bliss or what the Buddha refers to as Nirvana. I was complete, I was whole and I felt fantastic.

Unfortunately it gave me such a bad case of spiritual pride that my partner of 10 years ran for the hills. I may as well have been a blood-sucking vampire for the way he avoided me. He felt he had made the worst mistake of his life by encouraging me to go the workshop. When I came back I was ungrounded, blissed-out, I had no motivation because life was perfect, and I simply couldn’t be around him because, quite frankly, he was a real downer.

Spiritual pride is sneaky. It took me years before I realized what I was doing.

Apart from the dangers of mounting a spiritual high-horse, “surrendering” remains the quickest and easiest way to bliss I have experienced. Dr. David Hawkins Power vs. Force is a very good book discussing the topic of surrendering and Oneness/Non-duality.

Tales from my Pollyanna Wonderland: how the law of attraction started changing my life.

With the same zest and singular determination of my teenage nephew when he received Grand Theft Auto IV on Christmas day, I religiously watched “The Secret”, read every Abraham-Hicks book I could get my hands on, and practiced the law of attraction as diligently as my nephew attempted to rise through the ranks of the criminal underworld.

I spent the better part of a year in a state of blind positivity—in fact, I think I could have been considered the dictator of my own little Pollyanna Wonderland. It was against all code to discuss any negative idea. I couldn’t even talk about debt, much less my fear of sexuality, failure, or not being the next Andy Warhol. It was awesome to hang around me, just ask my boyfriend... *wink*

Many delightful experiences blossomed from this fascist positive regime. As I mentioned, I worked at a fantastic office with amazing people, I generated award-winning designs, my health was excellent and overall I felt pretty blessed.

One method that worked particular wonders was writing in a gratitude journal. I noticed that it was absolutely impossible to be negative when I was grateful. My constant state of gratitude was a party invitation to the Universe to bring experiences, people, books, teachers, and all other sorts of helpful things into my life.

I stumbled upon feng shui and space clearing and began to study it with glorious abandon. Suddenly all of the major hurdles in my life like my lack of abundance and declining relationship with my partner of 9 years made perfect sense! Not only was our bathroom in the abundance area but so was the litter box. And let me tell you, I am no Martha Stewart… that bathroom was a bit nasty.

We had our office in the bedroom (a huge feng shui faux pas) and an exercise bike (an even bigger feng shui no no). Having apparently forgotten how to clean house in grad school, we also had piles of clutter in the relationship corner. Aha!

My partner and I were moving to Philadelphia, so I was determined to “feng shui” our next apartment. I was gonna get my life together—the perfect career, the perfect body, the perfect relationship, abundance out the wazoo—you name it, I was going for gold.

The Universe Spills Her Celestial Guts

Aside from the neurotic, self-obsessed, narcissistic, insecure artist thing that permeates every square inch of that cesspool of creativity called art school – it is an absolute blast. There are no if, ands or buts about it.

For the first time in my life I was given permission to express every little bizarre curiosity that my overeager little mind could conjure up. “What does it look like when you project colored light onto a staircase?” “What would happen if the ground was really made of hydraulic pistons that could cause the earth to ripple like water?” “Is it possible to create a staircase that can emit fiber optic images?” This fantastical escapade effectively ruined my ability to ever hold a mediocre job again. I had tasted freedom; I knew what it was like to love what you do.

While sitting in complete paralysis due to the fact that I had graduated from art school and could no longer expect people to find every thought I had a point of aesthetic discussion, I received a newsletter via email from my spiritual mentor who taught me almost everything I knew about Reiki, Hawaiian mysticism, and all things divine. Normally I don’t read all of these newsletters, but something told me that this one was important. My mentor sent a link to a little known movie at the time called “The Secret.”

I probably watched the clip my teacher sent of Ester Hicks channeling Abraham about 20 times. I couldn’t believe my mystical virgin ears – what??? There is something called the Law of Attraction stating every thought you have manifests later into reality!! I really could have used this information earlier. Like when I spent all of those years dwelling on the fact that my partner was a complete control freak.

Something about Ester and Abraham rang deeply true for me. They touched me to the very core of my being. (FYI, there is an ‘extended version’ of “The Secret” where Ester has been edited out. It is absolutely not the same movie without her.)

I took the advice to heart and developed a little morning ritual where I would sit down at my computer, turn on some awesome music, and write in the present tense why I loved something I was wishing for. For example, I love having my dream job because… I love working with people who respect me… I love doing work that I enjoy… etc. Then I would write in my gratitude journal.

Guess what happened then?

I landed this fantastic graphic design job where the principals were amazing! I was doing design work (which I won an award for later). I looked forward to every day. I lost 15 pounds. And my dad invited me to Maui for a new workshop my Reiki teacher was teaching. As it turns out, she has been recognized from Hawaiian Prophesy as "The Fair Haired Wahine that would carry on the Healing Traditions of Ancient Hawaiian times.”

“The Secret” turned out to be pretty useful. Abraham-Hicks is pure gold.