Manifesting for Makers - Part ll - your message matters

photograph by pretty petal studio

When Oprah introduced The Secret a few years ago on her show, the glaring, hit you right between the eyes, problem with it was that all the "success" stories on the show

(maybe not all, but I am remembering it was all)

were people making money off The Secret.

Not in a "I am applying these principles and manifesting abundance" kind of way, but in a "I am teaching these principles and charging for my teachings and manifesting abundance" kind of way.

On the one hand this made the whole thing feel quite spammy and scammy, even for a Course in Miracles - inward and outward polarity manifester like myself. It turned me off.

On the other hand this made total sense because this was clearly a message whose time had come,

(the cynics in my life would say due to an entitled, lazy audience who thought this sounded easy)

there was a huge tribe of people open to these ideas.

The success of those people on the show had more to do with their message resonating with the energy at that time and what it would do for others (and the part this 'success' played in their own journey) as it did any particular steps toward manifesting those speakers took and their actual creation (ie end product - book, DVD, etc).

It's the same for us with our makings. It's not the actual makings that count so much

(you can absolutely manifest abundance in your life by producing crap - it happens everyday - but let's not do this because the world doesn't need anymore crap)

it is our experience of ourselves within our makings and how it aligns with others that is the true purpose behind what we do. 

When we connect with that purpose we can create through universal flow; without stress, tightness or attachment to any particular outcome.

Last spring I began to realize (actually someone else had to realize for me) that I had lost my focus and motivation. I didn't feel sad. I just didn't feel any joy - I didn't really feel much (except for a frequent tightness in my chest and solar plexus). I was using words like burn-out and exhaustion to myself - trying to silence the little voice inside me that said "go deeper".

I had felt a definite pull to do something, had it supported by amazing synchronicity and then it didn't seem to work out. I realized this had been my "story" in different areas of my life. I also realized that what the 'work out' part meant (what happy ending was going to satisfy me anyway) was really all in my head.

I knew that even when our creations (everything we do is an act of creation) don't manifest the way we would like them to, there is always a pay-off, providing of course we are not lost in the need for a pay-out.

I knew that it was this need for a pay-out that had me trapped. I also knew that when there appears to be a blockage in our creative affect in the outer world, it is certain there is something wanting our attention in our inner one - knowing this wasn't helping me release it though. I was tired of being a hostage to an outcome.

I will continue Part II later in the week (and connect how releasing our attachment to an outcome frees our message) - have an amazing day everyone! xo

Upcycled Holiday Gift Countdown Week # 4 - Book Clipboard

This week's easy-peasy upcycled gift is an amazing little clipboard book.

(you are probably now certain I am obsessed with books and clips and organization and you would be totally wrong - at least about the organization part - I am whatever the opposite of obsessed with organizaton would be right now)

I use these to hold my order forms at shows, but everyone needs a clipboard to keep all their little notes, photos and doodads handy.

This also looks great hanging on a wall or standing on a book shelf.

You will need:

a book, clipboard clips and hardware, screwdriver, drill

Grab a second book with your clip so you are not fighting to keep it open, mark your holes, drill, screw and voila!

If you need a personalized magnet for yours (any wording) just contact me and I will pop one in the mail to you.

I am making a half wall of these in my studio, will grab pics when I finally get the "about me" shop pics done.

My hard drive died yesterday and I am waiting to get my computer back with a new hard drive - fingers crossed tomorrow - they saved my files, but not the programs - why can't they ever save the programs? Ugh!

Part l (continued) - how compassion can unleash our passion

print by yarrow summers

see part 1 HERE

Compassion is a frequency. It's the frequency of sameness and acceptance

(the place of only one of us here - the place where we all connect).

It's the part of us that holds the essence of the universe - the place where there is no judgement. 

It is the space where expansion happens.

Wherever you are, is just fine…You can get to wherever you want to be from wherever you are… It’s time to stop measuring where you are in relationship to where anybody else is. The only factor that has anything to do with you is where you are in relationship with where you want to be.   --- Abraham

The more we connect to our compassionate self the more we will be heard. It's the sound that allows the universe (angels, our higher selves, universal consciousness - whatever you resonate with here) to recognize itself in us.

One day late last winter, I think during David's first relapse, I had to call a couple family members to let them know what was going on. Family help had fallen away and hubs and I were feeling very much alone at this point. I picked up the phone with a heavy heart, thinking I would lose my mind if I was about to hear "we told you so" while my heart was so broken open.

I stopped. I put down the phone. I knew that was exactly what I was going to hear if I brought that energy into the conversation. I knew that I created my own reality. I needed to get into the compassionate place of no judgement with everyone involved in the situation and not just David.

I took some deep breaths and did a few rounds of pranayama* to see what I needed to open up to.

*(alternate nostril breathing - holding one nostril closed at a time and taking some deep breaths - helps with relaxation and clear thinking - my left nostril which accesses my right "feeling" side - as opposed to my thinking side - is usually more closed. I always get my best work done when both sides are open and more equal. If you are ever driving when tired, covering your left nostril and breathing through your right nostril only - activating the left thinking side - will keep you more alert - it works)

I took the time to get myself into a more compassionate, loving space so my higher self could connect with their higher selves. I dialed the phone and told the first person what had happened.

The words from them that I would have heard as "I told you so- we've been through this before you came into the picture- David always does this - you can't fix this - who do you think you are" a few moments earlier - those exact same words were heard by my heart as "I did my best - don't make me feel guilty that I didn't do more".

In that moment I totally got that everything was exactly as it should be. There was nothing to forgive here.

Hubs and I had more to give at that time and so we gave more - family members pulling away had nothing to do with me and by pulling my judgement away from the situation everything changed. I offered them compassion, I said "yes, you have done so much - please continue to keep your heart open that we get healing in whatever way is possible here".

Well, maybe I didn't say it exactly like that, I didn't suddenly start channeling the Dalai Lama , but by offering them love instead of guilt everything changed in a moment.

Instead of looking for blame, like I would have if I had stayed in my lower self, I reached for compassion - and maybe reach is the wrong word here, I slowed myself down enough to see the other path- the one not in the frequency of my lower self - the one I could only feel.

I got into a space that was so free and so joyous (stayed there for a couple days) and so familiar that I recognized it was where I wanted to live. The compassion for others brought me into a space where I felt compassion for myself.

(I also created a whole hell of a lot of amazing new work the next day)

I have a friend whose husband had an affair and they went to a counselor - a wise counselor who said to my friend who couldn't forgive her husband - maybe you can't feel forgiveness, but can you feel compassion for him? It was the start of their healing.

I promised an exercise (in snap decision making) and will post it in a couple days since this post is too long already and I have an upcycled gift tutorial to post tomorrow!

Next week - Manifesting for Makers Part ll - why your message matters

Manifesting for Makers - Part I - how compassion can unleash our passion (plus a new moon in libra)

kissing print by and at BokehEverAfter.etsy.com

Since David came into our lives compassion has become a major theme in my life.

(like a giant mirror was being held up to me - in fact I even started collecting vintage hand mirrors and hadn't connected the two things until just this moment-

a mirror saying "this is how you are now being - this is who you are" picture Dumbledore; a mirror saying "how's that working for ya'" picture Dr. Phil)

I am not sure how many people will resonate with this, but since compassion feels like the root of all that is authentically real to me these days, I think we will start with this.

I am not talking about the dictionary definition of compassion which is : a deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it; pity.

True compassion holds a higher vibration - it has nothing to do with removing the pain or suffering of another person which we can't really do because the karma (ie energy attraction, cause and effect, our perfectly pre-planned, but not predestined life experiences) - that created it in the first place will just recreate it in another form.

(I think the real secret so many of us do not arrive at our destination by manifesting just what we want exactly when we want it, without explanation and without teaching is that our higher self always seeks the inner journey -

the way our outer life unfolds is not as important - there are lots of roads that lead to the same place;

the inner journey that teaches love - for ourself and others - and imparts wisdom and compassion through process.

Of course the way our outer life unfolds is important to us - to our personality, our ego - the part that makes me Cat Ivins and makes you the person I would get to know first if we met for coffee at Starbucks - which we would never do because I do not drink coffee at Starbucks, but I could watch you drink coffee at Starbucks and pretend I was totally satisfied with the green tea I would order)

Compassion is not about seeing anything or anyone as less than or as broken. It's the opposite of that. 

Pity is about judgement and compassion, in its highest sense and the only sense worth working with, is about non-judgement. It's really about the active expression of acceptance for the world and for people exactly as they are; exactly as we are - being able to look at the whole world (and so ourselves) without expectation that it should be any different.

You may be thinking so what does this have to do with manifesting?

(although you probably know by now I am a wordy blogger and have to work circles around my circles to get to what I am trying to say; "spit it out" my Jersey father would have said - this is not to make you dizzy dear reader - although I do have a certain fondness for this state of being - but rather to draw you into something slowly - so that even if you come away thinking 'she has totally lost her mind with her ramblings' at least you will have had a few minutes of quiet time - you're welcome)

Manifesting happens in the current moment (it is miracle-making after all).

Compassion gets us into that moment. It allows us to still hold the vision of amazing possibility for the world (and ourselves) but we don't use it as a standard of comparison for rejecting where the world (and we) are right now.

You don't get what you want by hating what you have. They are two different currents and you can't jump ship from that place. Compassion gets you into the place of accepting what is. 

I will get back to this on Wednesday - just a quick heads up that we have a wonderful new moon in Libra today - in fact within the hour!

This is a powerful time (for the next 2 weeks) to start something new by joining our intentions and action with this energy - especially Libra stuff (if you know what house Libra is in in your chart this could get more specific) - think relationships, cooperation, legal issues and since this is a new moon in an air sign, it's a good time for anything having to do with the "mind" of our businesses - communication, inspiration, writing, marketing, strategyzing, etc.

We can't see the new moon (until it forms a crescent later on in the week) - it is literally the time we are "in the dark" - we are planting the seeds we will harvest at the Libra full moon in six months (note - jupiter is retrograde so the issues this new moon rules may not be everything they appear- it can make things look too good to be true, so we need to stay grounded).

This new moon is powered by Mars trine Uranus from yesterday and the new moon is on the lucky star Spica and suggests a brand new start (a trine means ease so blockages toward something happening are removed, that could be something good or something bad - again the nonjudgment of the universe is always in play!) and Mars trine Uranus gives us the courage to look at something and deal with it once and for all - we can do this thing!

Tomorrow I'll be posting another easy-peasy gift and then on Wednesday finish Part l of this series before next week's Manifesting for Makers takes us to Part ll. Have an amazing day everyone! Don't forget your New Moon Wishes (see HERE) - although I always change the words "I wish" to "I choose".