Steve Pavlina Personal Development Insights Newsletter Issue #50

Effortless Success Mindfest - Completely Free for This Weekend Only

Learning Strategies has been streaming a very nice audio program from Jack Canfield on the Law of Attraction this week, called the Effortless Success Mindfest. It's completely free to listen to it online, but they're only making it available through this weekend. So if you have some time this weekend to listen to it (while doing house cleaning or making meals, for instance), this is a very nice program to give you a boost of motivation and action ideas going into next week.

Feel free to read my blog post about the Mindfest, or check out the list of topics on the Effortless Success Mindfest website, and start listening to your first lesson right away. Again, it's free and it only takes a few seconds to sign up.

If you have any difficulties getting access to the course, just drop an email to info@learningstrategies.com, and they'll be happy to walk you through it. I listened to this course years ago and quite enjoyed it.

Morten Hake Summit

I had such an amazing time in Oslo last week, including speaking at the Morten Hake Summit. Thanks so much to everyone who attended. I'd love to speak again there next year!

What Lucid Dreaming Can Teach You About Manifesting

With intention-manifestation the process of receiving an intention is very similar to learning lucid dreaming.

In lucid dreaming you become conscious and aware that you're dreaming. You remember that your real physical body is actually lying in bed asleep, and that what you're perceiving is all happening in your sleeping brain. You remember your waking life and your identity, and you know that the dream world you see is imaginary. This realization gives you the ability to take control of the dream. So you can fly like Superman, teleport, conjure up new scenes and characters, and so on. For a good intro to this topic, listen to the lucid dreaming podcast that Erin and I created several years ago.

When people experience their very first lucid dream, they usually wake up almost immediately, so the experience of lucidity only lasts a few seconds. Why does this happen? It happens because the person, upon realizing they're having their first lucid dream, becomes way too excited. The experience is just too amazing for the person to remain calm, and so their heart rate speeds up, and they jolt themselves awake.

The second or third time someone has a lucid dream, they usually experience the same thing. They instantly get excited, and this excitement kills the dream and wakes them up.

In order to sustain a lucid dream, the person has to learn to remain calm when they realize they're dreaming. They must avoid creating the emotional spikes that will wake them up. Fortunately this is just a matter of practice. Once people learn to stay calm, they can enjoy much longer lucid dreams without waking up so quickly.

The Problem of Excess Excitement

This is essentially what happens when people begin to practice intention-manifestation as well. In order to receive new intentions, the person must learn to receive their manifestations calmly. Otherwise they're actually killing the intention and pushing away their desires.

Suppose you intend to manifest a new relationship partner. So you get clear about the vibe you'd be experiencing if this person was already with you, you practice holding that vibe until you feel quite comfortable with it, and you work through blocks to receiving your intention (shame, fear, guilt, worry, scarcity, etc). If you've been following my blog for a while, then this process is nothing new for you.

Now suppose that this works. Your intention begins to manifest, just as you requested. You begin to notice some potential matches showing up in your life.

The first time this happens, you may have a tendency to get overly excited. You think, Holy crap! This person could be a really awesome match for me... that was fast!

It might seem well and good to feel this much excitement, but when you do this, you'll often find that your early matches quickly fizzle out. Something goes wrong, or you foul something up, and the complete manifestation doesn't really come through. You may even sense that the universe is teasing you by dangling your request in front of you, only to yank it away when you try to grab it.

This happens because that overly excited vibe is not the vibe of receiving. The vibe of receiving is cool, calm, gracious, and relaxed. This is the same vibe that's required to maintain a lucid dream. With lucid dreaming if you get overly excited, you kill the dream. With manifesting intentions if you get overly excited, you kill the manifestation process.

What often happens is that after a while, the person trying to manifest their desire learns to stop spazzing out emotionally whenever their desire begins to show up. Sometimes this happens by accident. They may give up on their intention for a while, and that's when it finally comes through. By not caring about it as much, they stop exuding that crazy, clingy energy that repels desires, and they adopt a cooler and more receptive posture that's aligned with receiving.

How to Stop Spazzing Out

I've been manifesting some pretty amazing desires this year, and one of my biggest challenges has been to avoid spazzing out with over-the-top excitement when they begin to show up.

When an idea that has been a fantasy for a while starts to become an actual reality, it can be quite difficult to receive it calmly and gracefully. Initially you may be very tempted to react, Oh my God! I can't believe this is actually happening! This is too good to be true! Am I really ready for this now? What do I do here? I'd better be careful, or I might screw this up.

When you spaz out with excessive enthusiasm, your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs suggest something like this:

• I don't deserve this.
• I'm not ready for this yet.
• It's too soon.
• It's too much.
• I need more time to prepare.
• This is too good to be true.

But when you can maintain a cool, gracious receptivity, then you're aligning yourself with thoughts, feelings, and beliefs such as:

• I'm ready for this now.
• No time like the present.
• I deserve this.
• This is normal for me.
• I receive this.
• Cool, thanks.

Receiving Gracefully

What if you can't help but feel a big energy build-up when your most exciting desires begin to manifest? How do you contain that energy without spazzing out internally?

If you try to keep that energy bottled up, it will lead to excess excitement. That extra energy has to go somewhere. The key is to release it instead of trying to hold onto it. Otherwise you'll kill the flow, and your desire won't fully manifest. So instead of trying to contain that energy, do your best to keep it moving.

When the universe brings me what I asked for, I return that energy to the universe in the form of gratitude and appreciation. I imagine this excess energy pooling in my heart (or my heart chakra, by imagining a green glowing orb in the center of my chest), and then I send this energy back outwards by holding thoughts such as:

• Thank you.
• Mmmmmm... this is very nice.
• I receive and appreciate this.
• I'm grateful for this.
• You are making me feel very loved.
• I'm glad to be having this experience now.

Quite often I'll say things like the above out loud, either to the people near me (if my desires are manifesting through them) or just aloud to the universe when I'm alone. If I express this gratitude towards people, then I'll usually make it more personal like, "I appreciate having you in my life" or "The way you make love is really beautiful."

I like to take advantage of quiet opportunities to release any extra energy build-up, so that energy can keep flowing. For instance, if I'm on a plane and I'm starting to feel really excited about the trip I'm taking, I might gaze out the window and say a silent "Thank you... this is a really nice experience. I very much appreciate it." to the clouds below. Or if I'm in the using the tiny bathroom on the plane, I'll pause for a moment, look in the mirror, and smile as I say aloud some simple statement like, "I really appreciate being able to travel as much as I do. Thank you."

Even when I've had some physically draining experiences connected to my manifestations -- like when I was traveling continuously for more than 24 hours on 3 different planes last week with no sleep -- I still like to pause now and then to express gratitude for the experience. If I'm receiving what I asked for, even if the act of receiving entails some difficulty, I still want to remain as gracious and receptive as I can under the circumstances. This helps keep the flow going, making it easier and easier for similar intentions to come through.

I know that if I request something from the universe, and the universe delivers essentially what I requested, it's wise receive this gift with a sense of grace, coolness, and deservedness. If I generate excess excitement at the first sign of delivery, then I'm not allowing myself to be a good match for this desire yet. I'm still resisting it on some level.

With practice, you can take intentions that once seemed incredible or out of reach and integrate them into your normal experience of living. Instead of being amazing and exceptional and rare, they can become as simple and real as having breakfast... but with no loss of appreciation for them. When this happens your life will become like a beautiful dream, full of delightful experiences that you relish.

Please follow me on Twitter and Google+ for inspirational messages and quick updates.

Steve Recommends

Here are my recommendations for products and services that I've personally reviewed and which I believe can help you on your personal growth journey. This is a very short list since it only includes my top picks.

Getting Rich with Ebooks - Earn passive income from ebooks.
Site Build It! - Build an income-generating website.
Lefkoe Method - Permanently eliminate a limiting belief in 20 minutes.
Paraliminals - Accelerate your personal growth.
Sedona Method - Free Audio - Learn to release blocks in a few minutes
The Journal - Keep a secure journal on your PC.
PhotoReading - Read books 3x faster.
Life on Purpose - Discover your life purpose.

Until next time, live consciously!