Serendipity's Garden

I hope this post finds you bountifully celebrating the harvest season (or springtime, depending upon where you are in the world)!

I’m excited to be starting Elyse Hope Killoran’s Prosperity Partnership Program tomorrow, and I hope to be sharing with you some of the insights and a-ha’s that I receive in the program. My appreciation to YOU for sharing this journey with me!

This post includes an article from my friend and colleague Cathleen Campbell of Living Harmony on ‘Approving Your Way to Abundance’…Enjoy!

EnJOY a magnificent and miraculous week!

Namaste,
Carolyn

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“I think that whenever soul is present, it’s because what you’re doing, whom you’re with, where you are, evokes love without your thinking about it. You are totally absorbed in the place or person or event, without ego and without judgment.”

~ Jean Shinoda Bolen

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Approve Your Way to Abundance
by Cathleen Campbell

It never fails. No matter what the challenge they are working on with me, the moment I ask a talented, good-looking, accomplished and seemingly successful client if they approve of themselves they shake their head and  squint their eyes in confusion. Of course! they approve of themselves, they opine, don’t the hours in the gym and office prove that? Ask a client who is working on their physical appearance, health or a lack of loving  relationships in their life, and the reaction can be even more emotionally intense.

No matter who we are, the frustration of all the conscious and physical effort we put in and the lack of desired results we get when we disapprove becomes either overwhelming or defeating.

“The truth will set you free.
But first, it will piss you off.”

~ Gloria Steinem

Finding out that we’ve been sabotaging even our greatest efforts can be confusing, upsetting and even maddening.

But the truth is that the simple act of disapproving is one of the single most destructive and wasteful things we can do.

Just as the concept of forgiveness is often misunderstood, the process of approving is confusing as well. Forgiveness is not a blank slate, or a condoning of the offense. It may seem like semantics, but learning what it really is and how to apply it can literally change our life.   In the same way, approving is not an encouragement to experience more negativity, it’s not rationalizing. Learning how to approve of yourself and others will help you grease the wheels of your own creations.

Especially here in the West, we have a long tradition of righting wrongs, striving to correct imbalances and fixing things that are broken. A long time ago we came to believe that thinking negatively about something will somehow change it into the positive. We developed and nurtured a strong belief system that the more something inspires us to feel badly, the more force we’ll be able to muster against it which will help us overcome it. It’s a powerful draw, the desire to change that which offends us.

The challenge is of course that while we have so many examples of how we fought the good fight and won, from an energetic standpoint we know that that these concepts are actually a misuse of our power and the power of the universe! While we have achieved some astounding successes in the face of overwhelming negativity by using our force, we are in fact making it more difficult and creating more problems for ourselves than is necessary.

When we disapprove of something or someone, we aren’t rejecting them or the vibration of negativity at all. Rather, we are actually grabbing hold of the very thing we don’t want. What we resist…persists!

We are in effect saying to the universe “see this, this thing I don’t like? Could you please keep this going because I’ve accepted it into my reality…” and the result is that the person, thing or event we are disapproving of simply MUST continue in order to maintain receiving our disapproval!

The way we have used force to overcome negativity in our history is not proof that positive vibrations resulting from positive thoughts, feelings and actions doesn’t work.

It’s proof that the weight of vibrational frequency in those instances merely shifted slowly. At first the majority of the vibrational frequency was resonating with negativity, disharmony. As we became aware and dwelt on the negative, it grew, sustained and festered. Once the decision was made to change the negative, the shift began…but slowly.

The main attention was on the what is “now,” with a mere wish for what could be. As the intensity of attention shifted from what is to what could be, so did the vibrational frequency and thus the resulting reality. Finally, when the balance of energy shifted enough from negative to the other end of the spectrum, eventually the weight of attention had gained enough momentum and the resulting reality appeared to have changed rather quickly. In reality, it was shifting all along from the very first moment attention was given to what could be.

Of course it’s entirely impossible to give approval to those people, situations and things that are giving us pain. It seems that it would add to the wrongs if we gave our approval to someone who continually abused us. But we’re not talking about leaning in for another slap when we speak of turning the other cheek. Perhaps the wording could have been better crafted, but the meaning if you look for it and understand energy is clear and true. By removing the hurt part, and returning to the scene in a strong and clear way, we release the energy that we were disapproving of in the first place.

So if righting wrongs and fixing the broken things is such bad manifesting, why have we developed this pattern? Because it feels pretty darn good in the end, and we love a good high. Living in a state of self-disapproval, it feels good to shift the focus of blame for just a bit. Between enjoying the reprieve from the disapproval spotlight, and the desire to feel the adrenaline burn, we’re almost more comfortable with negative energy than turning to the positive.

Yet just because something is an accepted pattern does not make it valid or true.

Manifesting is much like the process of flying a plane. While the pretty travel brochures show a simple line connecting the departure and arrival points, the reality of flight is anything but a straight line. The job of the pilot is to course correct, repeatedly until safely reaching the desired destination. It would be ludicrous for a pilot to say, “Oh darn…we’re a few degrees off course…I guess we have to stop and go back to our starting point now.”  If they did, we’d never get anywhere!

The same is true with us. But as we move through our days, our projects, our relationships, endeavoring to create our dreams drawing us from where we begin to our desired destination we tend more to abandon the course rather than correct it.

Approval is noticing where you are, realistically, and still supporting yourself and others. It’s learning to compliment those things we did do well, while clearly being reasonable about making the changes we still need in order to successfully complete the journey or create our dream.

Of course as with all self-growth knowledge, understanding the concepts consciously is far different from actually being able to apply them in our own lives. The stuck energy of our painful traumas, negative beliefs and misconceptions have to be cleared first in order for us to be open to learning how to implement the concept of giving approval to ourselves and others. Once we do, however, life suddenly seems to slide easily into place as our vibration moves from one of force to attraction, one of tightness to openness. And being open is the only way we can actually receive.

Learning how to approve of yourself and others may seem a daunting challenge, given how amazingly annoying, absurd, hurtful and difficult both we and they can be. But as you clear yourself of your own disapproval, you may find the disapproval you held for others organically shifting away too.

And in the process, so you’ll increase the momentum of your positive manifestations – everything from a better bathing-suit body to higher sales, more loving relationships and access to your creative genius – all increasingly magnetized to you.

About the Author:
Cathleen Campbell of Living Harmony teaches individual clients, groups and organizations the internal and external environmental energy tools we all need to clear the stuck energy keeping us blocked from creating and attracting the success, prosperity and wellbeing we seek in our personal, professional and spiritual lives. For more information about services, products and programs, please visit our Book Sessions page. Additional helpful information about manifesting and energy can be found throughout this site and a list of Frequently Asked Questions or the Sample Client Profiles may provide the information you need to begin learning to manifest your own desires in Living Harmony.

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“It is our desire that while you are in these magnificent bodies,
that you are able to relax more and resist less
that you are able to allow more and fuss and worry less
that you can find ways of praising more and complaining less
of basking more and struggling less
of flowing more and paddling less
of laughing more and crying less.

That you can find ways of relaxing into the knowing that you are just
right, in the right place, at the right time.
That there is not some bandwagon that you need to get on.
Or, not some thing that you need to do differently than what
you are doing.

We so want you to just melt into bed tonight, as you put yourself there
and feel the warm embrace of Source Energy wrapping around you
and through you — feeling nothing but appreciation and love for your
willingness to play in this co-creative game with all of us.

There is great love here for you. As always, we remain eternally and
joyously incomplete!”

~ Excerpted from Abraham-Hicks, Los Angeles, CA 2/2/08

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“People ask what must they become to be loving. The answer is ‘nothing.’ It is a process of letting go of what you thought you had become and allowing your true nature to float to the surface naturally.”

~ Stephen Levine