Your opportunity for real personal change
can be found in these “Claim It!” exercises,
Claim it!
Choose a situation in life where you experience recurring challenges.
- Instead of wondering what to do and how to handle that problem, connect to the emotions behind the issue that you are experiencing.
- Commit to writing in your journal for five minutes a day about your experience with that particular feeling. By accessing your feelings and writing them down, you decrease their power over you and allow yourself to see them for what they really are, not for the impact they have had upon you.
Do you experience fear, anxiety, terror, or panic? Can you identify the main emotion? Usually it’s an emotion you’re not comfortable with. In your attempt to avoid facing this emotion, you create behaviors that aren’t aligned with your essence. These behaviors are merely symptoms of the underlying issue. In brief, you create a monster!
The less you want to connect to your uncomfortable emotions, the bigger and more powerful your monster becomes. The more you integrate these emotions into your life, the more you will be able to act in alignment with your essence rather than your fears.
Claim it!
- Sit comfortably and take a few deep breaths.
- Close your eyes and recall an event that brings you discomfort when you think of it. (Start with something mildly uncomfortable as you hone this tool, rather than beginning with something that is a strong trigger for your emotions.)
- Turn your head to the left as you remember the experience. Inhale deeply and hold your breath, feeling all the emotions associated with that event.
- Turn your head to the right and exhale. Imagine all the anxiety and intensity of the original experience is being exhaled with your breath.
- Turn your head back to the left and inhale again, repeating the whole process. Do this a number of times; realizing with each repetition that the emotional charge of the original experience is diminishing.
- When you feel more peaceful, turn your head to the center and observe how you feel. Perhaps you will realize an action that you can take to further alleviate the stress associated with this memory.
In Neuro-Linguistic Programming, “history” is lodged on your left and “future” is lodged to your right. In this exercise you are taking a memory from your past and changing or morphing your reaction to that event in your future. In this way you can allow the energy of that experience to serve you rather than drag you down.
Claim it!
1. Find a quiet place where you will be undisturbed, and take a couple of deep breaths. Imagine that your personae is an amalgamation of five dimensions: Physical, Emotional, Mental, Heart (different than the emotional in that it is non-reactive and knows no boundaries), and Spiritual.
2. Now examine each of these five dimensions. What aspect of you needs to rest the most: The physical part? The emotional part? The mental part? The spiritual part? Your heart?
3. What things are restful for you? There are many ways to feed your soul and use your creativity. Again, think of your five dimensions:
- Physical: Lie down or sleep; get a massage.
- Emotional: Tap into your creative side, drawing, painting, listening to music or playing it.
- Mental: Decide to be silent for an hour, quieting your internal thoughts, too.
- Heart: Turn to nature for a walking meditation, watching the clouds go by, listening to the rain.
- Spiritual: For centuries, chanting and singing have been a way to access the soul’s essence, or you may find solace in reading spiritual writing.
4. Choose a mode of rest that suits the dimension most in need of rest. As you repeat this exercise, you may choose a different form of rest each time, depending on the needs of all five bodies or dimensions.
Congratulations on taking time for YOU.
Claim it!
In your manifesting journal, write each of the following sentence stems, finishing each with a belief you would like to hold.
- I choose to believe about my potential that . . .
- I choose to believe about my physical body that . . .
- I choose to believe about my social skills that . . .
- I choose to believe about my finances that . . .
- I choose to believe about my future that . . .
- I choose to believe about [fill in your own words] that . . .
I choose!
Claim it!
This Claim it! will help you expand your awareness and gain new insights in your life.
- Think about a situation in your life where you want to gain more insights.
- Find a quiet place, sit comfortably, and take a couple of deep breaths.
- Close your eyes and expand your awareness in a clockwise motion—front, right, back, and left—by acknowledging the sounds, smells, and energies that are just outside of the tunnel vision you traditionally use.
- Stay present to your 360 degrees experience. Feel the expansiveness of your experience. How will this awareness serve you? Having completed the full circle, what do you notice?
Claim it!
- Every morning, set your intention to receive the gift of opportunity. Believe that this gift will come to you. Don’t think in a linear manner about what the gift may be, or try to orchestrate it to be something you want. You are opening up to possibilities that are beyond your conscious thought. All you have to do is pay attention.
- At the end of the day, think back and realize what your gift was. You may even discover that you received more than one gift. What will you do with this gift? What does it open up for you? What does it help you learn? How can you take advantage of what you’ve received?
Claim it!
- Sit in a comfortable position. Block your right nostril with the right index finger for this whole exercise.
- Inhale in four strokes through the left nostril. Hold the breath in for a count of five.
- Exhale in four strokes (through the left nostril only). Hold the breath out for the same count.
- As you are able, expand the length of time that you hold the breath in and out.
- Repeat this cycle for a minimum of three minutes.
Claim it!
Create Your Manifestation Board
How do you manifest what you want in life? You can make a to-do list and work really really hard to accomplish it. You can spend lots of time and energy trying to figure out how to go from where you are to where you want to be, or you can trust your imagination and desire and choose to create a manifestation board. It is a powerful activity to help you express and clarify your desires and your intention.
As you begin, be as open and positive as possible. Approach it from a creative vantage point using your right brain, the associative and intuitive brain, to give birth to your intent. Take your time with this process. If you go too quickly, there is a tendency to be linear, and you may create unnecessary pressure, which will limit your possibilities. Allow yourself to be free and creative.
- Get a poster-sized sheet of paper or poster board, scissors, and glue.
- Gather a stack of magazines and calendars and/or pictures you’ve taken.
- Select and cut out pictures you are attracted to that connect to your intent.
- Glue these images to your paper or poster board in a way that pleases you. There is no logic to how you do this; no plan, no strategy.
- Put this collage in a place where you will be reminded of your intent every day (on your desktop, the wall of your office, and so on).
Claim it!
What is Your Motivation: Passion or Pressure?
You all know the importance of motivation when it is time to create changes in your life. But wait! What kind of motivation are you driven by, passion or pressure?
Passion motivation is generated by excitement and the enthusiasm to create what uplifts you. It comes from the inside and serves your soul. This motivation is particularly easy to express in positive thoughts pattern such as, “I really love running, and I want to do the next marathon.”
Pressure motivation focuses on fear and what you don’t want to create. It’s a motivation generated by adrenaline, and is dependent upon outside events. An example from the business world is, “if we don’t improve our sales, we’ll need to lay off employees.”
Let’s explore through this telling “Claim It!” how you have designed your life:
1. Write down 5 to 10 topics, each one representing a part of your life, an activity, or an ongoing desire.
2. Look at your list and consider your motivation behind each item. For every topic, assess the following on a scale from 1 to 10 (1= not at all, 10= completely)
- Is this Passion based?
- Is this Pressure based?
3. Revisit each item on your list that was primarily motivated by pressure. What can you learn about that pressure? Ask yourself:
- Why did I first get attracted to this?
- What parts of it do I feel passionate about?
- What can I change today that will positively affect my life?
Claim it!
Who is on your team?
You all know the importance of motivation when it is time to create changes in your life. But wait! What kind of motivation are you driven by, passion or pressure?
Passion motivation is generated by excitement and the enthusiasm to create what uplifts you. It comes from the inside and serves your soul. This motivation is particularly easy to express in positive thoughts pattern such as, “I really love running, and I want to do the next marathon.”
Pressure motivation focuses on fear and what you don’t want to create. It’s a motivation generated by adrenaline, and is dependent upon outside events. An example from the business world is, “if we don’t improve our sales, we’ll need to lay off employees.”
Let’s explore through this telling “Claim It!” how you have designed your life:
Wouldn’t it be nice if every desire you have could be manifested?
You may think that if you really want something and you plan ahead, set goals and work hard, it should be enough. Yet often that does not work. Often your plan requires more than just “you” and your will.
There will be people along your path who will help you to manifest the life you want. Professional and personal acquaintances, family and friends can support you at the emotional, financial, strategic and spiritual levels. This team is priceless. They are your external team.
You also have an internal team, which is actually more powerful than your external network. It can control your life and prevent you from creating what you desire. Or it can open up wonderful new opportunities and guide you with clarity and intuition. This team is made up of many elements including your beliefs, your assumptions, your life experiences and your fears. These elements are so alive that they seem to have personalities and express themselves through your inner conversations. They can even be given names for the roles they play. For example:
- Mr. No You Can’t focuses on the blocks, the problems, on why something can’t work. He only sees the negative and the obstacles.
- Scaredy Cat wants a guarantee of the results before daring to begin and is very concerned with what will happen if “it” doesn’t work.
- Spacy Tracie is content to just dream, imagine, and never DO anything.
- Need-D never has enough time, money, help, or whatever is necessary to succeed, and always feels lacking.
- Sunshine Suzy believes that everything is possible and has complete trust that things will always work out.
Make a list of other members of your internal team. Consider them an inner board of directors. You can have an internal conversation with them, perhaps thanking them for the job they have done (sometimes too well) and asking for their assistance in making the changes necessary to help you move forward. Tell them what it is you truly desire and ask for their help. Agree to check in with them occasionally to see how everything is working and ask you how might make further alterations in their job descriptions.
The work you have done in this exercise is an important foundation for transformation and manifestation. Whereas your internal characters were previously operating from a solitary and somewhat hidden place often motivated by fear, you have now created a partnership that includes open communication. As your internal and external teams work together, you can experience more and more success as you manifest the life you truly desire.