July 2010
I read an
extraordinary book called Creating
Money, Attracting Abundance by Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer (2008). I am
struck by the wisdom of the content and also how closely it follows the
intention of counselling and psychotherapy, at least how I practice it.
One of the key
affirmations in this book is this: ‘To manifest what you want, intend to create
it.’ Roman and Packer continue, ‘…make up your mind that having what you want
is important to you and that you are willing to put a certain amount of thought
and energy into getting it. Your intent to have something directs your energy
and focuses it on your goals.’ These words have an energy similar to that
required in a successful batch of counselling and psychotherapeutic sessions.
Too often we wait for
good things to happen to us, without realizing that we actually need to know
more precisely what we want out of life. We need more information in order to
even know what a good life means to us individually. Then we actively need to
seek how we choose to live. Unless we do this with intention, we simply exist
at rather “blah” level of being: unfulfilled, anxious about the future,
co-habiting with people that don’t inspire us, working in jobs that may pay the
rent but fail to stimulate us much, and just plain bored with life.
It is easy to get
into a rut and not know how to move onwards. Counselling is useful in helping
break the knots that seem to bind us. It helps in identifying what excites us
and how we might explore a new, innovative and sparkly way of being.
Counselling also aids in confronting our fears and those emotions that get in
the way of seeking changes in our lives.
Seeking ways to
fulfil our potential requires us to let go of wishful thinking that bears
little relationship to our actual talents, skills, and inborn capabilities. For
instance, though I might have an interest in neurosurgery, I do not have the
fine eye-hand co-ordination required to perform it. Though I might be
interested in acting on the stage, I do not have the capacity for pretending to
be someone else. Even though I love cartooning, I cannot draw well enough.
These are dreams that can have no reality. My potential and my capacity to
fulfil that lies elsewhere.
It can help to
explore ideas about what changes we want to make in our lives with a
counsellor. It helps also to come to know the reluctance and resistance, and
the cause of those, in exploring other ways of living our lives. I am currently of the opinion that
reluctance, resistance, and recalcitrance identifies the human being more than
any other characteristic suggested to distinguish us from the rest of the animal
world. We procrastinate to the nth degree so that either a decision is made for
us or the whole thing fizzles out.
Knowing what is going on for us thus becomes very useful in a bid to
live an abundant life.
Attracting abundance
to our individual life requires daily acts of trust. Trust is the intentional bridge between
our mental state and the physical world. It connects us in the space between
the conception of an idea and its manifestation. Trust requires listening within to a
deeper knowing of ourselves and also a capacity to suspend judgement of what
happens in the external world and then acting purposefully and clearly on what
presents itself. Interestingly, and this is described beautifully in the book
above, when we begin actively focussing on what it is we want in life,
opportunities come to greet us. Counselling, in helping us to think outside our
habitual square and identifying through experienced awareness those resistances
to leaving that safe but boring square and in assisting the building of trust,
accelerates change and opens us to a more abundant life. The abundance
discovered then becomes an abundance shared. This is the beauty of it.
I know, however, that
the level of abundance is proportional to our capacity for handling it. I liken this fact to what occurs in
pond life. The pond fish, koi, only grows in body length to a size proportional
to the size of the pond. The greater the capacity for handling (without anxiety
and resistance) abundance (including money), the more we can allow into our
lives. This is not mysterious nor magical in any way; it is eminently sensible.
What we say “yes” to is what we agree to allow into our lives and when we focus
on achieving that, we create an environment where such things can occur with consciousness and
acceptance.
Actively accepting
abundance depends on valuing, honouring, and knowing ourselves. It cannot be
any other way. Counselling helps in building a sense of self value, esteem and
awareness of interests, skills, talents, as well as hopes, dreams, and a sense
of excitement in pursuing them into the life beyond. Joy can begin here.
