2022 August 16 Using Mindfulness and manifestation

Hi, this is Jim Cranston from 7EveryMinute and 7EveryMinute.com,  the podcast and website by, for, and about Baby Boomers. Thanks for joining me tonight for a little talk on mindfulness and manifestation. So let's get started. 

The theme for tonight is mindfulness and manifestation, but first, just a real quick update from last week on the planner template and on making little steps. So remember I said, I was going to make a little planner. So you can look at this and say, It's not really a Canva design or anything, it's a bunch of scribbles on a piece of paper. But the reality is, they're thoughtful scribbles. In reality, that's something that I can hand off to somebody.

At some point, we'll talk a lot about delegation, and the cost of handing something off to somebody. There's always an upfront cost when you first start working with somebody else, but of course, then that's paid over time, repeatedly, because now you know how to work together and things go better.

Actually taking the little step of making the template, looking into who's available to do Canva work for me - and I have somebody on staff already, but I've already pretty much successfully overloaded her with a lot of other things as well - and so these are all little steps that all lead to a bigger result for a long term goal.

I just wanted to talk about that a little, to talk about how, even though last week was filled with a lot of challenges, I had made a list of priorities and followed through on them. By the end of the week, most of them were checked off. Some of them were bigger, some of them were little, but even in the face of what could easily have become a complete overload situation, a lot of progress was made. Many of the little projects were still moved forward, and that moved the big project forward. 

So just a little encouragement, we talked about last week, that a lot of little things really do add up to a big thing if they're planned in advance and they're all steps towards your goal. But back to the real topic at hand on mindfulness and manifestation, I've mentioned this book before, Peace is Every Step, by Thich Nhat Hanh. He's Vietnamese, a Vietnamese monk. He passed away recently, and I've been reading through it on and off for quite a period of time. What really matters, I would suggest, but what matters a lot more, is does it (the book) bring something positive into your life? For me it does, because it simplifies some pretty complex concepts into very simple and attainable steps and actions that helped me when the outside world was working hard to overwhelm me with all these needless details.

Mindfulness can be described as dwelling or being aware of the present moment. How often have you eaten lunch at your desk, or done some chore while you're on the phone, only to realize that you missed the pleasure of eating, or with the satisfaction of finishing that pesky chore?

Mindfulness is simply staying aware of the little things, that you can see they're overly part of the big thing, which of course we call life. I find that by being mindful, I can take a more  often hyper-focused mind and back it away from the current problem. That allows me to see a bigger picture and that often yields more elegant solutions to the problem at hand.

So that's nice, but what does that have to do with manifestation, and what is manifestation? Manifesting is the practice of thinking aspirational thoughts with the purpose of making them real. So listen to that again: the practice of thinking aspirational thoughts with the purpose of making them real. You could look at that as woo-woo and you manifest gold and gold appears or whatever. However, that sure sounds a lot like goal setting, visualizing it, and then letting your mind guide you to what you really want to accomplish.

We've talked about that a lot. I know there's a lot of people saying you should stare at something and see this very special pattern. Or, you visualize in a particular way or you say a phrase or whatever. But I would suggest that perhaps those things are just tools to help your mind focus better on your vision, and that the real magic happens when you truly believe your vision.

Again, I think it’s worth saying again. All these other things are just tools to help your mind focus on your vision, and that the real magic happens when you truly believe in your vision. 

We have a whole course that we're developing on this, and this is all based around how your mind works. Once your mind really sees how the outcome is attainable, then it's no longer scared of it. It's no longer concerned about it. It's not something foreign. It knows that it can figure out the steps to get you to where you want to be, because once you truly believe your vision, you and your mind will always tend to make things happen in very specific ways that will lead you to what you want to attain.

You'll decide to go to that event where you're more likely to meet other people aligned with your beliefs and your goals, or you'll make financial decisions that support your real goals instead of someone else’s. You'll be giving your mind permission, and the power, to guide you to live your life in a way that is consistent with your beliefs.

As we say every week, remember to live the life that you dreamed of, because that is the path to true contentment. I say that because it's really true. If you are living towards your dream, then setbacks are more likely to be just that, setbacks, and not total defeats,  because your mind will learn from the challenges and those setbacks, and it will get better at guiding you around them, and life will generally become more pleasant. 

So now we can see how mindfulness helps us to really clear our thoughts so we can really develop inner peace and focus. That leads right into manifestation, which is envisioning a future consistent with our beliefs and goals, which will tend to lead us to a more satisfying life overall.

Like peanut butter and jelly, some concepts and some things are just made to work well together. Mindfulness and manifestation just work hand in hand to move us towards happiness and peace. 

So that's it for the evening. Thanks for stopping by. Stay healthy. Care for others, but remember to care for yourself, so you can always be at your very best.

So as always be true to yourself. Live your life aligned with your true goals and feelings. Thank you for stopping by. If you found something interesting and useful, please pass it along. If not, please drop me a comment as to what you'd like to hear. Please hit the like button if you've enjoyed what we covered and as always have a great week.

Thanks for visiting, and of course, remember to live the life that you dream of, because that's the path to true contentment. Love and encouragement to everyone, and see you next week on 7EveryMinute and 7EveryMinute.com. Thank you.