Understanding the Power of Your Feelings
Developing Your Emotional Guidance System
I briefly mentioned in my last essay that paying very close attention to your emotions and feelings is key to getting what you desire. Such a process can be described as understanding your “Emotional Guidance System” or locating your vibrational set-point. A great book teaching how to do just this is Ask and It Is Given – Learning to Manifest Your Desires by Esther and Jerry Hicks.
The authors outline three steps you must follow for you to achieve whatever you want to be, do, or have:
· Step 1 (your work): You ask.
· Step 2 (not your work): The answer is given by the universe.
· Step 3 (your work): The answer, which has been given, must be received or allowed. You have to let it in.
Having already read many of the leading books about the power of positive thought, Steps 1 and 2 were already familiar to me. The problem was that, while this process sounded great and simple, I never received the answer I asked for … no matter how often I asked!
Why had the power of my positive thought failed me? Because I wasn’t aware of Step 3! I didn’t know I had to actively receive the answer. I didn’t know what that even meant – until I met Francis.
Find Your Bliss
I introduced Francis as my healer in the post entitled, “Live Life in Slow Motion.” He told me how he achieved one of the highest levels you can achieve on earth–a state of bliss. Being in the state of bliss requires our feelings to be aligned with the Jet Stream of the Universe–our Higher Power. But when circumstances knock you out of alignment with that Jet Stream, then reaching for bliss in that moment is an impossible thing.
I was so fascinated with this idea that I decided to make it a key goal of my journey. No matter what the situation or circumstance, my goal is achieve the highest version of myself while on this planet. And I can only do so by always asking this question before any time I speak or act:
“What should I do or say now so this brings me closer to bliss?”
Said differently, being in a state of bliss means our emotions are aligned so we have fulfilled feelings.
Locating the Emotional Guidance System
The Hicks explain that Step 3 is the application of the “Art of Allowing.”
It is really the reason our Emotional Guidance System exists. In the same way that your radio tuner must be set to match the frequency of the broadcasting station you desire to hear, your vibrational frequency must match the frequency of your desire. Often—even when you believe you are thinking about something that you desire—you are actually thinking about the exact opposite of what you desire.
If your emotional set-point because of your experiences is about the lack of something, as long as you are more aware of what you do not want regarding this situation, what you do want cannot come to you. In other words, “I want to be well; I don’t want to be sick.” “I want to have financial security; I don’t want to experience a shortage of money.” “I want the perfect relationship to come to me; I don’t want to be alone.”
Once you are aware of your Emotional Guidance System, this distinction will be very easy for you to make and you can change your emotional set-point. You can tell by your emotions and by the way you feel, exactly where you are headed.
Once you understand that the way you feel indicates your level of allowing or resisting, you now hold the key to creating anything that you desire. As you consciously practice the way you feel, you will get better at changing your emotional set-point. Reaching for the way you would like to feel is an easier way to hold your thoughts. It’s as simple as paying attention to your emotions, focusing on good-feeling thoughts, and making them the focal point of how you act. This is your Emotional Guidance System in action.
I put this into practice not too long ago. I made the decision to get out of an extremely unhealthy relationship, which also meant moving to a different city. My realtor told me it would take 6 to 9 months to sell my home because there was only a small number of buyers for what I was selling. I put the three steps into practice and spent a great deal of time over a couple of months focused on Step 3 - feelings of hope, peace, love, excitement, gratitude, and happiness related to the sale of my house.
On the first day the house was on the market, my boys and I left for a week of vacation. When we landed at our destination 12 hours later, there was a text from my realtor that the first person who came to my house put in a full price offer, and we had to move out in 5 weeks! Yes, it worked!
As I learned from the Hicks, your Emotional Guidance System is the key to helping you understand what your vibrational content is so you can locate your current point of attraction. When you are fully focused upon your true purpose, you feel wonderful, but when you focus upon the absence of something you want, that’s when you feel awful.
Your emotions always let you know what you are doing with your vibrational energy. Your emotions always let you know exactly what your point of attraction is. By paying attention to your emotions and by deliberately thinking thoughts that positively affect the way you feel, you can consciously guide yourself into the vibrational frequency that will first make room and then intentionally allow the fulfillment of any desire you hold. The sale of my house is a perfect example of this.
From Guidance to Intelligence
Most people are not aware of all the emotions and feelings that are present at any given moment. They’re unaccustomed to thinking of themselves “as radio transmitters and receivers” for their emotions. Neither was I, until I met my spiritual coach, Reverend Sara Gates.
While I’ll write more about her in another essay, one of her monthly practices centers on Emotional Intelligence. She coaches that Emotional Intelligence is one aspect of overall human intelligence, so developing such skills means learning how to be aware of what emotions and feelings are present within you. It’s crucial to first build spiritual maturity and emotional maturity before you can advance further on this spiritual journey – that is, to advance as a human being.
A crucial part of my assignment went as follows:
1. Pause once or twice a day
2. Name all of the emotions and feelings that are present at that moment
3. Practice noticing what feelings are present at different moments
4. Once a week, ask reflective questions like “What am I noticing?” and “What am I learning about myself?”
The first time I did this exercise, I identified 21 separate emotions I was feeling at the same time. It was somewhat overwhelming. No wonder mastering Step 3 takes much practice!
Cultivating Emotional Awareness
We can only create our Emotional Guidance System by bringing ourselves into alignment with our desires and preferences, and this is a conscious, purposeful process. It requires that you first pay attention to the way you feel and then deliberately choose thoughts – about everything – that make you feel good when you think them.
You always hold the power and control of your own life experience. Once you understand your own Emotional Guidance System, you will never again offer your vibrations in ignorance. In time, you will achieve such keen awareness of your own valuable emotions that you will know, in every moment, if the thought you are currently focusing on is taking you toward, or away from, something you desire. You will learn to literally feel your way to the things you desire, no matter what it might be.
In conclusion, please enjoy this instructive lesson Hicks shares to emphasize this point:
So, if all of this is true (and it is our absolute promise to you that it is true), then how is it that so many are experiencing so much of what they do not want? Consider this question: If I am in Phoenix, Arizona, and it is my desire to be in San Diego, California, how would I go about getting to San Diego? We want you to understand that the trip between wherever you are, on any subject, and where you desire to be, is as easily attainable as the trip from Phoenix to San Diego—once you understand how to discern where you are along the way.
For example, the thing that makes it seem more difficult to travel from financial insolvency to financial abundance is that you have not been aware when you were turned around and headed in the opposite direction. And, the only reason that your trip has not taken you from no relationship to the perfect, fulfilling, rewarding relationship you desire is that you have not been aware of the power of your thoughts and words that were taking you back to Phoenix. Your awareness of the way you feel will give you the clarity you have been seeking—and you will never be lost in the desert again.
Interested in learning more about how you always hold the power and control of your own life experience that can help you become a better leader? Let’s talk!