Last week was a lesson in meditating.
And what I taught you about meditating and the basis of its functionality is (by definition), the ability to focus one’s thoughts, to reflect, to engage in contemplation.
Many say “I don’t know how to meditate” but the truth is, if you catch yourself in a state of worry, fear, anxiety, stress, or doubt, you absolutely know how to meditate, you just need to learn how to change the subject matter.
WHAT IF you took your focus OFF of the fear, worry, doubt, anxiety and stress and actually put it on something that was oh, I donno, progressive? Forward moving? Actually taking you to somewhere you wanted to be?
This is the art of manifesting. By definition, all manifesting is, the ability to bring something tangible into your life.
This.
This is what we are going to talk about today.
A Lesson in Manifesting!
OR, another way to put it, a Lesson in Getting YOU to Pay Attention!
In my book, DREAM – I Dare You, I make this statement:
“Whatever has your attention has your life.”
Nothing could be truer.
Whatever we focus on… whatever we give our attention to… whatever we look at and think about and tune into long enough ultimately will have our life.
That means, if we’re focused on our fear… if we’re paying more attention to other people’s lives vs our own, more tuned into the news, social media, or the world around us, then no wonder we don’t know where we’re going. It’s no wonder we can’t live in faith. It’s rather obvious as to why we’re not stepping out and making the impossible, possible. Not because it’s NOT possible but because all of our attention and energy is fighting on what it’s not instead of what it could be.
I love the fable that says,
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson, about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, “My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all.
One is evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, doubt, sorrow, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, and fear.
The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, forgiveness, and faith.
The grandson thought about it for awhile and asked, “Which wolf wins?”
The old Cherokee simply said, “the one you feed!”
Again: Whatever has your attention has your life!
In Proverbs it says, “Listen carefully, my dear child, to everything that I teach you, and pay attention to all that I have to say.
Fill your thoughts with my word until they penetrate deep into your spirit. Then, as you unwrap my words, they will impart true life and radiant health into the very core of your being.
So above all, guard your affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life…. Set your gaze on the path before you. With fixed purpose, looking straight ahead, ignore life’s distractions” (Proverbs 5:20-23, 25 [emphasis mine]).
What gets your attention gets your life!
So what gets your attention?!
Whatever is loudest!!!
Think about this, if you’re having a conversation with a friend. I mean a deep, good, in the zone conversation, and it feels like nothing could rob your attention and then all of a sudden someone lets off a firework, what do you think you’re going to do? Turn and look! No questions asked. Why? Because whatever is loudest will have your attention. And whatever has your attention for long enough will ultimately have your life.
So the reason your fear, worry, doubt seems warranted and justifiable is not because it’s true but because you’ve been looking at it long enough that it has become real. But it doesn’t mean that it is and even if it was, it doesn’t deserve your life.
I’ll say this again, the things you fear, worry about, doubt, stress over and/or feel anxious about does NOT deserve your life. Maybe it’s worthy of a glance, a second thought, a counseling session, a venting session or a day’s worth of trouble shooting but outside of that friends, it is not deserving of your time, attention, and most of all, your life.
But then what? Well, if you consider that I have been actually doing a series without doing a series these last 3 weeks,
- You first have to recognize the fear, worry, doubt, anxiety, stress that you feel. You have to see it, learn about it, understand it. Otherwise you’re juts shadow boxing.
- Then, you have to understand the power of faith and walking in faith and the proactive concept that faith really is.
- Then, as I taught you last week, you have to begin meditating on the things you do want vs the things you don’t. You have to teach yourself to “go in,” to see the dream, to find your place of vision, to connect with your knowing, God’s lead, and all the things… because once you find this place, once you recognize the next step, you’re going to need to take it. You’re going to need to pay attention to it!!!!
I had a dreamer reach out after last week’s Lesson and ask: “When you begin to recognize that your thoughts have been toxic and your focus on the wrong things, yet the new thoughts aren’t natural, how do you proceed? I’m getting so damn frustrated.”
The key to manifesting the dreams within you is your ability to PAY ATTENTION.
When you identify a core dream, the thing God’s put within you, the thing you want more than anything (no matter how big or how small), you have to give it more attention than anything else.
That means more faith, less fear.
That means doubling down on what you want vs all the things you don’t want.
That means letting go of the old and positioning yourself, unapologetically towards the new.
That means resolving yourself before you’re ready.
This is another one of those concepts I teach in the book that I learned firsthand 4 years ago… it’s a concept called liminal space which is really “the great hallway of in between.” It’s letting go of one things but not yet grabbing onto the next. It’s the trapeze moment… It’s the Indiana Jones moment. It’s IN FAITH, letting go of FEAR and grabbing onto the DREAM WITHIN. This is manifestation.
It’s not just chanting and visualizing. It’s wholeheartedly moving as though… thinking as though… acting as though… it’s being so resolved that you can’t not.
But. You. Have. To. Pay. Attention.
If you focus on fear, you’re going to get more of it.
If you focus on negative thoughts, you’re going to get more of it.
If you focus on the news and social media and all the things, you are going to get more of it.
“But Julia, I need to be in the know.”
Said who?
Everyone who is freaked out of their minds…
Look, if what’s going on in the world around you scaring you more than it’s “keeping you informed,” it’s not working!
It is time to pay attention and to focus on THE THING. THE THING on the inside of you. THE THING that God has asked you to do. THE THING/THE DREAM that you have.
Get it loud. LOUDER than the unbelief.
Get it loud… put it up everywhere. See it, taste it, talk about it.
The Bible says, 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Why? Because it knew we were going to need to DOUBLE DOWN ON IT so the rest of everything else wouldn’t distract us from THE THING we were supposed to manifest and bring about.
I say in my book, by definition, dreaming is the ability to have great and intense focus, with deep absorption of thought, in a different realm that brings about possibilities with the consideration of those around you.
There’s a reason. This is going to require all of you… putting your attention and your focus on THE THING. Not all the things… THE THING.
This is how you manifest my friends.
You simply (#simplestupidhard) pay attention!
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